The good news is that prompting is a skill you can pick up fast. It’s less about finding a magic phrase and more about giving clear, specific direction, the same way you’d brief a new team member on a task.

This post covers the habits that make any agent prompt more reliable, then shows how they play out in two agents built into Dotdigital: Segment Agent and Content Agent.

Why prompting matters

An AI agent isn’t a mind reader. It only has two things to work with: the instructions built into it and whatever you type. If your prompt is vague, the agent has to guess what you mean, and a guess is only ever going to be a guess.

This matters more with AI agents than with a general chatbot. A chatbot will go along with almost any request. An agent usually has one job, like building a segment or drafting an email, and it works best when you ask for things specific to that task. Ask it to go outside that lane, and you’ll get a workaround at best, or nothing useful at worst.

Five habits that make any prompt more reliable

1. Say exactly what you mean

A vague request forces the agent to fill in the gaps, and it won’t fill them in the way you would. “Find my best customers” means five different things depending on the day. “Contacts who’ve bought more than three times in the last 90 days” means one thing. Give the agent conditions, values, and dates it can act on, not ideas it has to interpret.

2. Build it in steps 

You don’t need the perfect prompt on the first try. Get one part right, check it, then add the next. Most agents are built for back-and-forth conversation, and a series of small, correct steps beats one long prompt trying to do everything at once.

3. Use your real field and list names, not general terms 

If your data has a field called “Loyalty tier” or a list called “VIP customers,” say that, not “important customers.” Agents built to work in your marketing platform are designed to match what you type to your account data, but they can only match what’s there. The closer your wording is to your real fields, the less room there is for a wrong guess.

4. Check the output before you use it

An agent can build something fast, but fast isn’t the same as correct. Read through the logic, the copy, or the rule it’s generated before you rely on it. Treat it like a first draft from a new team member: useful, but yours to sign off on.

5. Ask it to explain itself

If a result looks complicated or you’re not sure it did what you asked, ask the agent to summarize what it built or walk you through its reasoning. It takes ten seconds and catches a wrong assumption before it goes anywhere near production.

What does this look like inside Dotdigital

Dotdigital has two agents where these habits make a real difference. Segment Agent helps you build and edit audience segments, and Content Agent helps you draft and check email copy inside your email builder. Here’s what applying these habits looks like in each.

Segment Agent

Segment Agent builds and edits segments from a plain-language request and can summarize the logic in a segment you already have. It’s designed to match field and list names to your account data even if your wording is a little off. For best results, be specific and build your segment gradually rather than describing a complex segment in one go.

Start simple:

• Create a segment of contacts subscribed to email
• Build a segment of contacts whose country is the UK and who are subscribed to email

Then refine with follow-ups:

• Also include contacts subscribed to SMS
• Exclude contacts who purchased from any catalog in the last 30 days
• Limit this segment to contacts in the VIP list

Once it’s built, check your work:

• Summarize this segment.
• What rules are being used in this segment?

Worth knowing: Segment Agent is a doer, not a brainstormer. It won’t suggest ideas or scan your data to surface new segments, and it won’t tell you how many contacts match until the segment runs. But bring it a clear idea, and it’ll bring it to life and build it fast.

Content Agent

Content Agent lives inside our email builder and helps with the copy itself: brainstorming angles, drafting a first version, tweaking tone or length, checking a draft before you send, adding personalization, and generating or editing images. Nothing it produces goes into your campaign until you’ve reviewed and approved it.

The same habits apply. Start specific:

• Brainstorm ideas for a “we miss you” email after 90 days of inactivity
• Draft a paragraph explaining the benefit of signing up

Refine rather than starting over:

• Change the tone of the email to be friendly but not overly familiar
• Shorten this paragraph to two sentences

And use it to check your own work, not just generate new copy:

• Check my email copy against my brand voice
• Check whether this paragraph is too salesy for our brand voice

For the best results, set up your brand voice details in your Dotdigital account first. The more Content Agent knows about how your brand sounds, the less editing you’ll do later.

Start small, then build the habit

Treat AI agents like a new team member. Give them specific tasks, clear direction, and simple, step-by-step explanations, then check in before moving on.

Pick one prompt from this list and try it for yourself. These habits become second nature fast, and that’s how prompt writing goes from something that slows you down to something that helps you get through your to-do list faster.

Learn more:

• Segment Agent overview
• Use Segment Agent to build and edit segments
• Content agent overview | Dotdigital Marketing Help Centre
• Content agent prompt guide | Dotdigital Marketing Help Centre

This article is for general informational purposes and isn’t legal advice. As the sender, you remain responsible for your own compliance. We advise you to work with your legal or privacy team to confirm how these requirements apply to your marketing communications.

If you send marketing emails to contacts in France or Italy, the rules on tracking pixels have changed. According to regulators CNIL (in France) and Garante (in Italy), the tracking pixel behind your email open rate now needs its own consent. This tracking consent is separate to the opt-in consent your audience gave to receive emails initially.

We’ve collated information on what each regulator is asking for, go-live timings, and how the Dotdigital platform supports these changes – to help you stay ahead.

TLDR

You can no longer combine email tracking consent with your general marketing consent. You need to provide an easy way for people to opt-out of email tracking, and be able to switch this tracking pixel off for those contacts in France and Italy who choose to opt-out. 

So, what’s actually changing…

First, the basics. A tracking pixel is a tiny, invisible image that loads when someone opens your email. It’s how open rates get measured, and it’s been sitting quietly in the background of email marketing for years. The CNIL and the Garante now treat it the same way they treat a cookie: as something that can be used to identify a person, which requires their permission.

Consent to send a marketing email and consent to track if the email has been opened are now two separate considerations that need to be treated differently. Contacts also need an easy way to opt-out of open rate tracking without unsubscribing from your emails altogether.

Both regulators use the same underlying structure, but the go-live dates differ by country. Your contacts fall into one of three groups, with each group requiring a slightly different course of action.

1. Existing contacts, collected before the new consent requirements were published. This group falls within a transition period, so tracking can continue for now, but contacts need to be notified of the changes and given a way to opt-out by a set deadline
2. Contacts collected during the gap between the new consent requirements being published and the compliance deadline. There is no transition period for this group. You need to provide an affirmative opt-in before you can track the email opens for this segment, with tracking staying off until consent is received
3. New contacts, collected after the compliance deadline: consent needs to be captured at sign-up, before any tracked email goes out

Here’s how those three groups map to publication dates in each country. 

France: the CNIL’s timeline

The CNIL’s recommendation took effect in stages between April and July 2026, and the last of those dates, 14 July, has already passed. In practice, that now leaves two groups:

• Contacts you notified and gave a chance to opt-out before 14 July 2026, who didn’t object: you can keep tracking their opens

• Everyone else, meaning contacts who weren’t notified before July 14th, contacts you collected after 14 April 2026, or anyone new: turn off open rate tracking for this group until they opt-in

If you haven’t already removed tracking pixels on email open rates, you are now required to take that step for contacts in France (the rule came into force on July 14th 2026).

Italy: the Garante’s timeline

The Garante published its own guidelines (Provvedimento n. 284) in April 2026, with a six-month runway. Contacts within this region are grouped as follows:

• Contacts collected before April 29th 2026: Transition group
  You can keep the open rate tracking pixel on for now, but notify them and give them a way to opt-out of tracking (separate from unsubscribing entirely) by 28 October 2026

• Contacts collected from April 29th 2026 and onwards: No transition
  This applies immediately, not just after 28 October. Turn off tracking for these contacts until you’ve got their affirmative opt-in

• Contacts collected from October 28th 2026 onward: New sign-ups
  Consent needs to be captured at sign-up, before any tracked email is sent

What we’ve changed in Dotdigital

The Dotdigital Marketing platform has been updated to help you meet these new requirements. 

• You can now turn on a setting that allows contacts to opt-out of tracking, via a link in your campaigns

• Open rate tracking consent can be updated in bulk for each audience segment, so once you’ve identified your France and/or Italy contacts, you can opt them all out with one action

• Every consent change is logged against the contact, providing a record of what changed and when

This broadly covers off the requirements set by CNIL and the Garante, tracking consent that’s kept separate from marketing consent, and an easy way to manage it. Whether that’s a contact setting their own preference, or a marketing team updating entire segments at once.

However, you will still need to check the compliance of your own marketing programs with your legal and/or privacy teams to check the individual considerations for your organization.

What to do now

1. Read our help centre article on managing open tracking consent. It gives step-by-step guidance on activating the new settings, adding the opt-out link, and updating consent in bulk
2. Talk to your privacy team about which of your contacts are in scope, and how you will inform your audience of any necessary changes
3. Build a segment of the contacts that require permission updates (such as contacts based in France and Italy) and update their open tracking consent in bulk
4. Add the open tracking opt-out link to your campaign footers, next to your unsubscribe link

If you have any questions about the new guidance (we know, it’s a tricky one), reach out to us through Live Chat within the platform, or on the Dotdigital website, or talk to your Account Manager.  We’re happy to help you work through it.

But that creates a different question: what should you do with the time you’ve gained?

As AI takes on more manual work (like building reports, analyzing data, creating content, and building segments), marketers’ day-to-day is changing. The to-do list is still long, but now there’s more room to improve campaigns, analyze results, and plan campaigns that deliver stronger results.

So, where should you invest your time? Here are four marketing skills that can help you get even more from every campaign, along with practical ways to start developing them.

1. Turning data into decisions, not dashboards

Getting answers from your marketing data is becoming much easier. Connected platforms and integrated AI assistants mean you can spend less time building dashboards or digging through reports, and more time understanding what the data is telling you.

You’ve now got more time to dedicate to spotting patterns, challenging assumptions, identifying what’s worth testing, and deciding what to do next. AI can bring insights to you, but turning them into better marketing decisions still depends on you.

Skills to focus on

The insights you get depend on the questions you ask of your data. Whether you’re using AI features built into your marketing tools or working with an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Claude, thoughtful prompts help uncover insights you can act on.

Understand campaign performance

Start by understanding what happened before deciding what to do next:

• How much revenue did email generate compared to the same period last year?
• Which campaigns contributed the most assisted revenue?
• Which customer segments generated the highest revenue per recipient?
• Which campaigns performed above or below expectations, and why?
• Were there any unusual changes in open rates, click-through rates, conversions, or unsubscribe rates this week?
• Which journeys generated the highest revenue with the fewest sends?

Spot trends you can repeat

Knowing what performed well will help you find patterns you can apply to more campaigns:

• What do my top-performing campaigns have in common?
• Which subject line styles consistently drive higher open rates?
• Do shorter or longer emails generate more clicks for different audiences?
• Does sending at different times change engagement for different customer segments?
• Which calls to action (CTAs) generate the highest click-through rate?
• Are there content themes that consistently lead to more conversions?

Turn insights into action

Finally, move from reporting to planning. Ask AI to help prioritize your next steps rather than simply summarizing performance: 

• Based on this data, what are the three biggest opportunities to improve performance?
• Which campaign should we test first, and why?
• Which audience segments are underperforming, and what should we change?
• Where are we losing customers in the journey?
• If you were planning next month’s email calendar using this data, what would you prioritize?

Knowing which insights deserve your attention and which ones are worth acting on is one of the most valuable marketing skills you can spend time developing. With data backing up your decisions, it’s much easier to create customer journeys that deliver real value.

2. Owning the strategy behind the automation

A clearer understanding of your customer journey helps you identify the moments where automation will have the biggest impact. Focus on the journeys that will make the biggest difference to your customers rather than trying to automate everything.

Skills to focus on

A strong automation strategy isn’t about creating more journeys. It’s about choosing the ones that solve a genuine customer need.

Identify the moments that matter

Check whether key moments in customer journeys have automation flows in place:

• New email subscriber or account creation
• Abandoned cart 
• Abandoned browse
• Post-conversion (e.g., post-purchase)
• Review request 

With those covered, use your reporting to uncover the moments unique to your customers:

• Are customers churning thirty days after a purchase? Build a re-engagement flow to keep customers engaged
• Does customer engagement spike around a specific date in your calendar? Create a journey that builds anticipation ahead of the event
• Is there a specific product customers love above all others? Turn every new product launch into an automated journey for your biggest fans

These insights help you decide which customer journey flows to build next.

Build a testing calendar

Once your core journeys are running, your time shifts from building more automations to improving the ones you already have. Regular testing helps you understand what resonates with your audience and gives you the confidence to keep refining your campaigns over time.

Here are some top testing tips: 

• Test one automation flow at a time 
• Choose one element to test at a time, for example
  • Subject lines 
  • Content length
  • Email style or layout
  • Images used 
• Keep track of your results 
• Run your optimized campaign for three months before testing again

With key customer moments automated, the next step is to make every message feel relevant, so you’re addressing them directly in the moment.

3. Making every message more relevant

Only 15% of 4,000 shoppers surveyed in the Customer trend index consider the marketing they receive to be relevant in the moment. That doesn’t mean you have to personalize every message, but you do have to go further than a first name. AI can help you personalize at scale, but deciding who needs a different experience and when is still up to you.

Skills to focus on

Personalization should be intentional. As you build your campaigns, decide which audiences need a different experience and what will make that journey more relevant.

Identify your most important audiences

AI agents can help you build the segments in seconds, leaving you more time to decide which audiences matter most. Try prompts like these:

• Build a segment with customers who haven’t engaged with an email in the last 90 days
• Create a segment of customers who have made two or more purchases in the last six months
• Find customers who browse regularly but haven’t completed a purchase
• Build a segment with customers who are close to becoming VIPs based on their purchase history
• Create a segment of customers who have never redeemed a loyalty reward
• Identify customers who bought from a specific product category but haven’t purchased again in the last six months
• Find customers who consistently open emails but rarely click through
• Build a segment with customers who joined in the last 30 days but haven’t made their first purchase

Personalize the experience

After you’ve identified the right audience, think carefully about what actually needs to change. Sometimes it’s the offer, sometimes the message, and sometimes simply the timing. 

The most effective personalization solves a customer problem or makes the customer journey smoother. Here are a few ways to do that:

• Win-back campaigns
  Tailor messages in your win-back campaign to speak to customers differently depending on their customer lifetime value (CLV). Customers with higher CLV receive a free gift with their next order, while those with lower CLV see an offer of free shipping to tip them over the line.

• Localized banners
  Update messages or images based on the segment’s geographic location, like showing winter clothes to a shopper in New York in December and your summer collection to those in Sydney. 

• Replenishment campaigns
  Send replenishment reminders based on when customers typically reorder, rather than a fixed number of days, so it lands at the best time for them.

Every relevant interaction gives customers another reason to come back. Over time, those moments strengthen the relationship and create more opportunities to keep customers engaged.

