How to Effectively Personalize Content Marketing to Increase Engagement

Today, we as marketers collect so much information on prospects. From demographic to psychographic data, there isn’t much we don’t know about the people we’re marketing to. (Don’t have buyer personas yet? Start here.) That being said, these individuals are aware of the massive amount of data we have on them, so it makes logical sense to use that information to create more effective marketing efforts.

Get creative.

Incorporate personalization where prospects will expect it. Don’t scare them by tossing their first name in some smart content on your homepage. Instead, mention their first name in emails. Talk about their stage of the buyers’ journey on landing pages. 

Step out of the norm.

Get creative with your implementation. I just mentioned it as an easy win, but everyone is sending emails that start with “Hi [first name],”. Consider how else you can incorporate personalization tokens in your email. Explore opportunities to mention their company name, industry, or even location in email copy. Don’t save their first name for the email body, mention it in the subject line and see if it increases your opens.

Be strategic.

It can be tempting to start incorporating personalization everywhere. Don’t! Consider your buyer personas and the buyers’ journey. Reality is, some personas won’t be interested in content for certain stages and most importantly, some personas aren’t receptive to specific channels.

Overall, personalizing your content marketing is a small, but worthwhile investment to make. Taking the additional time to tailor your message increases the efficacy and will help you develop better relationships with your prospects.