Are you ready to get personal?
No, not like Oliva Newton-John; personal as in personalized website content.
Do you ever feel like your iPhone is listening to you? Maybe you were planning a trip to Spain, and your airline app automatically switched to show flights to Barcelona. Or Netflix seems to know you’re in the mood to LOL (mom, that means “laugh out loud”).
Don't worry; no one is spying on you.
You're noticing website personalization — one of the most powerful sales and marketing strategies out there.
And, it's not just for B2C; personalization works for B2B too. Here's what you need to know to put this strategy to work for you.
Note: Do you want leads that convert? Use Leadfeeder's 14-day free trial, and we'll unveil the potential companies hiding in your website data. Set up takes five minutes.
Why should you personalize website content?
The personal website offers users (you guessed it) personalized content based on user behavior and demographics, such as location or past purchases.
For example, you might personalize a data dashboard to display a customer's name when they log in or showcase content related to a recent purchase.
Can website personalization drive actual, measurable results in marketing and sales? Glad you asked.
Research shows that 80 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase when a brand offers a personalized experience.
Further, 89% of online businesses invest in personalization, including massive brands like Sephora, USAA, and Netflix.
Why are all the cool kids (us) focus on personalization? Because the right website personalization strategy can help:
Increase sales
Raise conversion rates
Power lead nurturing
Increase customer loyalty
Better qualified leads
Provide more customer insights
Here's the thing. Personalization isn't just about providing customers with a better experience; it's also about nourishing your sales and marketing team with the data they need to make smarter decisions.
8 ways to personalize your website
So, how do you get started?
Well, when it comes to personalizing your website, there are two main approaches:
Personalize the type of content you recommend to site visitors.
Personalize different elements of your website — for example, show a lead magnet to someone in marketing and another to someone in sales.
Personalized recommended products or services
It's nearly impossible to talk about website personalization without mentioning Amazon. The e-commerce giant jumped on the personalization trend way before it was cool.
Tracking customer's recent searches and previous purchases allow them to provide incredibly detailed product recommendations based on recent purchases and items each shopper views.
SaaS and technology companies can use similar tracking to suggest the right packages or products to customers based on whether they read enterprise content or download a white paper about SMB.
Hero images
Hero images are eye-catching, which is one reason they’re popular in website design. Website personalization increases the power of hero images by showing them based on user behavior.
Rather than showing all visitors the same image, use a website personalization tool to display a relatable image. An insurance company might show a photo with a car for users searching for car insurance or a smiling business owner to users looking for liability insurance.
Hospitality hub offers a generic picture of New York as the featured image for new visitors. But visitors who have expressed interest in traveling to London are shown the London landmark, Big Ben.
Call to actions
CTAs can have a powerful impact on conversions, and even the smallest changes can make a difference.
Consider this — one brand saw a 90 percent increase in conversions by changing their CTA from "Start my free 30-day trial" versus "Start your free 30-day trial."
If changing one word can do that, imagine the impact changing the CTA to match user behavior can have! It could be as simple as changing "marketing" to "sales" in a CTA. Or, you could show off by targeting specific users with personalized offers.
Chewy, an online pet retail store, highlights their Autoshop feature for site visitors who aren't signed in (and are likely new customers or prospects) but doesn't for customers who already use Autoship.
They aren't pushing a feature on customers who already have it while making sure new customers know about one of their most prominent features.
Featured content
Brands like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO already use this strategy to recommend shows you might like based on viewing preferences.
Even the New York Times jumped on the content personalization train by offering viewers content "For You" based on articles users have read in the past.
How does this work for SaaS or B2B?
If you have two audience types, you can customize content based on their job title, position, or even vertical. For example, Leadfeeder targets both sales and marketing teams — we might show marketing people marketing content and suggest sales-related posts to sales reps.
Lead magnets
Here's another example of using website customization to highlight different offers based on previous website behavior.
BizBase offers different lead magnet recommendations based on the user's past behavior. For example, a user who has expressed interest in marketing content would see a lead magnet like this:
While a salesperson sees a CRM optimization lead magnet:
Homepage
Rather than just adjusting content suggestions, you can completely customize your homepage based on a visitor's demographic or user behavior. BizBase completely changes its homepage based on past viewer behavior.
Developers and tech people see this homepage, which uses slightly more technical language:
Users interested in marketing benefits see this homepage that’s focused on growth:
By using two different homepages, BizBaze can appeal to every challenge B2B buyers face.
Landing pages
Landing pages have a notoriously low conversion rate. Even an optimized landing page can expect to convert less than 10 percent of visitors.
That burns.
Personalizing landing pages lets your address specific challenges prospects face and make them feel a little bit more at home.
Two visitors to an airline’s landing page have very different experiences; each sees their personalized version of the landing page.
A returning customer with no recent searches sees this:
While a new site visit who has been searching for flights to Dubai sees a customized landing page for Dubai:
It's a small change that can make a huge difference in conversions.
Case studies and reviews
Case studies and reviews drive sales — no question about it.
However, website personalization helps you show customers the right kind of reviews.
Optimizely offers two versions of the case study section on their home page. Site visitors interested in marketing and growth see case studies that focus on increases in conversions and click-through rates.
Those interested in product growth or viewership see case studies related to viewership and product deployment.
By customizing the highlighted case studies, they can help overcome specific objections users have.
Bottom line? Start using website personalization
It is time to stop using the same tired marketing strategies as the competition. Website personalization helps B2B brands build relationships by showing site visitors the most relevant content and offers every time they visit.
Note: For warm sales leads, try Leadfeeder’s 14-day free trial. Disclaimer: most trial companies end up deciding to subscribe — sample at your own risk. 😆
Jessie works in Content Marketing and Social Media for 6+ years and creates authentic, brand-led content that helps turn target audience into customers.
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