4. Building relationships that last

The strongest retention strategies give customers reasons to come back long before they’re at risk of leaving. AI can now identify customers at risk of churning, uncover loyalty opportunities, and recommend the next best action. That gives you more time to think beyond reactive marketing and create experiences that keep customers engaged for the long term.

Skills to focus on

Retention works best when it’s planned with the same care as acquisition. Instead of treating it as the final stage of the customer journey, build a strategy that continually engages customers.

Build retention with intention

Loyalty programs are one of the most effective ways to turn retention into an ongoing strategy. Our Customer Trend Index found that loyalty programs influence 53% of shoppers to feel more loyal to brands, while loyalty program members spend 67% more than non-members on average. A well-designed program gives customers a reason to come back between purchases, rather than only hearing from you when you’re trying to win them back.

Here are a few ways to build a loyalty program that customers genuinely value.

1. Reward the behaviors that matter
   Build your loyalty program around the behaviors you want to encourage. If customers naturally buy from you again, rewarding repeat purchases makes sense. If they don’t, or if you have a longer buying cycle, consider rewarding other actions that build a stronger relationship, such as reviews, referrals, or product engagement. 
   
2. Create rewards customers actually want
   Customer data gives you a much clearer picture of what drives your audience. Use those insights to shape rewards that feel genuinely worthwhile rather than offering the same incentives to everyone. When rewards reflect what your customers need, they’re far more likely to keep engaging with your brand.
   
3. Keep improving your program
   Launching your loyalty program isn’t the final destination. Customer expectations change, new opportunities emerge, and what motivates one audience today may not work tomorrow. Set aside time to review performance, listen to customer feedback, and refine your rewards so the program continues to deliver value for both your customers and your business.

There’s a lot more to loyalty program design than these three points. The Dotdigital Academy course on building customer loyalty covers it in full.

Where to invest your time

Now that AI is doing more of the manual work, how you spend your time matters just as much as the tools you use.

Understanding your customers better helps you design more thoughtful customer journeys. Those journeys create more relevant experiences, and relevant experiences build stronger customer relationships over time.

With more of the execution handled for you, there’s more time to focus on the decisions, creativity, and customer understanding that shape better marketing.

The more you invest in these skills, the more valuable every campaign, customer journey, and customer relationship becomes.

That’s the idea behind human-to-human (H2H) marketing. Your audience is human first and customer second, whether you sell to businesses (B2B) or straight to consumers (B2C). A company has never bought anything; the people inside it do. 

In this guide, we’ll cover what H2H marketing means, how it fits alongside B2B and B2C, why it matters more in the age of AI, and how to put it into practice.

What is human-to-human marketing?

Human-to-human (H2H) marketing is an approach that treats every marketing interaction as a conversation between two people, rather than a transaction between a business and a target segment. Instead of asking “how do we message this audience,” it asks “how would we talk to this person?”

In practice, that means marketing built on empathy, plain language, honesty, and genuine two-way communication. You’re still meeting a customer’s needs, but you’re doing it in a way that shows there are real people behind your brand, and that those people can be trusted. It’s the model that responsible marketing is built on, which is relationships with customers and prospects based on long-term trust and respect.

H2H vs B2B vs B2C: what’s the difference?

Whether you’re B2B or B2C, a person makes the final call. The marketing manager choosing a platform and the shopper choosing trainers are doing the same thing: weighing up options, working out who to trust, and deciding who to buy from. So, B2B and B2C are your industries; H2H is your approach.

Why is human-to-human marketing important?

Our Customer trend index found that only 15% of consumers say marketing messages feel very relevant to them, down from 23% last year. When so few messages connect, every campaign has to work harder for a smaller share of attention.

The same research points to what people respond to instead. Friends and family are 45% more likely to influence a customer’s loyalty to a brand than they were a year ago, which tells us that when a recommendation comes from a real person, people trust it enough to act on it.

Your marketing can’t replace a friend’s recommendation, but you can move it closer to one by writing like a person, showing the people behind your brand, and talking to customers the way you’d want to be talked to. The more your marketing feels like a conversation with a real human, the more trust it builds along the way.

When you get this right consistently, three things happen:

• People trust you more. Trust builds one interaction at a time, and every message that feels honest and personal adds another layer of it

• People forgive you more. Everyone slips up from time to time, whether it’s a broken link, a mistimed send, or a pricing error. When your brand has a human voice, a genuine apology lands better, and people move on rather than heading for the unsubscribe button

• People buy from you more. Feeling understood is persuasive, and a message that speaks to someone’s situation will always outsell one aimed at a broad segment

Best of all, this costs you nothing extra. Your team is already full of humans who know how to talk to people, so human-to-human marketing is less about new investment and more about letting their personality show up in the work.

Standing out when everything sounds like AI

We first published this article in 2021, a year before AI platforms like ChatGPT existed. Back then, AI worked behind the scenes of your marketing, like deciding when to send your email or which products to recommend, but a human still wrote every word your customers read. Nobody was worried about their emails sounding like a machine wrote them, because machines weren’t writing them.

These days, it can help write your emails, design your creative, and build entire campaigns. And with AI now built into most marketing platforms, almost every brand is using it to some degree.

The thing is, though, your customers have noticed. They’re wading through AI-written emails, AI-generated ads, and chatbots every day, and they’ve developed a sharp instinct for spotting them. People are getting tired of it, and when something feels automated, they scroll past without a second thought.

Which is exactly what makes the human stuff land better. A specific point of view or a bit of wit is what makes someone stop and think there’s a real person behind this brand. 

None of this is an argument against using AI. The point is to use AI the right way. Let it handle the work that eats your team’s time, like building segments, picking send times, running tests, and pulling reports, so the humans get those hours back for the work machines can’t do, which is: 

• Talking to customers
• Writing with personality
• Noticing what your audience cares about right now

How to build a human-to-human marketing strategy

1. Get your tone of voice right

Your brand voice is one of the first things customers notice about your brand. To build stronger connections with your audience:

• Be real: authenticity is about saying what the reader needs to hear, not what they want to hear
• Be empathic: let your audience know that you understand them, that you’ve been in their shoes
• Be personal: get to know your customer, know their names, likes and dislikes. It all goes a long way

Here’s an example:

Take the welcome email. Most are just a logo, a generic hello, and a discount code. Now imagine one that reads like a personal note: here’s what we’re about, here’s what you can expect from us, and if you fancy replying, a real human will read it. Nobody replies to a noreply@ address, but people will happily reply to a person, and those replies tell you more about your audience than any survey.

A helpful tip:

Before anything goes out, read it aloud, and if you wouldn’t say it to a customer, rewrite it until you would.

2. Ditch the jargon

Stuffiness, formality, and jargon put a wall up between you and your audience. Every acronym you don’t explain and every sentence that needs a second read is a small signal that you’re talking at people rather than to them. 

Write the way you’d explain something to a colleague or friend, using plain words, short sentences, and skip the fancy words. Talking to your audience as equals is one of the fastest ways to build connection, and it costs nothing.

3. Tell people what’s going on

Trust is built on openness, so tell your audience about the decisions that affect them. Explain why you’re collecting their data and what you plan to do with it. 

Here’s another example

KitKat showed how this works when thieves stole 12 tonnes of its chocolate in transit. The brand’s first move was a straightforward statement addressing what customers would want to know, which was that there were no concerns for consumer safety, and supply wasn’t affected. 

With the serious part handled, the brand had some fun with it, joking that someone had clearly taken the “have a break” slogan too literally, and eventually created a tracker that let people check whether their own bar came from the stolen batch. The post became the most-liked in the brand’s history, over 100 other brands joined in, and what should have been a supply chain headache turned into a Cannes-winning moment.

Now, you’ll probably never have 12 tonnes of chocolate go missing, but the same thinking applies to a broken link or a mistaken send: tell people about it openly, add a bit of personality (where it’s appropriate), and you’ll build far more trust than hoping nobody notices.

4. Make your automation feel personal

Use the data you hold to make experiences genuinely better, like:

• A well-timed reminder about something they left behind
• A recommendation that reflects what they’ve browsed
• A birthday message that arrives on the right day

A helpful tip:

The test for every automated touchpoint is whether it makes the customer’s experience smoother or more relevant. Let your customer journey data show you where you can add real value.

5. Make it easy to reach a human

In a two-way conversation, customers have a direct connection to the people behind your brand. Live chat, social media, and messaging apps all give people a direct line to your team, and how those conversations feel matters as much as how fast they happen. Let your support team write like themselves, sign off with their names, and drop the script when the script isn’t helping. 

A helpful tip:

If you’re using AI or bots, be upfront about it, and always give customers a quick way to reach a real person.

6. Join the conversation on social

Social media was built for conversations between people, which makes it a natural home for human-to-human marketing. Answer questions, reply to comments, share what your customers create, and post content that is both light-hearted and useful. Going live, showing your team, and joining conversations rather than broadcasting into them all remind people there are humans behind the logo. The brands that get this right are easy to spot because their replies could only have come from them.

One more example:

Duolingo turned its owl into one of the most-followed personalities on TikTok by being genuinely funny rather than brand-funny. You don’t need a mascot or a viral moment, though. You just need your replies to sound like someone on your team wrote them, because they did.

Marketing made human

Behind every open, click, and purchase is a person who can tell when a brand is talking to them and when it’s talking at them.

Human-to-human marketing is the decision to act on that. Write like you’d talk, be honest about how you work, let AI take the repetitive jobs, and give your team the room to bring some personality to the rest. None of it needs a bigger budget or a new strategy deck, because the humans who can do this are already there.

And with so much marketing now generated at the push of a button, sounding like a real person is your brand’s biggest advantage. 

One of the best things about email marketing is that you can tailor it; you’re sending it directly to a real person, not just out into the ether and hoping the algorithm shows it to the right people. So, as you already know the recipient, you can make sure the content appeals to them. But how do you find out what they want? It’s simple, you ask them!

The difference between personalization and relevancy

Our survey of 4,000 consumers found that only 15% of consumers feel like the emails they receive are very relevant, down from 23% the previous year.

Personalization and relevance are often lumped together, but they’re not quite the same thing.

Personalization, like addressing a customer by name, creates recognition. Relevance, speaking to their needs, interests, and context, is what makes a message worth engaging with. Most brands have nailed the first part; it’s the second that remains the challenge.

That’s where preference centers come in. By giving customers control over how, when, and why they hear from your brand, preference centers help you collect valuable zero-party data to create more relevant experiences.

From choosing their favorite channels to sharing their interests or the occasions they’d rather not hear about, customers can shape the experience around their preferences. In return, you get happier subscribers and stronger engagement because you’re creating marketing that feels less like an interruption and more like a conversation.

What is a preference center?

A preference center is an online portal where your customers can manage their communication preferences.

What should a preference center allow subscribers to do?

A preference center can (and should) be tailored based on your product and service offering. Here are some common things to include:

• Share how regularly they want to hear from you, e.g., daily, weekly, or monthly
• Identify the channel they prefer to hear from you on, e.g., email, SMS, or WhatsApp
• Tell you their areas of interest, such as:
  • Product categories: e.g., dresses and knitwear
  • Topics of interest: e.g., marketing automation
  • Relationship to your organization: donor, volunteer, service user or relative
• Let you know about occasions they find sensitive, that they don’t want to hear about, like Father’s Day and Mother’s Day

How often do most customers want to receive marketing messages?

Our survey of 4,000 consumers found that most customers prefer monthly (34%) or weekly communication (31%). An overwhelming majority (93%) report that daily messages are too much.

Which channels do consumers prefer to receive marketing messages?
Email remains the top choice for consumers to interact with brands, with 45% of consumers selecting this option, 33% prefer mobile apps, and 13% prefer SMS.

Sharing this data isn’t to say go with the most popular option, but to highlight that preferences vary wildly, which is exactly why giving customers control matters.

Why every brand needs a preference center

Preference centers give you clear data on what your customers want to receive and when, taking out the guesswork and letting you communicate much more effectively.

Better quality customer data
Using preference centers, you can collect accurate zero-party data about preferences, which will enhance your understanding of the customer. The ability to segment customers based on their preferences can lead to more success in targeting demographics with customized marketing efforts.

Improved deliverability and open rates
Customers who opt-in to receive content from you through their preferred channels are more likely to open and engage with those messages. Consequently, you can expect improved email open rates and better deliverability with fewer spam-related issues.

Reduced unsubscribe rates
Many customers unsubscribe from email lists for several reasons, including receiving too many emails or irrelevant content. A preference center allows customers to change their subscription without completely opting out, reducing overall unsubscribe rates.

Greater compliance with data protection regulations
Preference centers help you to comply with data protection regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) more easily. They give customers control over their data and the ability to manage their opt-ins so your marketing meets all of the necessary legal requirements.

Lasting customer engagement and retention
By allowing customers to choose their preferred communication methods and tailor the content they receive, you can improve customer satisfaction levels and boost engagement with your marketing.

Preference centers make marketing more thoughtful

Opt-out campaigns for occasions like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Valentine’s Day usually come from a good place. But asking customers the same question every year isn’t actually the most considerate experience.

A preference center lets customers set those preferences once and manage them whenever they choose. From there, you can automatically respect those choices across future campaigns.

It’s a small change that can make a big difference. Customers get more control, fewer unwanted and upsetting messages, and a stronger sense that your brand understands them.

If you’d like to explore this topic further, read our guide on why opt-out campaigns may be doing more harm than good, and how to avoid any potential upset entirely.

How to act on your customers’ preferences

Once you have this valuable insight into your customers’ preferences, use what you know to segment your campaigns and audiences. There’s no point asking people what they’re interested in, only to ignore it.

Segmentation allows you to create segments of people in your database based on the criteria you choose.

You can then easily create content that responds to these preferences and split your marketing sends accordingly. You can also use dynamic content to show customers who have expressed an interest in dresses and show others who have expressed an interest in knitwear different blocks in your email.

3 preference center best practices with examples

Preference centers offer a variety of opportunities for data collection, whether it’s during newsletter sign-up, in a welcome journey, or as part of account set-up. These examples show how brands are using preference centers to create more relevant customer experiences.

1. Let subscribers tell you what they’re interested in

Music giant Spotify gives customers control over both the content they receive and the channels they receive it on.

By letting listeners choose the topics they’re interested in and whether they’d prefer email or push notifications, Spotify makes it easy for customers to shape an experience that feels relevant to them.

2. Show customers what they’re signing up for

MATCHESFASHION promotes its preference center within its welcome series, encouraging new subscribers to tailor their experience from the very beginning.

