Website Personalisation

Firstly, let’s get this out the way…

“WHAT IS WEBSITE PERSONALISATION?”

Website personalisation is the process of creating unique and tailored experiences in real-time for individual customers.

A website personalisation strategy is implemented through personalised website content, such as product recommendations and dynamic content. It works by matching a website visitor’s behaviour to that of a carefully determined target audience persona. Specific content is then shown to the audience, depending on the persona that has been identified.

A good website personalisation strategy will involve spending a fair amount of time analysing an organisation’s audiences and building up different personas based on a range of demographics and interests. This is crucial, as it lays the foundation for website personalisation and allows you to deliver a truly personalised website experience.

WEBSITE PERSONALISATION EXAMPLES

Let’s take an example of a furniture website. I might visit the website and look at a few different beds. In the background, the website will be matching up my persona based on my demographics and the pages that I am visiting. The website will have some personalised content blocks across the site, which will serve up different content based on different personas.

So, I might be shown a call to action directing me to look at more beds that I might like. And on another page, I might be shown some other bedroom furniture. I won’t be shown living room or dining room furniture for example, as I haven’t expressed an interest in those areas, so they won’t be part of my persona.

Someone else might come onto the site and look at TV cabinets. They are likely to be shown items such as other TV cabinets, coffee tables and living room storage.

So how does it work out which content to show? Generally, website personalisation involves adding tags to pages. So, product pages with beds, may be tagged up as ‘beds’ as the product tag and ‘bedroom furniture’ as the product category tag. If I’m visiting x amount of pages with the tag ‘beds’, then the personalised content blocks will trigger content that is intended for this tag.

Website personalisation can be as in-depth as you want it to be. For example, you may also choose to build up personas based on product ranges or brands that people are interested in, product materials, colours, price ranges that they are looking at and so on.

THE BENEFITS OF WEBSITE PERSONALISATION

Doesn’t it feel good when somebody just ‘gets’ you? They understand what you like and build a great connection with you. With website personalisation, it’s just like that. Well, similar. A well-personalised website recognises what you like and delivers content that you will love… developing a seamless personalised website experience and a meaningful connection. The result? The ultimate aim is to turn your website visitor into a happy customer who will likely return to your website and tell all their friends about you. A personal touch really can go a long way.

Why serve a broad and generic content experience to all, when you can show each user something more interesting and engaging using website personalisation techniques?

With a personalised website experience, customers build a stronger affinity with brands as they show a level of understanding and listen to them. Leading to a quicker and easier funnel through the purchase journey and repeat visits boosting that customer lifetime value. So it’s more important than ever to ensure that you’re offering personalised user experiences that appeal to your audience.

Personalised website content is a way for brands to use machine learning to tailor their messaging to each individual customer based on user behaviours.