Understanding Personalization: Why It Matters
Ever walked into your favourite shop and felt the staff seemed to know what you wanted. There’s something about a tailored experience that makes you feel important, like you belong. Makes Me Think Of that's sort of what websites do too when they offer you what you want, right at the homepage.
Doesn't it feel nice when an e-commerce website calls you by your name and showcases products based on your previous searches. Users today are used to being bombarded with information online, so much so that a website with a simple homepage is almost surprising. Personalisation uses data, previous interactions and algorithms to offer users something they’d actually like.
It’s been proven over time that users who are relatively greeted by their names or offered appropriate product recommendations, or even given rewards for being loyal customers, spend more time on websites. If I’m completely honest, I do enjoy it when my favourite online store offers me rewards every time I shop. It’s almost like being patted on the back for buying something new.
Now imagine if this was made into a more regular occurrence - chances are seldom I’d shop a lot more in order to get those discounts and rewards. Personalisation can work in almost any industry or field. Be it education, retail or finance - companies are always looking for a way to make sure their users not only keep coming back but also have a memorable experience every time they visit their website.
This is why personalisation is such an important tool - it’s an easy but effective way to help you retain loyal customers and increase sales at the same time.
Trick #1: Dynamic Content Based on User Behavior
You know that moment when you open your favourite fashion store’s website and it sort of feels like the homepage was designed for you. Feels quite brilliant. Most times, it’s because the brand has used its data powers for good and understands your browsing behaviour.
Suggests That by this, i mean they “stalked” you a little and then applied dynamic content to enhance your experience. If done right, this kind of personalisation brings big rewards. It elevates the experience for most customers and offers engagement on a higher level.
At its core is customer data - browsing history, purchase patterns, wishlists, or even location data that gives retailers context about users. Take something as basic as retargeting previous abandoned carts or displaying product recommendations based on a recently searched category on social media - these have all become a big part of our shopping experience. It seems like there is seldom a kind of joy in seeing a homepage adapt to our tastes and behaviours but we also have to understand where the line is. Sort of.
Like with everything else in life, people appreciate personalisation in moderation. The way I see it, sometimes there is relatively too much targeting happening online and customers are left feeling vulnerable as well as stalked. Surely that could be avoided with responsible use of user data. I would think so.
Overall, personalised experiences that are predictive still appear to provide immense value to shopping experiences. To me, it seems like leveraging user-generated content (such as reviews or photos) can add a sense of community as well as trust among users. Even so, this isn’t applicable to everyone and brands must consider how their messaging aligns with their customer data strategies.
Trick #2: Customizable User Interfaces
What’s the first thing we do when we reach someone else’s homepage. We start searching for traces of ourselves. Our preferences, our interests, our gender. I Reckon a bit narcissistic, sure, but there’s nothing more comforting than browsing a homepage and finding familiarity in it - especially if the page is customisable.
Homepage personalisation sounds like something so simple, and it is. But it works wonders. After all, if a business has taken the time to get to know its audience and create a website that feels like home for them, it’s bound to convert and retain users much more efficiently. The best part.
It’s not even that expensive - or time-consuming - to do. You can incorporate fairly simple elements such as allowing users to change the layout of your homepage, switch up text colours, use larger fonts, etc. Some websites also allow users to add widgets to their homepage and remove things they don’t want to see. With the right amount of data on each user, you could also allow them to highlight their top picks across different categories and curate the homepage for them.
Allowing users to prioritise what they want on their homepages helps cut down on noise and distractions so you have a more engaged audience. Of course, there are only so many different ways users will be able to customise your homepage - otherwise, it would just be a dashboard. So save some space for your brand as well.
And while not every website needs this level of personalisation, having small features that reflect your audience will go a long way in converting them.
Trick #3: Location-Based Recommendations
Let’s say you run a successful multi-city business in India. You’ve set up locations in the busiest parts of the country like Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Delhi. Users on your website are typically looking for specific recommendations based on their location, and you provide them with a list of all your branches.
But it doesn’t work. No one has the time to scroll through hundreds of branch locations on your website and find one close to them. Worse.
They might not even live in a major city. Now what.
Location-based recommendations might just be the solution you’re looking for. This trick is arguably a nifty tool that populates product recommendations, store/branch locations, and other recommendations based on where your users are currently located. Based on the IP addresses of their devices, these recommendations help users access information that is relevant to them, whether it is a hotel room they need to book at a travel website or their new favourite sandwich at your restaurant chain.
The key here is to present them with information that matters most to them based on their location. These can be pop-ups, navigation bars or carousels - anything that presents itself as the star of your homepage without being too annoying.
Trick #4: Personalized Call-to-Actions
Picture this. You’re on a website with products you like. Maybe you’re browsing through categories, and suddenly - wham. A ‘Subscribe Now’ call to action (CTA) appears on the screen.
Now, if you’re genuinely interested in signing up, the CTA might just work. But if you’ve been shopping around for a while, chances are that generic CTA won’t have the impact the brand wants.
The way I see it, this is why personalising ctas is so effective. Personalised calls to action are sort of like the modern-day salesperson.
They’re always there to encourage shoppers to go further down the sales funnel and make a purchase. Some brands use discounts to help nudge shoppers in the right direction. Others are a bit more direct and remind visitors about their unfinished purchase (read: their abandoned shopping carts). A few like to gather more information about website visitors by asking for them to sign up or fill out forms for promotional offers.
And then there are some that take it a step further and use visitor information to show more targeted CTAs. I've come across quite a few websites that do this right.
They analyse where shoppers spend time on their website and then share a ‘Subscribe for updates’ CTA specific to that category or product type. It’s these small tweaks that make all the difference.
The way I see it, shoppers don’t want every website they visit shoving offers in their face. But personalised CTAs using FOMO-inducing offers and tailored information help build trust and loyalty. I think it also makes for quite an effective homepage hack when brands use location-based targeting techniques to show relevant product collections and tailored language with CTAs.
Measuring Success: Analyzing User Engagement Metrics
Ever stayed up at night obsessively refreshing your Instagram to see if someone liked your new post. The dopamine hit that comes with each new notification - sometimes all at once, or a slow drip - is what makes social media so addictive. It might be something a little embarrassing to admit, but there’s a reason why you keep doing it. It’s important to know if people like your content, so you can usually keep doing more of what works.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting people to interact with your content. User engagement and tracking metrics are important for websites as well as social media. By analysing how your website users engage with your homepage, you can identify areas where you are falling short. People have fickle tastes, but the numbers don’t lie.
And they give you a good insight into where you can improve, whether it is changing some text, adding more images or shuffling products around. There are several metrics that let you know how your website is performing. Things like click-through rates (CTR), time spent on page, bounce rate and conversion rates.
These numbers let you know what features are usually working and what are causing people to click away. But also remember that it is always better to look at these numbers over an extended period of time instead of day-to-day fluctuations. It may seem like these metrics are just numbers that let you analyse how effective your homepage is at engaging users, but they’re so much more than that. They serve as actionable insights that can help you plan future campaigns or implement changes to better connect with your users.
The great thing about measuring user engagement is that it shows you where you’re currently at, so you can identify the best way forward.