Customers can choose exactly which content they’d like to receive, and the preference center even shows which days of the week each email is sent. This creates clear expectations and helps subscribers understand exactly what they’re signing up for. The brand also collects additional preferences, including whether customers are happy to receive marketing via phone or post, and whether they’re interested in joining its loyalty program.

3. Reduce blanket unsubscribes

Not every customer who clicks “unsubscribe” wants to end the relationship altogether. Sometimes they simply want fewer emails or more relevant content.

When customers choose to unsubscribe, J.Crew presents an opportunity to adjust preferences instead. Shoppers can reduce email frequency or specify the products they’d prefer to hear about, helping the brand retain subscribers who might otherwise leave completely.

Why preference centers have become essential

Customers expect relevant marketing, and they want to choose how often they hear from you, on which channels they hear from you, and the content that interests them.

At the same time, marketers need to improve engagement, protect deliverability, and build stronger zero-party data strategies. A well-designed preference center helps achieve all three.

When customers can shape their own experience, everybody benefits. Subscribers receive more relevant communications, leading to better engagement and fewer unsubscribes. Marketers gain valuable insights to create more personalized journeys and stronger customer relationships.

Preference centers also help build trust. Whether it’s managing communication preferences, content interests, or sensitive occasions, giving customers greater control shows that you’re listening and respecting their choices.

The most effective preference centers aren’t built around the data brands want to collect. They’re built around the experience customers want to have.

A/B testing

A/B testing is when you compare two versions of something, like an email, ad, or landing page, to see which one performs better. 

For example, you send version A to one group and version B to another, then track which gets more clicks, conversions, or engagement. 

It’s a simple way to learn what works best for your audience. You might test subject lines, images, layouts, or calls to action. The goal here is to make data-backed decisions that improve results over time. 

A/B testing takes the guesswork out of marketing. It’s a smart way to improve performance without reworking your whole strategy. Start small, test one element at a time, and build from what you learn. The more you test, the more confident you’ll be in what works.

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Abandoned cart

An abandoned cart happens when someone adds items to their online shopping basket but leaves without buying. It’s common in ecommerce and often means something interrupted the purchase. This could be anything such as:

• The price
• Delivery options
• A distraction of some kind

You can recover these lost sales with follow-up emails, reminders, or incentives like discounts. But it’s important to remember that cart abandonment isn’t a failure; it’s an opportunity. With the right message at the right time, you can bring people back and complete the sale. Tracking abandoned carts helps you understand customer behavior and improve your checkout experience.

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Acquisition marketing

Acquisition marketing is all about attracting new customers. It’s the first step in growing your audience and building relationships. You’ll use channels like:

• Paid ads
• SEO
• Social media
• Email

The goal is to turn strangers into leads and leads into customers. It’s about connecting with the right people. When your message lands, people take action. A strong acquisition strategy sets the foundation for long-term growth, especially when paired with retention and engagement.

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Analytics

Analytics is how you track and understand what’s happening in your marketing. It’s all about using data to make smarter decisions. You’ll look at things like:

• Clicks
• Conversions
• Traffic
• Engagement

With the right insights, you can tweak your campaigns, improve performance, and prove ROI (return on investment). Basically, analytics helps you move from guesswork to strategy. Whether you’re reviewing email open rates or website traffic, it gives you the full picture.

The goal? To learn, adapt, and grow. When you know your numbers, you can confidently take your next step.

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API (application programming interface)

An API is a tool that helps different software systems talk to each other. You’ll use it to connect platforms like your CRM, analytics, or email marketing tools. It’s what makes your tech stack work together smoothly. Instead of manually moving data between systems, APIs do it for you fast and reliably.

For example, you might use an API to sync customer data from your website to your email platform, so you can send personalized messages. APIs are essential for automation, integration, and scaling your marketing.

So, you don’t need to be a developer to benefit from them; just know they’re working behind the scenes to keep everything connected.

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Attribution

Attribution helps you figure out which marketing touchpoints led to a conversion. It’s how you know what’s driving results. Did someone click an ad, read a blog, then sign up? Attribution tracks that journey. You’ll come across models like:

• First-touch (what started the journey)
• Last-touch (what sealed the deal)
• and multi-touch (everything in between)

It’s useful for understanding how your channels work together. With good attribution, you can invest in what’s working and fix what’s not. When you know what’s influencing decisions, you can build smarter campaigns.

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B

Bounce rate

Bounce rate shows how many people visit a page and leave without doing anything. No clicks, no scrolls, no signups; just a quick exit. It’s a signal that something might be off. Maybe the page didn’t load fast enough, or the content didn’t match their expectations.

A high bounce rate can mean your message isn’t landing. But don’t panic, it’s also a chance to improve. You can test new layouts, clearer CTAs, or better targeting. Bounce rate helps you spot friction and fix it. Typically, the lower the bounce, the more engaged your audience is.

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Brand indicators for message identification (BIMI)

BIMI is an email specification that lets your brand’s logo appear next to authenticated emails in your recipients’ inboxes. It’s a way to make your messages instantly recognizable and build trust every time someone sees your email.

By adopting BIMI, brands get more control over their visual identity while helping recipients quickly verify legitimate messages. Major email providers, including Gmail, Yahoo, and Apple Mail, support BIMI, showing how important brand visibility and email security have become. 

To use BIMI, brands need:

• A logo in SVG Portable and Secure format
• A DMARC policy set to enforcement (“quarantine” or “reject”)
• A Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) for some providers
• Consistent sending reputation and proper email authentication

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Buyer persona

A buyer persona is a made-up profile of your ideal customer, built from real data and research. It helps you understand:

• Who you’re talking to
• What their goals are
• Their challenges
• and their preferences

You might create personas like “CX champion Chloe” or “Data-driven Dan” to guide your messaging. When you know your audience, you can tailor your content, campaigns, and product positioning.

Personas keep your marketing focused and relevant. They’re not just for creative teams but they’re also useful across sales, support, and strategy. The better you know your personas, the better you connect with real people.

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C

Call to action (CTA)

A CTA is a prompt that tells someone what to do next like “Download the guide” or “Book a demo.” It’s the bridge between interest and action. Every email, ad, or landing page should ideally have one.

A strong CTA is clear, direct, and easy to follow. It helps guide your audience and boosts conversions. You can test different phrases, placements, and designs to see what works best. Without a CTA, your message can lose momentum. With one, you guide people toward the next step.

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CDP (customer data platform)

A customer data platform (CDP) is a system that collects, stores, and unifies customer data from multiple sources. It gives you a single, real-time view of each person across channels like email, web, mobile, and more. With a CDP, you can:

• Segment audiences
• Personalize experiences
• and automate campaigns with confidence

It’s built for marketers, not developers, so you can act on data without needing IT support. CDPs help you understand your customers better and deliver more relevant messaging. They’re key to scaling personalized marketing and improving ROI.

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Conversion/conversion rate

A conversion is when someone takes the action you want like:

• Signing up
• Booking a demo
• Making a purchase

Conversion rate shows how many people actually do it, compared to how many saw your message. It’s one of the most important metrics in marketing. A high conversion rate means your content, targeting, and timing are spot on.

A low one? Time to test and tweak. You can improve it with better CTAs, clearer messaging, or more relevant offers. Tracking conversions helps you measure success and optimize for growth.

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Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of improving your website, landing pages, or campaigns to get more people to take action, like buying or signing up.

CRO helps you get more value from your existing traffic. With better conversion rates, you can grow faster without increasing ad spend.

To improve CRO, you might:

• Test different headlines, images, or calls to action
• Optimize page load speed and mobile experience
• Track behaviour with analytics tools

Learn more

Cost per acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition (CPA) is the amount you spend to get someone to complete a specific action, like making a purchase or signing up.

CPA helps you measure campaign efficiency and profitability. By tracking CPA, you can focus on marketing channels that deliver the best results.

To calculate CPA, you need:

• Total spend for the campaign
• Number of completed actions (acquisitions)
• A formula: CPA = spend ÷ acquisitions

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Cost per lead (CPL)

Cost per lead (CPL) is the amount you spend to capture a new lead, like someone signing up for a newsletter or downloading a guide.

Understanding CPL helps you compare campaigns and optimize lead generation. The lower the CPL, the more cost-effective your marketing is.

To calculate CPL, you need:

• Total marketing spend for the campaign
• Number of leads generated
• A formula: CPL = spend ÷ leads

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Cost per thousand impressions (CPM)

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) is the price you pay for 1,000 views of an ad.

CPM helps you budget for awareness campaigns and understand the cost of reaching a large audience. It’s commonly used in display, social, and video advertising.

To calculate CPM, you need:

• Total campaign spend
• Number of impressions (in thousands)
• A formula: CPM = spend ÷ (impressions ÷ 1,000)

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Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total amount you spend to win a new customer. It includes things like marketing, advertising, and sales efforts.

Tracking CAC helps you understand how efficient your campaigns are and whether your marketing spend is delivering value. Keeping CAC under control lets you invest smarter and scale more sustainably.

To measure CAC, you need:

• Total marketing and sales spend over a period
• Number of customers acquired in that period
• A formula: CAC = total spend ÷ new customers

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Customer lifetime value (CLV/ LTV)

Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV) is the total revenue you can expect from a customer over the entire time they do business with you.

Knowing CLV helps you understand how much to invest in acquiring and retaining customers. When you focus on high-value customers, you can make smarter marketing and sales decisions.

To calculate CLV, you need:

• Average purchase value
• Purchase frequency over time
• Average customer lifespan
• A formula: CLV = average purchase × frequency × lifespan

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Customer relationship management (CRM)

A CRM is a system that stores customer data and tracks interactions. It’s your central hub for managing relationships. You’ll use it to:

• Personalize messages
• Segment audiences
• and automate campaigns

A good CRM helps you understand your customers; what they’ve done, what they need, and how to reach them. Yes, it’s a database but it’s also a great tool for helping to build loyalty. Whether you’re sending emails or following up on leads, your CRM keeps everything organized. The better your data, the better your marketing.

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Cross-channel marketing

Cross-channel marketing means reaching your audience across multiple platforms in a connected way. These platforms include:

• Email
• SMS
• Social
• Web
• and more

It’s about creating a seamless experience, no matter where someone interacts with your brand. You’re not just repeating the same message everywhere; you’re tailoring it to each channel while keeping the journey consistent. This approach boosts engagement and builds trust. When your channels work together, your marketing feels smarter, more personal, and more effective.

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Customer journey

The customer journey is the full experience someone has with your brand; from first discovery to long-term loyalty. It’s made up of stages like:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision
• Retention

Mapping this journey helps you understand what people need at each step. You can tailor your content, offers, and messaging to guide them forward. It’s not always a straight line though; people might jump around or come back later. But when you know the journey, you can create smoother, more meaningful experiences. The goal is to turn interest into action, and action into advocacy.

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Customer engagement

Customer engagement is how people interact with your brand, such as:

• Opening emails
• Clicking links
• Using your app
• Chatting with support

It shows how connected they feel. High engagement typically means your content is landing and your experience is resonating.

Low engagement? Time to rethink your approach. You can boost it with personalized messages, helpful content, and timely follow-ups.

Engagement is essentially about building relationships. When customers feel seen and valued, they stick around.

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Customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is when people keep coming back to your brand. Not just because of what you sell, but how you make them feel. It’s built through great experiences, consistent value, and personal connections.

Loyal customers tend to buy more, refer others, and stick around longer. You can nurture loyalty with rewards, exclusive content, and thoughtful follow-ups.

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D

Data integrations

Data integrations connect different systems so they can share information. For marketers, this means syncing tools like your CRM, ecommerce platform, and analytics software. When your data flows freely, you get a clearer picture of your audience and can act faster.

Integrations save time, reduce errors, and unlock automation. You don’t need to manually export lists or copy data between platforms. Instead, everything works together, helping you deliver better experiences and make smarter decisions.

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Digital marketing

Digital marketing is any marketing you do online. It includes strategies like:

• Email
• Social media
• SEO
• Paid ads
• and more 

You use it to reach people where they spend their time, whether that’s on their phones, laptops, and/or tablets. It’s measurable, flexible, and scalable. You can track clicks, conversions, and engagement in real time, then tweak your strategy to improve results. 

Digital marketing helps you connect with the right people, at the right time, with the right message. It’s essential for modern brands.

E

Ecommerce marketing

Ecommerce marketing is how you promote and sell products online. It includes everything from SEO and paid ads to email campaigns and social media. You’ll focus on things like:

• Driving traffic to your store
• Converting visitors into buyers
• Customer loyalty and retention

Personalization, product recommendations, and abandoned cart recovery are key tactics here. The goal is to create a smooth, engaging shopping experience that turns interest into sales, and sales into loyalty.

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EDM (electronic direct mail)

EDM marketing is a type of email marketing focused on sending promotional messages directly to your audience. It’s often used for product launches, sales, or event invites.

Unlike regular newsletters, EDMs are usually one-off campaigns with a clear goal and strong call to action. You’ll design them to grab attention and drive clicks.

With good targeting and timing, EDMs can deliver quick wins and boost engagement. They’re a direct way to reach people and get results.

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Email deliverability

Email deliverability is the measure of how often your emails reach inboxes rather than spam folders. It’s influenced by things like:

• Sender reputation
• List quality
• Engagement rates
• Message content

Internet service providers (ISPs) use these signals to decide whether your emails are safe and relevant. A healthy sender reputation and engaged audience both help ensure your messages make it through.

Monitoring deliverability is essential for understanding how many people actually see your campaigns and spotting issues early because even the best content can’t perform if it never lands in the inbox.

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Email marketing

Email marketing is sending targeted messages to your audience’s inbox. It’s one of the most direct and effective ways to connect. You’ll use it for things like:

• Newsletters
• Promotions
• Updates
• Transactional messages.

The key is relevance; send the right message to the right person at the right time. You can segment your audience, personalize content, and automate journeys. Email marketing helps you build trust, drive action, and stay top of mind. Done well and it’s a powerful tool for growth.

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F

First Party Data

First-party data is information you collect directly from your audience through the likes of:

• Signups
• Purchases
• Surveys
• Website behavior

It’s the most reliable and valuable type of data because it comes straight from your customers. You own it, control it, and can use it to personalize experiences. With privacy rules tightening, first-party data is more important than ever. It helps you build trust, stay compliant, and deliver relevant marketing without relying on third-party sources.

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G

Geotargeting

Geotargeting is when you tailor your marketing based on someone’s location. You might show different ads, send local offers, or adjust messaging depending on where someone is. It’s particularly useful for:

• Events
• Store promotions
• Region-specific campaigns

Geotargeting helps you stay relevant and timely. When your content matches someone’s context, it feels more personal and more likely to drive action.

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Global benchmark report

The Global benchmark report is Dotdigital’s flagship industry study that analyzes tens of billions of email, SMS, and automation campaigns from brands across the world. 

Inside the report, you’ll see how your results compare to others in your industry and market. Covering over 40 industries across APAC, the Americas, and EMEA, the Global benchmark report will help you understand how you’re doing.

You get hard data on metrics so you can benchmark your results against industry averages and spot where you perform above or below the norm. These metrics include: 

• List growth
• Click‑through rates
• Subscriber churn
• Engagement

More than just numbers, the report also highlights trends and best practices so you can get actionable insights. It helps you understand which channels, tactics, and automation workflows are working well right now and where your next opportunity is hiding.

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H

Hitting the mark

Hitting the mark is Dotdigital’s original flagship marketing report and our longest-running annual study of marketing campaigns and tactics. Each year, we analyze the strategies of 100 global brands, looking at everything from email design, content, and automation to data collection, personalization, and cross‑channel marketing. 

The report gives you real‑world insight into what top‑performing brands are doing right (and where many are falling short). Inside you’ll find:

• Campaign inspiration from top-performing brands around the world
• Best practices and trends in email marketing, website experience, personalization, and data usage 
• Expert commentary, actionable tips, and strategic ideas you can use to improve your own campaigns 

If you want to get an exclusive look at the email design and tactics being used by marketers across APAC, the Americas, and EMEA, then Hitting the mark is your go‑to guide.

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Human-to-human marketing (H2H)

Human-to-human (H2H) marketing is an approach that treats every marketing interaction as a conversation between two people, rather than a transaction between a business and a target segment. Instead of asking “how do we message this audience,” it asks “how would we talk to this person?”

In practice, that means marketing built on empathy, plain language, honesty, and genuine two-way communication. You’re still meeting a customer’s needs, but you’re doing it in a way that shows there are real people behind your brand, and that those people can be trusted. It’s the model that responsible marketing is built on, which is relationships with customers and prospects based on long-term trust and respect.

Hyper personalization marketing

Hyper-personalization goes beyond using someone’s name in an email. It’s about tailoring content, offers, and experiences based on real-time data and behavior. You might recommend products based on browsing history or send messages triggered by specific actions.

It makes your marketing feel one-to-one, even at scale. When people get content that’s truly relevant, they’re more likely to engage and convert.

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I

Impressions

An impression is counted every time your ad, email snippet, or piece of content appears on someone’s screen. It shows visibility, not engagement.

For example, if an ad is shown 500 times, that’s 500 impressions even if no one clicks.

Impressions are often used to measure brand awareness campaigns, where the goal is to be seen rather than drive immediate action. Tracking them helps marketers understand potential reach and compare how content performs across different channels.

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K

KPIs (key performance indicators)

A KPI is a metric that shows how well you’re doing against a goal. It could be anything like:

• Email open rates
• Traffic
• Demo bookings
• Revenue growth

KPIs help you track progress, spot trends, and make informed decisions. Choose KPIs that match your strategy, and review them regularly. When you measure what matters, you can improve what matters.

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L

Landing page

A landing page is a dedicated page designed to capture leads or drive a specific action, usually found on websites but can also be found linked from an email or ad. Landing pages focus on one message or offer, helping guide visitors toward conversion.

Key features of a landing page:

• Clear headline and value proposition
• Relevant content related to the email or ad
• Call to action (form, download, purchase)
• Minimal distractions to keep focus on the goal

Lead nurturing

Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships with prospects and guiding them through the buying journey. It helps move leads closer to conversion by providing relevant content and engagement at the right time.

Common lead nurturing tactics:

• Automated email sequences
• Personalized content based on behavior
• Educational resources like guides or webinars
• Timely follow-up emails

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Lead scoring

Lead scoring is a way to rank potential customers based on how likely they are to convert. You assign points for certain actions like:

• Visiting your website
• Opening emails
• Downloading a guide
• For details such as role, location, or company size

The higher the score, the more interested or ready that person might be to buy. Lower scores can show who needs more nurturing. Lead scoring helps marketing and sales teams focus their time where it matters most and align on when a lead is ready for follow-up.

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Lifecycle marketing

Lifecycle marketing is about engaging customers at every stage, from first touch to loyal advocate. You’ll tailor your messaging based on where someone is in their journey. That might mean welcome emails, nurture campaigns, or re-engagement offers.

The goal is to build lasting relationships, not just one-time sales. Lifecycle marketing helps you stay relevant, increase retention, and grow customer value over time.

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List churn

List churn is the rate at which subscribers leave your email list, either by unsubscribing or becoming inactive. Monitoring list churn helps marketers maintain healthy engagement and adjust strategies to retain subscribers.

Ways to reduce list churn:

• Send relevant, targeted content
• Segment your audience effectively
• Re-engage inactive subscribers
• Respect unsubscribes and preferences

List growth

List growth is the process of increasing your email subscriber base over time. Growing your list with engaged contacts helps expand reach, drive conversions, and maintain a healthy sender reputation.

Best practices for list growth:

• Use sign-up forms on websites and landing pages
• Offer incentives like guides or discounts
• Promote subscriptions via social media
• help compliance with opt-in regulations

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Liquid script

Liquid script is a coding language used to create dynamic content in emails or web pages. It allows marketers to personalize content based on subscriber data, such as showing different images, text, or offers.

Common uses of Liquid script:

• Personalizing product recommendations
• Displaying region-specific offers
• Customizing content blocks by subscriber segment
• Conditional messaging based on behavior

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M

Marketing analytics

Marketing analytics is the process of collecting and interpreting data from your marketing activities to understand performance and make informed decisions. It looks at metrics across channels to show what’s working and what needs improvement, such as:

• Email open rates
• Website traffic
• Social engagement 

By spotting patterns and trends, marketing analytics helps you optimize campaigns, allocate budget effectively, and forecast results. It answers questions such as: 

• Which campaigns drive conversions? 
• Where are customers dropping off? 
• How can messaging or targeting be improved? 

Used well, marketing analytics turns raw data into actionable insight, helping you improve ROI, strengthen customer engagement, and make marketing decisions with confidence.

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Marketing automation

Marketing automation lets you set up campaigns that run on their own triggered by behavior, timing, or data. You can send emails, update segments, or score leads without manual effort.

It saves time and boosts efficiency. But it’s not just about doing more with less; it’s about doing better. Automation helps you deliver the right message at the right time, every time. It’s a must-have for scaling personalized marketing.

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Marketing channels

Marketing channels are the different ways you reach your audience. Think email, SMS, social media, paid ads, and your website. Each channel has its own strengths:

• Email is great for personalization
• Social builds community
• Paid ads drive quick traffic

You don’t need to be everywhere, but you do need to be where your audience is. The key is choosing the right mix and making sure your message fits the channel. When your channels work together, your marketing feels seamless and more effective.

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Marketing mix (7ps)

The marketing mix is a framework for planning and executing marketing strategy, covering:

• Product
• Price
• Promotion
• Place
• People
• Packaging
• Process

It helps marketers ensure campaigns are coordinated and aligned with business goals. Each element focuses on a key aspect of marketing like:

• Delivering the right product at the right price
• Promoting it effectively
• Reaching the right audience
• Supporting it with the right people and processes
• Presenting it well

Using the marketing mix ensures decisions are strategic rather than ad hoc, improving customer experience, brand consistency, and campaign effectiveness, especially when launching new products or entering new markets.

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Marketing qualified lead (MQL)

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead that shows interest and fits your ideal customer profile.

MQLs help your sales team focus on the most promising prospects. Nurturing MQLs effectively can lead to higher conversion rates and better ROI.

To identify MQLs, you might look for:

• Email sign-ups, downloads, or webinar attendance
• Engagement with marketing campaigns
• Fit with your target customer criteria

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MMS messaging

MMS messaging stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. It’s a mobile messaging format that lets you send rich media, not just plain text. Where SMS focuses on short written updates, MMS gives you space to use:

• Images
• GIFs
• Short videos
• Audio clips
• Longer text

Marketers tend to use MMS when they want to capture attention quickly or bring a story to life. You can show a product instead of describing it, share a quick demo, or send creative promotions that stand out in a crowded inbox. MMS is also useful during seasonal campaigns when visuals help reinforce emotion and drive action.

When used with clear purpose and strong visuals, MMS can lift engagement and help you deliver mobile experiences that feel more memorable and impactful.

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Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is how you connect with people on their phones and tablets. It includes SMS, push notifications, mobile-friendly emails, and ads designed for small screens.

With most people browsing and buying on mobile, it’s essential to optimize your content for quick, easy interactions. You’ll want fast-loading pages, clear CTAs, and messages that feel personal.

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N

Narrowcasting marketing

Narrowcasting is the opposite of broadcasting. Instead of sending one message to everyone, you target a specific group with tailored content. It’s about relevance over reach. 

You might narrowcast by location, behavior, or interests. This approach helps you connect more deeply with your audience and drive better results. When people feel like your message is just for them, they’re more likely to engage.

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Net promoter score (NPS)

Net promoter score (NPS) measures how likely your customers are to recommend your brand to others.

NPS helps you gauge customer satisfaction and loyalty. A higher NPS indicates happy customers who are more likely to become advocates and drive referrals.

To measure NPS, you need:

• A survey asking: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
• A scale of 0–10 to classify promoters, passives, and detractors
• A formula: NPS = % of promoters − % of detractors

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Nonprofit marketing

Nonprofit marketing is about promoting causes, not products. You’re raising awareness, driving donations, and inspiring action. The focus is on storytelling, impact, and building trust.

You’ll use channels like email, social media, and events to connect with supporters. Every message should show why your mission matters and how people can help.

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O

Omnichannel marketing

Omnichannel marketing means creating a connected experience across all your channels, such as email, SMS, social, web, and more. Your audience can move between platforms and still get a consistent message. When someone clicks an ad, visits your site, and gets a follow-up email, it should all feel like part of the same journey.

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Open rate

Open rate is the percentage of recipients who open an email. It’s calculated by dividing the number of opens by the number of emails delivered, then multiplying by 100.

Strong open rates suggest your subject line, sender name, and timing are working. Lower ones can point to issues with targeting, spam filtering, or lack of interest.

Testing different subject lines, segments, and send times can help lift open rates and keep audiences engaged from the very first glance.

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P

Personalization

Personalization is tailoring your marketing to each person. It’s about sending the right message at the right time, based on behavior, preferences, or data. You might recommend products, adjust content, or trigger messages based on actions.

Personalization makes your marketing feel relevant and human. When people feel understood, they’re more likely to engage and convert.

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Popovers

A popover is a small message box that appears over a webpage to catch a visitor’s attention. It might promote a sign-up, highlight an offer, or encourage a specific action.

Popovers can be triggered by behavior like:

• Scrolling
• Time spent on a page
• Moving to close the tab

The best ones are clear, relevant, and easy to dismiss. Poorly timed or intrusive popovers, on the other hand, risk annoying visitors.

Used thoughtfully, they can nudge people toward the next step without interrupting their experience.

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Product recommendations

Product recommendations suggest items based on what someone’s viewed, bought, or liked. You’ll see them in emails, on websites, or in apps. They help people discover things they might need and boost your sales.

The smarter your recommendations, the more helpful they feel. You can use data like:

• Browsing history
• Purchase behavior
• Similar customer profiles.

It’s a simple way to personalize the experience and drive repeat purchases.

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Q

Qualified leads

Qualified leads are people who are likely to become customers. They’ve shown interest, fit your target audience, and meet certain criteria like a job role, budget, or intent. 

You’ll often score leads based on behavior (like clicking a demo link) or profile data. The goal is to focus your efforts on the right people. When you know who’s ready to buy, you can tailor your messaging and speed up the sales process.

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R

Rich communication services (RCS)

RCS lets you send messages that go way beyond plain text. It works over data networks, so you can deliver richer, more interactive experiences right inside a customer’s default messaging app. The result feels closer to an app-like conversation than a traditional text.

With RCS, you can share things like:

• High quality images and videos
• Animated GIFs and audio clips
• Interactive carousels
• Suggested replies and quick action buttons like “add to calendar” or “view order”
• Location sharing and map views
• File transfers

These features help you create messages that are more dynamic and useful, all while keeping the journey simple for the customer. RCS also supports Verified Sender profiles, which gives people confidence that the message really came from your brand. And with built-in encryption, you can offer a secure experience that builds trust while keeping conversations smooth and engaging.

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Responsible marketing

Responsible marketing means putting people first. It’s about being ethical, inclusive, and transparent in everything you do. You respect privacy, avoid manipulation, and make sure your content is accessible.

It’s good practice that builds trust. Responsible marketing also means considering the impact of your campaigns on society and the environment. When you lead with integrity, your brand stands out for the right reasons.

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Retargeting

Retargeting is when you show ads to people who’ve already interacted with your brand like visiting your site or clicking an email. It’s a way to stay top of mind and bring people back.

You can remind them of products they viewed, offer a discount, or nudge them to complete a purchase. Retargeting works because it’s relevant; you’re reaching people who already know you. It helps boost conversions and reduce drop-off.

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Retention

Retention is about keeping your existing customers engaged and coming back. It’s easier (and cheaper) than constantly chasing new ones. You’ll improve retention with great experiences, personalized outreach, and timely follow-ups. Think:

• Loyalty programs
• Re-engagement emails
• Helpful content

When customers feel valued, they stick around. Retention is a sign of trust and a driver of long-term growth. Track it over time, learn what works, and keep building those relationships.

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Return on ad spend (ROAS)

ROAS shows how much revenue you earn for every dollar spent on advertising. It helps you see which campaigns are profitable.

By tracking ROAS, you can prioritise campaigns that generate revenue and pause or optimize underperforming ones. A higher ROAS means your ads are delivering more value.

To calculate ROAS, you need:

• Revenue generated from a specific ad campaign
• Total cost of that campaign
• A formula: ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend

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RFM (recency, frequency, monetary)

RFM is a way to group customers based on three key behaviors:

• Recency – how recently they bought
• Frequency – how often they buy
• Monetary – how much they spend

These scores help marketers spot their most valuable and loyal customers, as well as those who might be slipping away. For example, someone who bought last week, orders regularly, and spends a lot would rank highly.

RFM analysis helps tailor campaigns, rewarding top customers, re-engaging lapsed ones, and nurturing those in between.

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ROI (return on investment)

Return on investment (ROI) measures how much value you get from your marketing compared to what you spend. It’s a simple formula: revenue minus cost, divided by cost.

A positive ROI means your campaigns are paying off. You’ll track it across channels to see what’s working. ROI helps you make smarter decisions, justify budgets, and optimize performance.

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S

Sales qualified lead (SQL)

A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that’s ready for direct follow-up by your sales team.

SQLs are further along the buying journey than marketing qualified lead (MQLs). Prioritising SQLs ensures your sales efforts are focused on leads most likely to become customers.

To qualify SQLs, you might check for:

• A direct request for a demo or quote
• Clear budget or decision-making authority
• Alignment with your product or service offering

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Segment

A segment is a group of contacts who share something in common, such as location, interests, or purchase history. Segmentation helps you send content that’s more relevant and engaging.

Segments can be dynamic (contacts automatically move in or out based on rules you set) or static (a fixed list that stays the same).

By targeting messages to the right people, you make your marketing feel more personal and boost results in the process.

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Segmentation

Segmentation is splitting your audience into smaller groups based on things like behavior, location, or preferences. It helps you send more relevant messages. Instead of one-size-fits-all, you tailor your content to each group. That means:

• Better engagement
• Stronger relationships
• Higher conversions

You might segment by purchase history, email activity, or job role. The more you know about your audience, the more you can personalize.

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SMS marketing

SMS marketing is sending short, targeted messages straight to someone’s phone. It’s fast, direct, and personal. You can use it for promotions, reminders, updates, or alerts.

Because people check their phones constantly, SMS has high open rates and quick response times. Keep messages clear, timely, and relevant. SMS works best when it’s part of a wider strategy and not just a one-off blast.

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Sender reputation

Sender reputation is a score used by email service providers to judge how trustworthy your emails are. A strong reputation makes it more likely your messages will reach inboxes; a weak one can push them to spam.

The score is based on factors like:

• Bounce rates
• Spam complaints
• Engagement
• Consistency in sending patterns

Sending to clean, opted-in lists and keeping your content relevant helps maintain a healthy reputation.

Good sender reputation is key to getting your emails seen by the people who actually want them.

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Social media marketing

Social media marketing is using platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and X to connect with your audience. You’ll share content, run ads, and engage in conversations to build brand awareness and drive traffic. Of course posting content is a big part of it but it’s also about listening, responding, and creating value.

You can target specific groups, track performance, and test different formats. Social media helps you stay visible, build trust, and grow your community. When done well, it turns followers into fans, and fans into customers.

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Suppression list

A suppression list is a record of contacts you’ve chosen not to email. It protects your sender reputation and helps you stay compliant with privacy laws.

People end up on suppression lists for reasons like:

• Unsubscribing
• Marking messages as spam
• Hard bounces (when an email can’t be delivered)

Suppressing them means you won’t accidentally send to someone who doesn’t want to hear from you – helping build trust and keeping your data clean.

Think of it as a safety net for both your brand and your audience.

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T

Text marketing

Text marketing is sending promotional or transactional messages via SMS. It’s quick, direct, and personal. You can use it for flash sales, reminders, updates, or alerts. Because people check their phones constantly, text messages have high open rates and fast response times. Keep your messages short, clear, and timely.

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Transactional messaging

Transactional messages are triggered by a customer’s action like a purchase confirmation, password reset, or shipping update. They’re expected, useful, and often opened quickly.

While they’re not promotional, they’re still a chance to reinforce your brand and build trust. You can personalize them, add helpful links, or suggest next steps. These messages keep your customer informed and your experience smooth.

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U

User engagement

User engagement is how actively people interact with your brand like clicking, commenting, buying, or sharing. It shows how connected they feel. High engagement typically means your content is landing and your experience is resonating.

Low engagement? Time to rethink your approach. You can boost it with personalized messages, helpful content, and timely follow-ups to ensure your continuing to build relationships with your audience.

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V

Video marketing

Video marketing is using video content to promote your brand, product, or message. It’s engaging, easy to consume, and great for storytelling. You can use it for product demos, customer testimonials, tutorials, or social content.

Video helps you explain complex ideas, build trust, and boost conversions. It works across channels, from email to social to your website. When done well, it’s one of the most powerful tools in your marketing kit.

W

Website personalization

Website personalization means tailoring your site’s content based on who’s visiting. You might show different messages, products, or offers depending on someone’s location, behavior, or profile.

It helps you create a more relevant experience; one that feels like it’s built just for them. Personalisation boosts engagement, reduces bounce rates, and increases conversions. It’s a smart way to turn data into action.

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Welcome journey

A welcome journey is a series of automated messages sent to new subscribers or customers after they sign up or make their first purchase. It’s your chance to make a great first impression.

These messages often start with a friendly thank-you, followed by helpful tips, product recommendations, or special offers. The goal is to build trust, set expectations, and encourage engagement early on.

A strong welcome journey helps new customers feel valued and lays the foundation for long-term loyalty.

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WhatsApp marketing

WhatsApp marketing is using the messaging app to connect with your audience. You can send updates, answer questions, or share offers all in a channel people use daily. It’s personal, fast, and interactive.

You’ll need permission to message people, but once you have it, you can build strong relationships. WhatsApp works well for customer service, transactional messages, and conversational marketing.

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Artificial Intelligence

Dotdigital’s AI-powered marketing assistant is built on Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI service. It helps you work smarter by making tasks like content creation, subject line suggestions, and channel optimization faster and easier.

With AI, you can;

• Draft and refine copy
• Adapt emails for SMS
• Check grammar
• Get insights on customer behavior all in one place

Designed for marketers who want to save time and deliver more relevant campaigns, Dotdigital’s AI fits seamlessly into your existing workflow. It’s about helping you focus on the creative and strategic side of marketing while routine tasks run in the background.

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Z

Zapier integrations

Zapier integrations let you connect Dotdigital with thousands of other apps and platforms without writing a single line of code. By creating “Zaps,” you can automate workflows between tools you already use, such as CRMs, ecommerce platforms, and productivity apps.

For example, you could:

• Automatically add new ecommerce customers to your Dotdigital email list
• Trigger SMS campaigns when a form is submitted
• Update contacts across systems in real time

These integrations save time, reduce errors, and make it easier to deliver personalized, timely marketing across multiple channels. They’re ideal for marketers who want to streamline processes, increase efficiency, and ensure data flows smoothly between systems.

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In today’s digital world, customers crave personalized experiences. 80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from brands that personalize their journey. Personalization is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity to stay competitive.

This blog explores the power of website personalization by examining real-world examples from leading brands like Amazon, Sephora, and Zara. We will uncover the specific strategies they use and demonstrate how you can implement similar techniques to transform your own website.

Benefits of website personalization

Have you ever noticed how some websites seem to know exactly what you’re looking for? That’s the magic of website personalization. Personalization is a powerful strategy that can transform your online presence and boost your business. Let’s explore the incredible benefits of implementing website personalization and how it can enhance your user experience.

Enhanced user experience with website personalization examples

Imagine visiting a website that understands your preferences and interests. Website personalization tailors content, offers, and recommendations just for you, creating an engaging and relevant experience. When visitors feel recognized and valued, they’re likely to spend more time on your site, exploring what you have to offer. 

Increased conversion rates

One of the most compelling reasons to embrace personalization is its impact on conversion rates. By showcasing personalized product recommendations and targeted offers, you can guide users effortlessly through their purchasing journey. Think about it: when customers see options that align with their specific needs, they are much more inclined to make a purchase.

Improved customer retention

Building loyalty is essential, and personalization plays a critical role in fostering that connection with your brand. When customers receive tailored communications and recommendations that speak directly to them, they’re more likely to return. This ongoing relationship not only enhances satisfaction but also encourages repeat purchases. 

Increase engagement levels

Personalized experiences can elevate user engagement by providing relevant content that truly captures attention. Whether through personalized emails, targeted advertisements, or customized landing pages, tailored messaging can drive higher click-through rates and interactions. Engaged users are likely to share their experiences, amplifying your brand’s visibility. 

Better insights and data utilization

When you implement personalization strategies, you start collecting valuable data on user behavior and preferences. This data can be a treasure trove of insights into customer trends, enabling you to refine your marketing strategies further. Understanding what resonates with your audience is key to making informed decisions about your offerings and campaigns.

Achieve a competitive advantage

Personalization can be your secret weapon in distinguishing your brand from competitors. By providing a unique and tailored experience, you can attract new customers and retain existing ones more effectively. Creating a strong personalization strategy can enhance your brand perception, positioning you as a leader in your industry.

Six website personalization examples

Here are six examples of website personalization that demonstrate how different brands effectively implement personalized strategies.

1. Behavior-based product recommendations – Amazon

When customers visit Amazon, they are greeted with a personalized welcome page. Amazon leverages behavioral data to create highly personalized shopping experiences. Its sophisticated product recommendation engine generates multiple personalization touchpoints based on customer behavior, ensuring that each user sees products tailored to their interests and shopping patterns.

Source: Amazon

Here are some key features of Amazon’s landing page personalization strategy:

• Gift ideas inspired by your shopping history: Amazon analyzes the customer’s past purchases and browsing behavior to suggest relevant gift options, making it easier for customers to find presents for others.
• Inspired by your shopping trends: This section showcases items that align with the customers’ recent shopping patterns, helping you discover new products that match their current interests.
• Keep shopping for: Amazon reminds the customer of products they’ve recently viewed or added to their cart, encouraging them to complete their purchase.
• More top picks for you: This feature presents a curated selection of items based on the customer’s overall shopping history and preferences.
• Most loved picks for you: Amazon highlights popular products that align with the customers’ tastes, combining social proof with personalization.

By implementing these behavior-based recommendations, Amazon creates a tailored shopping experience that not only enhances user engagement but also drives sales by presenting relevant products at the right time. This approach demonstrates the power of using customer data to create a more intuitive and personalized ecommerce platform.

2. Behavioral-based targeting – Look Fabulous Forever 

Source: Look Fabulous Forever email and web experience

Look Fabulous Forever, the renowned brand for makeup tailored to mature skin, leveraged behavioral targeting to elevate the customer experience and drive conversions. When shoppers saw an offer on Facebook, it prompted them to click through to the Look Fabulous Forever website. They were more likely to convert if they encountered the same offer on the site.

By ensuring that any targeted offers a shopper comes across on platforms like Facebook or through email are also reflected on the Look Fabulous Forever website, the company creates a consistent and personalized experience. This strategy reinforces the offer and encourages shoppers to take the desired action, such as making a purchase.

Additionally, Look Fabulous Forever targeted specific customer segments with exclusive offers. These promotions are sent via email and displayed on the website when those customers click through. The aim is to encourage these valuable customers to explore and try additional product ranges.

By customizing offers based on customer behavior and preferences, Look Fabulous Forever drives greater engagement and conversions across its marketing channels.

3. Location-based personalization – Zara

Zara has expertly integrated location-based personalization into its digital strategy, creating a seamless and customized shopping experience for customers around the globe. This approach begins as soon as a user accesses Zara’s website, showcasing the brand’s commitment to providing relevant and localized content.

When customers visit Zara’s international site, they are immediately welcomed by a location-aware popover. The website intelligently detects the user’s geographic location and presents two primary options: continue browsing the international site or redirect to the country-specific site, such as the one for the United Kingdom. 

This smart popover ensures that customers can easily access the most relevant version of the site for their location, complete with local currency, shipping options, and region-specific collections.

Source: Zara 

Additionally, Zara enhances its location-based popover by offering users to select their nearest physical store. This bridges the gap between online browsing and in-store shopping.

4. Purchase history personalization – Sephora

Sephora exemplifies the power of leveraging purchase history to create highly personalized shopping experiences. Its chosen for you feature showcases a sophisticated approach to tailoring product recommendations based on individual customer preferences and past purchases.

Source: Sephora

Sephora’s system offers more than just basic product matching; it has a sophisticated understanding of customer brand preferences. It identifies the brands that a customer favors and highlights new or popular items from these preferred lines. This strategy not only strengthens customer loyalty to their chosen brands but also introduces them to complementary products they may enjoy.

Furthermore, Sephora’s personalization engine provides category-based suggestions. By recognizing the types of products a customer typically purchases, whether in skincare, makeup, or fragrance, the system can recommend related items within these categories and suggest complementary products to enhance their beauty routine.

By using purchase history to create personalized experiences, Sephora streamlines product discovery and fosters customer loyalty. This approach illustrates the effectiveness of leveraging historical data to anticipate customer needs and preferences, ultimately driving engagement and sales in the competitive beauty market.

5. Real-time behavior personalization – Etsy 

Etsy, the global marketplace for unique and creative goods, is a prime example of how real-time behavior personalization can enhance the online shopping experience. By using advanced algorithms that adapt dynamically to users’ browsing patterns and interactions, Etsy creates an engaging and tailored environment that captivates shoppers and encourages them to return.

When a user visits Etsy’s homepage, they are welcomed with a personalized storefront reflecting their immediate interests and browsing history. This real-time personalization is shown through several key features:

Source Etsy

Recent activity: This section is prominently displayed at the top of the page, showcasing products the user has recently explored. It serves as a convenient shortcut, allowing shoppers to quickly revisit items they found interesting without extensive searching. This feature enhances the user experience and increases the likelihood of conversions by keeping recently viewed items front and center.

Source: Etsy

Because you viewed: This intelligent feature presents products related to items the user has engaged with recently. By doing so, Etsy demonstrates its ability to understand and anticipate user interests in real time, effectively guiding shoppers through a curated discovery process tailored to their current session.

By implementing sophisticated real-time behavior personalization, Etsy transforms its platform into a smart, adaptive marketplace that evolves with each user interaction. This approach significantly boosts user engagement and the time spent on the site, while also increasing the likelihood of conversions by presenting the right products at just the right moment.

6.  Real-time personalization – Vision Direct

Vision Direct, a leading online retailer of contact lenses, has effectively utilized real-time personalization to enhance the customer experience. By collaborating with Dotdigital, the company has implemented strategies that significantly improve email acquisition and product recommendations.

Recognizing the importance of building a loyal customer base, Vision Direct has introduced GDPR-compliant pop-up forms on its website landing page. These strategically timed pop-ups encourage new website visitors to register their email addresses, allowing the brand to nurture leads and develop long-lasting relationships. By collecting valuable customer data, Vision Direct can deliver highly targeted and personalized marketing campaigns.

Source: Vision Direct

To further optimize its email marketing efforts, Vision Direct has integrated Dotdigital’s dynamic SmartBlocks. These powerful tools automatically populate emails with relevant product recommendations, including:

• Recently viewed products: Reminding customers of items they’ve shown interest in.
• Latest purchases: Suggesting complementary products or upsells.
• Crowd-sourced recommendations: Leveraging social proof to influence purchasing decisions.

By embracing these innovative website personalization strategies, Vision Direct has improved its email acquisition rates and enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty. Their success story showcases the potential of real-time personalization to drive business growth and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

14 homepage personalization examples that keep shoppers coming back

To get the most out of your website personalization strategy, it’s crucial that shoppers receive a one-to-one experience every time they interact with your company. Often, that starts with the homepage.

We’ve compiled 14 homepage personalization examples from across the web to help you:

1. Reassure and convert new customers 

Your website is the go-to source of information about your brand and products. Make the most of this opportunity by building trust and helping visitors find what they’re looking for.

Build trust with social proof

Research shows that more than one in three consumers won’t purchase if an online store doesn’t show product ratings and reviews.

Vision Direct builds trust with new shoppers immediately and reduces the risk of high bounce rate by displaying their store rating on the homepage alongside customer reviews.

Source: visiondirect.co.uk

Inspire with social media

New customers might be unsure of what they can expect from your brand. Use social media feeds to help shoppers imagine how they will feel once they own one of your products as part of your eCommerce personalization strategies.

Even if a visitor isn’t ready to make a purchase, they could be inspired to micro-convert by following your social media channels.

This is a great way to show how your products look in real-life situations.

Help new visitors find products

When someone comes to your site for the first time, you won’t be able to use their past behavior to gauge their interests. This doesn’t mean you can’t show relevant product recommendations.

Consider using crowdsourced “best-sellers” to show the products your customers tend to be interested in. Including best-sellers on the homepage and category pages can be particularly effective eCommerce personalization, as without the ability to touch and see products in the flesh, new customers are more likely to be swayed by other shoppers’ opinions.

Victorian Plumbing combines high-converting social proof and product recommendation tactics to inspire website visitors to check out their popular items.

Source: victorianplumbing.co.uk

Learn more: 8 product recommendation examples for every stage of the customer journey

Even if you don’t have all the data about a customer’s individual interests, you can leverage information on contextual data, such as the shopper’s location. Depending on the nature of your products, you can show product recommendations relevant to the region, season or weather where the customer is shopping.

Surfdome uses a bright orange banner on the homepage to promote the release of their winter gear, as well as highlighting their range of winter wetsuits and ski products on their eCommerce website.

Source: surfdome.co.uk

Killstar recommends products based on the visitor’s real-time activity, suggesting products for males or females depending on what the shopper has browsed. This allows Killstar to keep new shoppers engaged by showing them products that are most likely to spark their interest, despite not having any historical purchase data.

Source: Killstar.com

Recommending new arrivals is especially effective in sectors driven by fast-moving trends, such as fashion and beauty. By giving top billing to their new arrivals on the homepage banner, Surfdome builds excitement around the shopping experience and plays to our built-in expectation that something new must be better than what came before.

Source: surfdome.co.uk

2. Turn one-time visitors into subscribers 

Special offers are a great way to incentivize first-time shoppers to stay on your site, instead of jumping to a competitor.

Offers also help you identify shoppers via their email address. Once someone has registered, you can maintain a valuable relationship and increase customer engagement by sending newsletters and triggered emails as part of your personalization efforts– for instance, cart and browse abandonment emails.

The data capture form can be placed within the web page, or appear as a popover or slider.

Feel Good Contacts uses targeted data capture popovers to deliver different messages to different customers as part of their personalized content. New customers are presented with a popover offering 10% off their first purchase, while students are informed about the company’s student discount. By showing website visitors the most relevant deals, Feel Good Contacts encourages more email sign-ups. The popover also comes in two versions – a small banner that expands on click and an exit-intent banner across the whole page. This tactic has paid off for Feel Good Contacts, as they’ve seen a 333% increase in sign-ups month-over-month.

Source: feelgoodcontacts.com

Test the timing and content of pop-ups to find out what works for your visitors. If you’re using a full-page pop-up, make sure visitors have enough time to view your content before asking them to sign up.

Learn more: How to create popovers that improve the customer experience

3. Help returning visitors find what they’re looking for 

Once you have a shopper’s attention, it’s time to deliver an exceptional customer experience. This means anticipating customers’ needs and fulfilling them as quickly as possible.

Show the shopper’s last browsed products.

Where a customer has browsed your website without buying or carting a product, use website personalization by helping them pick up where they left off by showing their recently viewed products.

Cottages.com uses a popover to remind visitors of their last viewed product, including an image of the product to help jog their memory. Shoppers will appreciate the gesture, as they don’t have to waste time finding the product they searched for last time.

Source: Cottages.com

In addition to their welcome back popover, Cottages.com uses customers’ past browse and purchase data to tailor their homepage with personalized product recommendations, increasing their chances of moving the customer through to a product page by only showing them what they’re interested in.

Give a helping hand to likely purchasers

The most common way to deal with cart abandonment is by sending a real-time email reminder. But you can also use website personalization to recover this lost revenue.

Wayfair features carted products on the homepage to encourage customers to check out. It’s important to include the main product details such as image and price, so the customer can quickly decide to complete the purchase.

Source: wayfair.co.uk

4. Retain and re-engage existing customers 

Retaining customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring them. By leveraging what you know about existing shoppers, you can deliver an individual customer experience that keeps them coming back for more.

Give customers more of what they want

Personalized banners grab customers’ attention with highly tailored content. When visitors are immediately presented with relevant information, they’re less likely to bounce. For example, you can show banners based on their favorite product category:

Zee & Co puts the spotlight on specific brands across their navigation bars as part of their ecommerce personalization strategy. Since customers tend to prefer brands or products they have seen multiple times, harness the power of familiarity for returning visitors by tailoring the brand suggestion to the customer’s most browsed or purchased brand.

Source: zeeandco.co.uk

Customized images can also drive up-sells and cross-sells. Using data about the customer’s purchase history, you can predict what shoppers are likely to need – and when they will need it.

For shoppers who are very engaged but haven’t made a purchase for a while, you can use special offers and coupons to nudge them towards checking out.

Use dynamic countdown timers alongside coupons to encourage urgency.

Take personalization to the next level

For a truly one-to-one customer experience, personalization should extend far beyond the homepage. Search pages, landing pages and product detail pages can all be customized to reflect each shopper’s interests and lifecycle stage.

Real-time emails based on customer behavior take personalization to the next level. Customers can be reminded about carted products, notified when their favorite items have dropped in price, and alerted when a product they missed out on comes back in stock.

Start personalizing your website today

Every visitor to your website is unique, and they deserve an experience that resonates with them on a personal level. By customizing your site to reflect individual preferences, you’re not just enhancing user experience; you’re forging deeper connections that lead to increased engagement and a stronger bottom line.

As customer expectations continue to evolve, prioritizing website personalization will set you apart from the competition. It’s not just about keeping up; it’s about leading the way in creating meaningful interactions that foster brand loyalty and drive sustainable growth.

With Dotdigital personalization, launching AI-powered product recommendations and other dynamic content formats on the web has never been easier. Watch a demo today and see just how simple it can be to captivate and convert website visitors with personalization.

By Dominic Carelse

Growth Marketing Manager

Dominic Carelse spends a lot of time thinking about what makes people click — literally. As Growth Marketing Manager at Dotdigital, he’s focused on finding the right message for the right audience, running smart A/B tests, and making sure every segment sees something that actually speaks to them. It’s all about turning attention into action, and doing it in a way that scales. With over ten years of experience working in MarTech, Dominic has seen how marketing evolves at every stage of growth.

His day-to-day spans SEO, paid media, lifecycle journeys, and experimentation — all tied together by a constant focus on the end user experience.

Let’s delve into website personalization, which is essential for creating engaging experiences that connect with visitors on a personal level. When mastered, web personalization becomes a marketer’s best friend, solving high bounce rates, converting new visitors, recovering abandoned carts and fostering long-lasting brand loyalty. We’ll explore where to start, what to personalize, and the challenges you might face.

What is website personalization?

Website personalization involves customizing your website content, offers, recommendations, and interactions based on individual user data, preferences, and behaviors. This includes browsing and purchase history, demographics, location, and device type. This approach can significantly improve your visitor’s experience by making their interactions relevant and engaging.

What are the benefits of website personalization

Website personalization is a strategy that you can use to customize your visitor’s experiences. Here are some benefits of incorporating website personalization: 

Increases conversion rate

Personalization helps you convert visitors into paying customers. By showing relevant content and offers, you’re more likely to capture their attention and guide them towards the desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

Fosters brand loyalty

When customers feel valued and understood, they’re more likely to become loyal brand advocates. Personalization demonstrates that you care about their individual needs, fostering a stronger connection and encouraging repeat business.

Increases average order value

Personalized recommendations can nudge customers towards products they’re more likely to be interested in, potentially leading to them adding higher-value items to their carts.

Improves retention

A personalized experience keeps visitors engaged and coming back for more. By understanding their preferences, you can deliver content and offers they’ll find valuable, increasing the likelihood of them returning to your site.

Recovers abandoned carts

Personalized messages and retargeting campaigns can remind visitors about items left behind in their carts, prompting them to complete the purchase.

Saves time and money

Personalization helps you target your marketing efforts more effectively, leading to a better return on investment (ROI). You’ll spend less time and money on generic campaigns that may not resonate with your audience. Low-code or no-code personalization solutions allow marketers to modify the customer experience for thousands of visitors using simple drag-and-drop tools. This means less time waiting on dev for bespoke website elements, and more time testing and optimizing variants of personalized content.

Eight types of website personalization

From social proof and dynamic product recommendations to personalized content and urgency messaging, the possibilities for website personalization are endless. Let’s take a closer look at eight widely-used personalization techniques that you can utilize today.

1. Social proof

You can leverage the power of customer reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content to build trust and influence purchasing decisions. Showcase positive experiences from similar customers to build confidence and encourage conversions.

2. Dynamic product recommendations

Go beyond generic product listings. Use customer data and browsing behavior to suggest relevant products that each visitor is more likely to be interested in. This increases the chance of them discovering something they’ll love.

3. Personalized content

Tailor website content, including headlines, product descriptions, and blog posts, to resonate with different audience segments. This creates a more engaging experience and ensures visitors see information most relevant to their needs.

4. Urgency messaging

Create a sense of urgency with strategically placed messages that highlight limited-time offers, low stock availability, or upcoming sales. This can nudge visitors to take action before the opportunity disappears.

5. Dynamic navigation bars and banners

Personalize the navigation bar and banner content based on user data or location. This allows visitors to easily find what they’re looking for and promotes relevant products or offers. You can tailor these elements to the shopper’s browsing history or preferences.

6. Search personalization

Refine search results based on a user’s search terms, browsing history, and past purchases. This ensures visitors find the most relevant products quickly and efficiently, improving their search experience.

7. Live weather forecasts(location-based)

You can display relevant weather information that can influence your customer’s product choices. For example, showcasing raincoats during a downpour or suggesting sunscreen on a sunny day. 

8. Popovers and notifications 

Use personalized popovers and notifications to keep visitors informed and engaged. This could involve showcasing abandoned cart reminders, loyalty program updates, targeted coupons or personalized product recommendations. 

By incorporating these website personalization techniques, you can create a more dynamic and engaging experience for your visitors, ultimately leading to increased conversions, customer satisfaction, and business growth.

Providing shoppers with highly relevant recommendations on the website is a crucial part of eCommerce personalization, as it is effective when it comes to generating sales and helps create a unified cross-channel shopping experience. By using customer data including their previous interactions on your website, your personalization efforts will be rewarded.

34 Must-know website personalization stats

Website personalization is a proven strategy that delivers impressive ROI and turns anonymous visitors into loyal customers. There’s no shortage of research-backed evidence showing its effectiveness. Marketers everywhere trust personalization to boost engagement and drive results. Ready to see the stats that prove its worth? Let’s dive in.

Benefits of website personalization

1. 89% of digital businesses are investing in personalization. (Forrester)

2. 4 in 5 companies (80%) report an uplift since implementing personalization. (Econsultancy)

3. 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences. (Epsilon Marketing)

4. 71% of consumers expect personalization. (McKinsey)

5. 76% of consumers get frustrated when companies don’t use personalization. (McKinsey)

6. 80% of customers now consider the experience a company provides to be as important as its products and services. (Salesforce)

7. Personalization can increase the efficiency of marketing spend by 10 to 30 percent. (McKinsey)

8. 94% of companies experienced a rise in conversion rates after personalizing their websites. (Econsultancy)

9. Basic website personalization can give a 14% sales uplift. 

10. 22% of consumers find it frustrating when they opt out of marketing emails about a specific event, such as Mother’s Day, but the online retailer then shows them promotions around the event when they visit the website.

11. 89%: of millennials are interested in receiving personalized offers, leading all demographics. (Pymnts)

Effective product recommendations

12. 45% of online shoppers are more likely to shop on a site that offers personalized recommendations. (Invesp)

13. 71% of eCommerce websites offer product recommendations. (Internet Retailing)

14. Personalized product recommendations can increase click-throughs by more than 100%, versus generic product recommendations.

15. 79% of consumers are willing to share relevant information about themselves for personalized product recommendations. (Salesforce)

16. 38% of consumers say they won’t return to an online retailer that recommends things that don’t make sense for them. (Salesforce)

17. Onsite product recommendations can give a 112% sales uplift.

18. Personalized product recommendations increase average order value by 10%. (Salesforce)

19. Personalized product recommendations can increase website conversion rate by 49%.

Engaging popups for personalization

20. More than half of online shoppers (57%) are OK with providing personal information as long as it is for their benefit. (Invesp)

21. The average conversion rate for all pop-ups is 3.09%. The top performers average 9.28% conversion rates. (Sumo)

22. A targeted popover can increase monthly subscribe rate by 600%.

Coupons for personalized shopping experiences

23. Coupon users spend 26% more than shoppers who don’t use them. (Blippr)

24. 68% of consumers are more likely to join a retailer’s/brand’s marketing list if they receive an instant coupon. (CodeBroker)

25. 68% of consumers say that coupons generate loyalty. (Invesp)

26. 67% of consumers are highly in favor of personalized coupons. (Infosys)

27. 74% of online shoppers prefer discounts that indicate “percentage off” savings. (Blippr)

28. 59% of shoppers look for discount codes before making a purchase online. (Invesp)

29. 1 in 4 consumers (25%) find it frustrating when a retailer sends them a coupon code but doesn’t show them the code anywhere on their website.

Leveraging location data for personalization

30. 67% of smartphone users say they’re more likely to buy from companies whose mobile sites or apps customize information to their location. (Google)

31. 80% of consumers say that they would like to get location-based alerts from businesses. (Linchpin)

32. 42% of consumers want online retailers to display stock availability in their nearest store for products they are browsing.

Personalized site search: enhancing user experience

33. 1 in 3 consumers (33%) get frustrated when the search results are irrelevant.

34. 1 in 4 consumers (24%) get frustrated when the results show out of stock items.

35. 1 in 5 consumers (20%) want to see alternative products when the search brings back no results.

How to create a website personalization strategy

Now that you understand the basics of personalization, let’s explore the steps to create your successful website personalization strategy:

Define your goals

The first step is to identify your specific goals for personalization. Do you want to increase conversions, boost average order value, or improve customer retention? Clearly defined goals will guide your entire personalization strategy.

Choose the right personalization tool

Choosing a user-friendly personalization tool is essential for effectively implementing your website personalization strategy. Dotdigital Personalization can assist you with AI-powered product recommendations and real-time personalization across multiple channels.

Some benefits of using Personalization for your personalization strategy include:

• Easy integration with your existing marketing and ecommerce platforms
• AI-driven product recommendations tailored to individual shopper interests
• Real-time personalization to ensure your website remains relevant and engaging
• Seamless cross-channel personalization that’s compatible with email, SMS, and social media marketing.

By selecting Dotdigital Personalization as your personalization tool, you can streamline your personalization efforts, making better use of customer data to create a personalized shopping experience for each unique visitor.

Develop a personalization plan

Craft a plan that outlines how you will personalize different elements of your website. This could involve creating targeted content, displaying personalized product recommendations, or dynamically adjusting calls to action.

Gather and analyze data

Effective website personalization relies on one crucial element: data. To manage your data effectively, you can use a customer experience and data platform (CXDP). A CXDP is a comprehensive platform that enables you to effectively manage your customer experience and data.

Dotdigital CXDP acts as a central hub, collecting and unifying customer data from all your touchpoints. This creates a single, holistic view of each customer, allowing you to:

• Gain actionable insights: Analyze all your customer data in one place to understand their behavior, preferences, and lifecycle stage. This empowers you to personalize experiences more effectively.
• Simplify data management: Reduce data duplication and streamline data governance with a centralized platform. This saves time and resources, allowing you to focus on strategic personalization initiatives.
• Fuel cross-channel personalization: Utilize the unified customer profile to deliver consistent and personalized experiences across all channels, like email, mobile app push notifications, and website content.

Incorporating a CXDP like Dotdigital into your website personalization strategy ensures a better understanding and utilization of customer data, leading to more engaging and rewarding experiences for your site visitors.

Segment audience

Segmentation allows you to group shoppers based on similar characteristics for targeted marketing. Analyze customer data to build segments like:

• Lapsed vs. engaged shoppers
• High spenders vs. bargain hunters
• Specific demographics (young parents, DIYers, etc.)
• Product, brand, and price preferences

Develop targeted communications for each segment to increase engagement and conversions.

Know your audience

In-depth audience understanding is key. Segment your visitors based on demographics, interests, behavior, and purchase history. The more you know about your audience, the more effectively you can personalize their experience.

Collect additional data, if necessary

Once you’ve set up your CDP and analyzed and segmented your audience, you may find great reasons to collect more data:

• Add subscribers to your BAU newsletter
• Improve cart and browse recovery message conversions
• Increase sales with price drop, replenishment, and other behavior-triggered messages
• Improve the customer experience (CX) with personalized messages and on-site interactions
• Increase AOV through improved product recommendations

On-site data capture popovers

An effective data capture tactic is the on-site popover. They can be triggered by specific customer behavior, such as intent to exit. Popovers are great for engaging new visitors or re-engaging returning visitors who didn’t complete a purchase. 

Since the popover appears at a relevant moment while shopping, visitors are likely to complete the form. You can also incentivize participation with a discount, coupon,  or exclusive offer.

On-site data capture banners

Another popular data capture technique is the onsite banner that, once clicked, reveals a form or survey. The banner collects valuable customer data without interrupting your shopper’s browsing experience as much as a full-page popover.

Test and optimize

Personalization is an ongoing process. Continuously test and refine your efforts through A/B testing to discover what resonates most with your audience. Here’s the process:

A/B testing

• Create variations of your personalized elements, such as product recommendations, calls to action, or website layouts.
• Split your website traffic and show different variations to a portion of your visitors.
• Analyze the results to see which variation performs better based on your goals (conversions, engagement, etc.).

Refine your strategy

• Implement the winning variations from your A/B tests and update your personalization strategy accordingly.
• Continuously develop new hypotheses and test additional personalization tactics to keep optimizing the user experience.

By following this test-and-refine approach, you can ensure your website personalization efforts are constantly evolving and delivering the best possible results for your marketing.

What is dynamic content and why is it used for website personalization?

Unlike static content which remains the same for everyone, dynamic content engines use algorithms to automatically deliver content or content types most likely to resonate with the shopper. This personalization is based on the user’s actions, preferences, and contextual data.

Dynamic content allows you to personalize each section of your website or email in real-time, leading to:

• Higher customer engagement
• Improved conversion rates
• Reduced abandonment rates
• Enhanced customer loyalty

Website personalization best practice examples

Let’s delve into real-world examples of website personalization in action:

1. Dynamic product recommendations

The sporting goods retailer, GolfClubs4Cash implements a product recommendations carousel on product pages.

The carousel displays recommendations tailored to each visitor, such as “People like you bought” or “People who browsed this also looked at,” along with filters based on past purchases or browsing behavior.

This targeted approach increases the likelihood of visitors discovering relevant products they’re interested in, leading to a potential sales increase of 15%.

2. Cross-channel personalization

The beauty brand, Look Fabulous Forever leverages behavioral targeting to ensure a consistent shopping experience across all channels (website, email, social media).

Offers a visitor sees on social media or email are also reflected on the brand’s website. Additionally, the brand personalizes offers based on customer segments, encouraging them to try new product lines through targeted emails and website displays.

This cohesive approach reinforces brand messaging and caters to individual customer preferences, potentially leading to increased engagement and sales.

3. Strategic data capture

The jewelry store, Van Der Hout Jewelry revamps its data capture form to improve user experience and data collection.

The brand implemented a more user-friendly form that encourages visitors to sign up for the newsletter. Additionally, they control when the form appears to prevent interrupting the browsing experience.

This resulted in a 12% increase in newsletter signups and allowed for more targeted email marketing campaigns with personalized discount codes, potentially boosting sales conversions.

These examples showcase the diverse ways brands can leverage website personalization to create a more engaging and effective customer experience. By implementing similar strategies, you can personalize your website to cater to individual visitor needs and preferences, ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction and business.

Website personalization is key to a successful cross-channel marketing strategy

Customers today expect a seamless and personalized experience at every touchpoint. Website personalization plays an important role in achieving this. By customizing your website content, offers, and recommendations for each visitor, you can create a more engaging journey that builds brand loyalty and drives sales.

Get started today and discover just how easy getting started with advanced website personalization strategies can be, with Dotdigital Personalization.

Imagine browsing a retail website that greets you by name, recommends clothes you love, and highlights deals on your favorite brands. That’s the power of personalized content. It’s content that’s dynamically crafted to cater to the specific interests, needs, and preferences of each user.

This is achieved by leveraging the data points you collect about your audience. These data points can be broadly categorized into two main groups:

• Demographics: This includes information like age, location, education level, gender, employment status, and income. Demographics help you understand the general characteristics of your audience.
• Behavioral data: This is all about how users interact with your content. It includes things like purchase history, browsing history, web page views, time spent on specific pages, and content downloads. Behavioral data gives you a deeper understanding of a user’s individual preferences.

By using a combination of demographic and behavioral data, you can create content experiences that are truly relevant and engaging for each user.

What is the difference between personalized and customized content?

While the terms are often used interchangeably, there’s a subtle difference. Customization allows users to tailor content themselves, for example, by choosing their preferred language or news feed settings. Personalization, on the other hand, leverages data to automatically customize content for each user.

What is dynamic content

Dynamic content refers to the ability to tailor every aspect of the customer experience to an individual’s preferences, behavior, and real-time context. This means that each user is presented with timely and relevant content.

By utilizing dynamic content, marketers can create more personalized and impactful interactions with their customers throughout the entire customer journey.

Three benefits of personalized content

Personalized content goes beyond being a trendy marketing tactic; it’s a strategic approach that can significantly improve your marketing efforts and user engagement. Here’s how:

Improves customer experience

Imagine a store where a salesperson instantly recognizes you, remembers your preferences, and suggests products you’ll genuinely love. Personalized content replicates that online. By tailoring content to individual needs and interests, you craft a more engaging and satisfying journey for your users.

This translates to increased satisfaction, reduced frustration, and a higher chance of users returning. Studies show that 74% of consumers feel frustrated by generic content. By providing relevant content, you boost satisfaction, reduce frustration, and encourage repeat visits.

Increases sales

Personalized content isn’t just about user happiness; it’s a powerful sales tool.  When users see content that resonates, they’re more likely to be interested in your offerings. Targeted product recommendations, personalized ads, and tailored offers can significantly increase conversion rates and drive sales growth. 

80% of customers are more likely to buy from brands offering personalized experiences. By delivering content that speaks directly to customer needs and desires, you create a persuasive and compelling marketing strategy that generates revenue.

Grows customer loyalty

Today, customer loyalty is more important than ever. Personalized content creates a connection and sense of value between your brand and users. When users feel understood, they’re more likely to trust and be loyal to your brand. This means repeat business, positive word-of-mouth recommendations, and a stronger overall customer base. 

Studies show that 52% of customers will switch brands if there’s no personalization. Conversely, brands delivering personalized experiences see a rise in customer loyalty and advocacy. Satisfied and loyal customers become repeat buyers, recommend your brand, and contribute to a stronger customer base overall.

What channels should you personalize content for?

The beauty of content personalization lies in its ability to transform the user experience across various touchpoints. Here’s a look at some key channels where personalization can significantly enhance engagement:

Targeted advertising

Imagine seeing an ad for hiking boots right after reading an article about conquering a mountain trail. That’s the magic of ad personalization. By leveraging user data and browsing behavior, you can deliver highly relevant ads that resonate with individual users, leading to higher click-through rates and conversions.

Dynamic websites

Personalization goes beyond ads. Tailor website content based on factors like user location, browsing history, or past purchases. Imagine a travel website displaying local tours and attractions to a visitor from another country, or an ecommerce site recommending products based on browsing history. This can significantly improve user engagement and conversion rates.

Personalized email marketing

A simple greeting by name can make a big difference in email marketing. Take it a step further by recommending products based on past purchases or offering birthday discounts. Personalized subject lines that pique user interest and mention past interactions can also significantly improve open rates and click-through rates.

Curate social media feeds

Social media platforms are goldmines of user data. Leverage this data to curate personalized content feeds for your followers. You can also target social media ads to specific demographics and interests, ensuring your message reaches the right audience.

Targeted SMS marketing

Don’t underestimate the power of SMS. Send targeted promotions or reminders based on user preferences.  For example, a clothing store might send a discount code for a user’s favorite brand or a gym might send a reminder about an upcoming class.

Personalized Apps

Personalize the app experience by displaying relevant content, features, and recommendations based on user behavior within the app. A music streaming app might suggest playlists based on a user’s listening history or recommend similar artists they might enjoy.

How does AI help with content personalization?

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a game-changer in content personalization. By automating tasks and even content creation, AI allows you to deliver a truly individualized experience for each user. Here’s how AI empowers content personalization:

• Uncover hidden user preferences: AI dives deep into your customer data, including demographics, browsing behavior, and past purchases. It goes beyond the surface, revealing hidden patterns and preferences you might miss. This allows you to understand your audience on a whole new level.
• Predict what customers want next: AI doesn’t just analyze the past, it predicts the future (of user interest, that is). Based on user data, AI can anticipate what your customers might be interested in next. This lets you deliver content that’s not just relevant today but feels eerily in tune with their evolving needs.
• Real-time personalization: Imagine a website that automatically adjusts product descriptions based on a user’s past purchases. That’s the power of AI-powered real-time content creation. This dynamic approach creates a more engaging experience for your customers and can significantly boost conversions.
• Scale up personalization efforts: Manually personalizing content for a large audience is a nightmare. AI automates many of the tasks involved, freeing you up to focus on creative strategy and campaign management. This lets you personalize content at scale, even with a massive user base.
• Constantly improve and refine: AI continuously analyzes the performance of your personalized content, providing valuable insights. This allows you to constantly refine your personalization strategies and ensure you’re delivering the most effective content for your target audience.

AI is a powerful tool that can transform your content personalization. By leveraging AI, you can create personalized experiences that keep your customers engaged and coming back for more.

Eight examples of personalized content

Now you’ve grasped the power of personalized content and its various channels. Let’s explore eight inspiring examples that show personalization in action:

Website landing pages: personalized product recommendations

Imagine browsing an online clothing store and encountering a “recommended for you” section curated specifically for your tastes. By analyzing your past purchases and browsing behavior, the store can identify styles and brands you’re likely to favor. This translates into a product selection that feels handpicked just for you, increasing the chances of you discovering something you love and ultimately adding it to your cart.

Personalized product recommendations aren’t limited to clothing stores. Every type of ecommerce store can leverage this powerful tool. A tech store can suggest complementary accessories for a recently purchased laptop, or a travel website recommending hotels and flights based on your past destinations and search history.

By showcasing products that match your customers’ interests and preferences, you enhance their shopping experience, making it both enjoyable and efficient. This fosters brand loyalty and boosts sales.

Email: subject lines that grab attention

Generic email subject lines often get lost in the digital clutter. But a personalized subject line that greets you by name and references a product you recently viewed immediately grabs your attention. This piques your curiosity and compels you to open the email, setting the stage for a more engaging experience.

The power of personalization goes beyond greetings. Imagine receiving an email with a subject line like “Hey [Your Name], Did you forget something in your cart?” This clever reminder nudges you to revisit abandoned items, potentially leading to a completed purchase. 

Dynamic email subject lines can also leverage past purchases to suggest complementary products or highlight ongoing promotions relevant to your interests. This targeted approach fosters a sense of connection and increases the likelihood of users not only opening your emails but also taking action within them.

Social media: feeds curated just for you

Social media platforms are great at personalization. They use user data to tailor your news feed, ensuring that you see content that matches your interests and the accounts you follow. This keeps you engaged and exposes you to relevant content that resonates with your preferences.

However, social media personalization can be even more influential by including on-brand social proof. Imagine scrolling through your feed and seeing your friend raving about a product you’ve been considering, or encountering a post featuring an influencer you trust using a specific brand.

These positive experiences from others can significantly boost your confidence in the product and speed up your decision to purchase. By strategically incorporating social proof into personalized feeds, social media platforms create a compelling and trustworthy user experience that not only keeps you engaged but also nudges you towards making a purchase.

Retargeting ads: browsing history

Have you ever researched a specific product online, only to be bombarded with ads for that same product on other websites? That’s targeted advertising at work. By leveraging user data like browsing history and demographics, businesses can deliver highly relevant ads that resonate with individual users. This significantly increases the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, leading to higher conversion rates and a better return on investment (ROI).

Imagine searching for a new pair of running shoes online. Targeted advertising allows athletic brands to display ads showcasing their latest running shoe models directly on the websites you visit. This ensures your ad reaches a pre-qualified audience who is already interested in the product category, making them more likely to click on the ad and potentially convert into a customer. 

By strategically targeting your ads based on user data, you ensure your message reaches the right people at the right time, maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.

In-app: personalized app experiences

Imagine a music streaming app that uses your listening history not only to recommend playlists but also to highlight new artists you might enjoy based on your favorite genres.

Similarly, envision a news app that showcases articles related to topics you’ve read, while also incorporating dynamic content such as breaking news updates and personalized weather forecasts.

This level of personalization goes beyond simple recommendations; it leverages dynamic content to create a truly engaging and up-to-date experience for each user. By creating a personalized app experience that feels tailored just for them, you can keep users coming back for more.

Location-based personalization: right place, right time content

Taking personalization a step further, you can leverage your GPS data to tailor content and functionality specifically to your whereabouts. Imagine a coffee shop app that uses your location to show cafes near you as well as special deals based on your current spot.

This extends beyond apps. Retail stores can leverage location data to notify customers about nearby sales and promotions relevant to their interests. Imagine getting a notification about a discount on your favorite athletic shoes as you walk past a sporting goods store.

Location-based personalization adds an extra layer of convenience by surfacing relevant information and opportunities right when you need them. This can significantly enhance the user experience and entice users to engage with the app more frequently.

SMS messages: birthday greetings

SMS marketing offers a simple yet effective way to personalize content. A birthday greeting with a unique discount code delivered via SMS can make a customer feel valued and appreciated. This small gesture goes a long way in fostering customer loyalty and brand affinity.

But the benefits extend beyond warm wishes. The personalized discount code incentivizes action. Imagine receiving a text message on your birthday that says something like “Happy Birthday, [Your Name]. Enjoy 20% off your entire purchase at [Store Name]. Use code HAPPYBIRTHDAY at checkout.” This targeted offer entices customers to celebrate their special day by treating themselves at your store.

The beauty of SMS marketing lies in its immediacy and high open rates. By delivering personalized birthday greetings with discount codes, you can create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to take advantage of the limited-time offer. This personalized touch fosters a win-win situation: customers feel valued and receive an exclusive offer, while businesses benefit from increased sales and engagement.

Push notifications: gentle reminders that keep you engaged

Push notifications can be a powerful tool for personalized content delivery. Imagine a fitness app sending you a gentle reminder to complete your daily workout routine based on your usual exercise schedule. 

Personalization goes beyond reminders, ecommerce stores can leverage push notifications to inform customers about flash sales or limited-time offers on products they’ve viewed before. 

Travel apps can send personalized updates on flight gate changes or boarding times. The key is to use push notifications strategically and deliver value to the user. Avoid notification overload. By providing timely and relevant updates, push notifications can enhance the user experience and keep them engaged with your app.

Why should you use a content personalization platform?

Content personalization is here to transform your campaigns and boost results. Here’s your step-by-step guide to get started:

1. Define your goals

The first step is to identify your goals for content personalization. Are you looking to improve customer experience, increase sales, or boost brand loyalty? Having a clear understanding of your objectives will guide your personalization strategy and help you measure its success.

2. Know your audience

Personalization hinges on understanding your audience like the back of your hand. Gather data on demographics, interests, behavior patterns, and pain points. Conduct surveys, analyze website traffic with tools like Google Analytics, and leverage social media insights.  

This intel will help you build a buyer persona – a detailed profile of your ideal customer. With a buyer persona in hand, you can tailor content that speaks directly to their needs and interests.

3. Choose the right channels

Identify where your target audience spends the most time and where personalization can have the biggest impact. This could be your website, email marketing, social media platforms, or even mobile apps. Focus on high-impact areas first. Don’t spread yourself thin trying to personalize everything at once.

4. Start small and scale up

No need to overhaul your entire marketing strategy overnight. Begin with a simple strategy, like personalizing email greetings or website product recommendations based on browsing history. As you gain experience and measure results, you can gradually expand your personalization efforts to encompass more channels and techniques.

5. Test and measure

Personalization is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. Continuously test different personalization strategies and measure their effectiveness. A/B testing allows you to compare the performance of personalized content with non-personalized content. Analyze the results and refine your approach based on what resonates most with your audience. Remember, data is your friend – use it to learn and optimize your campaigns for maximum impact.

6. Focus on value

Personalization shouldn’t feel intrusive. Always focus on delivering personalized content that offers genuine value to your audience. This could be through relevant product recommendations that solve their problems, informative blog posts that address their interests, or exclusive discounts that make them feel appreciated. Building trust and relationships with your users through genuine personalization efforts is key to long-term success.

How Dotdigital personalization can help

Dotdigital helps you to deliver personalized content experiences that resonate with each customer. Our technology goes beyond basic product recommendations, acting as a powerful tool for tailoring content throughout the customer journey.

A final word on content personalization

Content personalization is a powerful strategy that tailors your content to the specific needs and interests of each user. This blog has equipped you with everything you need to know about content personalization, from its core concepts to the practical steps you can take to implement it.

By leveraging data and understanding your audience, you can create personalized content experiences that resonate with individual users. This not only fosters a more engaging and satisfying user journey but also translates into significant benefits like increased sales, improved customer loyalty, and a stronger brand reputation.

Remember, content personalization is a journey, not a destination. Continuously test, measure, and refine your approach to ensure you’re delivering the most effective content for your target audience.

FAQs

Why is content personalization important?

Content personalization is essential for creating tailored user experiences, enhancing customer engagement, and driving conversions. By tailoring content to your audience’s specific needs and preferences, you boost their satisfaction and foster brand loyalty.

What are the advantages of content personalization in the long term?

Long-term advantages of content personalization include enhanced brand recognition, increased customer loyalty, improved revenue and ROI, and achieving a competitive edge in the market. Personalized content creates memorable experiences that users will associate with your brand.

What is a content personalization platform?

A content personalization platform is a software solution that allows marketers to create and deliver customized digital experiences to individual users. With a content personalization platform, marketers can personalize content all from one centralized hub.

In this blog, we’ll explore the concept of responsible marketing, its importance, and examples of socially and ethically responsible marketing practices. So, let’s dive in and explore why you should be a responsible marketer.

What does responsible marketing mean?

Responsible marketing is a marketing approach that encompasses ethical, sustainable, and socially responsible practices while keeping the best interests of the customer at the core. It aims to deliver engaging and creative marketing campaigns that promote transparency, social responsibility, and a genuine connection with the target audience.

Why is responsible marketing important?

Responsible marketing is essential for creating strong customer relationships and ensuring sustainable business growth. Let’s explore the reasons behind the significance of utilizing an ethical and responsible approach to marketing.

1. Building consumer trust: With increasing awareness about data protection and privacy, customers are becoming more cautious about sharing their personal information. By using responsible marketing practices, you’ll build trust with your customers by being transparent about data collection, usage, and security measures.
2. Customer-centricity: You should prioritize the needs, preferences, and well-being of your customers. This can be achieved by actively seeking feedback, understanding their concerns, and providing relevant and meaningful experiences through your marketing initiatives.
3. Meeting regulatory compliance: Data protection regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) require you to be diligent in protecting customer data and obtaining consent. Implementing responsible marketing helps you ensure compliance with these regulations, avoiding potential legal complications and financial penalties.
4. Enhancing brand reputation: Adopting ethical and sustainable marketing practices demonstrates to consumers and stakeholders that your brand prioritizes integrity and social responsibility. This enhances your brand’s reputation, sets your brand apart from competitors, and attracts customers who value ethical business practices.
5. Boosting customer loyalty: Organizations that practice responsible marketing tend to generate more personalized and meaningful engagement with their target audience. This, in turn, fosters an emotional connection with customers, driving brand loyalty and encouraging long-term relationships.
6. Social responsibility: You should consider the social impact of your products and services. This can be achieved by creating marketing campaigns that support social causes, raise awareness about important issues, or advocate for positive change.
7. Supporting sustainability: By integrating environmental and social considerations into your marketing strategies, your brand can reduce its negative impact on the planet and contribute to a more sustainable future. This not only benefits the environment but also appeals to the growing consumer base that values eco-friendliness.
8. Long-term brand success: Responsible marketing contributes to the long-term success of your brand by building strong customer relationships, enhancing brand reputation, and fostering consumer trust. These factors ultimately lead to repeat purchases, positive word of mouth, and customer referrals, which boost revenue and ensure the sustained growth of businesses.

How can I be a responsible marketer?

Becoming a responsible marketer starts with a mindset shift and a commitment to ethical practices. Here are six steps you can take to become a responsible marketer:

1. Understand your audience

When it comes to marketing, understanding your audience is critical. It’s not just about knowing their age, gender, or location. It’s about digging deeper and understanding their values, beliefs, and concerns. When you have this knowledge, you can tailor your marketing messages and strategies to resonate with your audience on a deeper level.

For example, if your target audience values sustainability, you can incorporate eco-friendly practices into your business operations and highlight them in your marketing messages. If they are concerned about the impact of your product on their health, you can provide detailed information about the safety and efficacy of your product.

It’s important to remember that your audience is made up of individuals with unique needs and preferences. By taking the time to research and understand your audience, you can create marketing messages and strategies that are more effective and meaningful.

2. Be transparent

Transparency is an essential aspect of building trust with your customers. When you are transparent, you show your customers that you have nothing to hide and that you respect their privacy. To achieve this, you need to be clear and open about how you collect and use customer data. You should also ensure that you have proper consent for any data collection activities. This means that you need to inform your customers about what data you are collecting and why you are collecting it. 

It’s also important to communicate your privacy policies and data protection measures in a way that is easy for your customers to understand. Make sure that you use simple language and avoid technical jargon. This will help your customers to make informed decisions about their data and understand how you are protecting their information. 

3. Be authentic

In today’s hyper-connected world, customers expect to be treated as human beings and not as targets. It’s essential to be authentic and honest about your business practices, from where you source your materials to how and why you are collecting customer data. The more informed customers are, the more they will trust you.

Customers are more cautious while making decisions and gaining their loyalty requires gaining their trust. Therefore, it’s crucial to adopt responsible practices that can help build trust with them. Explicitly explain to your customers why you need their data and what benefits they will receive in return for sharing their data with you, such as birthday discounts and invitations to local events.

4. Support social causes

Supporting social causes is a great way to showcase your brand’s commitment to making a positive impact beyond just selling products or services. It helps you align your brand with social causes that resonate with your target audience and can create a more meaningful connection with them. 

There are many ways to support social causes, such as donating a portion of your profits to a charitable organization, supporting community initiatives, or participating in volunteer efforts. You could choose to support a cause that is related to your industry or a cause that is important to your customers and employees. 

By supporting social causes, you can not only make a positive impact on society but also create a positive image for your brand. It can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors and build stronger relationships with your customers.

5. Embrace diversity and inclusion

Creating a culture of diversity and inclusion is important in today’s society. As a business, it’s important to ensure that your marketing campaigns and materials accurately reflect the diversity of your target audience. This includes featuring individuals from different backgrounds, abilities, body types, cultures, and abilities in your advertisements and promotional content.

By promoting inclusivity and challenging stereotypes through your marketing efforts, you not only attract a wider range of customers but also create a sense of belonging for all. When individuals see themselves represented in your marketing campaigns, they are more likely to feel connected to your brand and develop a sense of loyalty.

Moreover, promoting diversity and inclusion can also help to build a positive reputation for your brand. Customers appreciate companies that make an effort to celebrate diversity and create an inclusive environment. By embracing diversity and inclusion, you show that your company values all individuals, regardless of their differences, and is committed to creating a welcoming environment for all.

6. Educate and raise awareness

Responsible marketing is not only about promoting your products or services but also about creating a positive impact on society and the environment. One way to do this is by educating your customers and stakeholders about relevant social and environmental issues. 

By sharing informative content, organizing educational events, or supporting educational initiatives in your community, you can raise awareness about important topics and inspire others to take action.

As a brand, you can position yourself as a thought leader and advocate for positive change. By doing so, you can not only gain the trust and loyalty of your customers but also contribute to building a better world. 

For example, if you have a retail clothing brand, you can educate your customers about the negative impact of fast fashion on the environment and encourage them to choose sustainable and ethical fashion options. Similarly, if you have a food brand, you can promote healthy eating habits and support local farmers and producers.

Examples of responsible marketing

Many brands have taken the responsible marketing approach to heart and have succeeded in connecting with their audience. Here are four examples of responsible marketing campaigns that have made a significant impact:

1. Patagonia’s”Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign

In 2011, Patagonia ran a full-page ad in The New York Times on Black Friday, encouraging consumers not to buy its products unless they truly needed them. The advert aimed to raise awareness about the environmental consequences of consumerism. This bold move positioned Patagonia as a brand that prioritizes environmental sustainability and responsible consumption.

2. Dove’s”Real Beauty” campaign

Dove launched its “Real Beauty” campaign in 2004 to challenge unrealistic beauty standards and promote body positivity. The campaign featured women of different body types, ages, and ethnicities. By showcasing the diversity of beauty, Dove created an empowering message that resonates with women around the world, setting a new standard for the beauty industry.

3. Ben & Jerry’s social mission

Ben & Jerry’s has long been an advocate for social justice, using their ice cream to raise awareness about issues such as climate change, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ rights. They also focus on fair trade and environmental sustainability when sourcing their ingredients. By aligning their marketing efforts with their social mission, Ben & Jerry’s has cultivated a loyal customer base who share their values.

4. Warby Parker’s “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program

Warby Parker, an eyewear company, has a “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program where for every pair of glasses sold, they donate a pair to someone in need. This responsible marketing initiative not only helps people access affordable eyewear but also creates a positive image for the brand and motivates customers to support their cause.

These examples demonstrate the power of responsible marketing in fostering customer trust and loyalty, enhancing brand reputation, and making a positive impact on society.

Be a responsible marketer

In conclusion, being a responsible marketer is important in today’s society where consumers are becoming more aware and conscious of their choices. It’s important to prioritize transparency, honesty, and ethical practices in all marketing efforts to build trust among consumers and create long-term relationships. This will improve your brand’s reputation, image, and ultimately contribute to a better and more sustainable future for all.