10 steps for a successful personalized web engagement strategy marketo

10 Steps For a Successful Personalized Web Engagement Strategy Personalization allows you to use specific information about buyers to make their online experience more relevant It offers companies an.

10 Steps For a Successful Personalized

Web Engagement Strategy

Personalization allows you to use specific information about buyers to make their online experience more relevant It offers companies

an opportunity to target customers more effectively As consumers research online independently before making buying decisions, businesses must create marketing strategies

to increase engagement with these potential buyers throughout the buying process

Creating a more relevant and personalized experience across the web helps catch the eye

of decision-makers and keeps them engaged with your brand Real-time Personalization (RTP) drives one-to-one conversations with prospects, developing trust over time, through

a combination of different tactics spanning the web—from targeted ads, to mobile, to personalized web content

The more relevant the digital experience is, the more effective it is in leading website visitors to

a conversion According to Marketo’s research, customizing mobile and web experiences can

lead to a 30% increase in conversion rates and

up to a 270% increase in content consumption According to Marketing Sherpa, 82% of

prospects find content made for their specific industries more valuable, and 67% also value content created for their specific positions

RTP applications in your marketing automation platform provide targeted content based on individual visitors’ behaviors and demographics This allows you to adjust images, calls-to-action, content, and more based on unique buyer attributes

Personalization enables you to market more strategically and add value for customers

This ebook guides you through the 10 steps you should take in order to implement your RTP campaigns now, so that you can begin targeting individual visitors and moving them down your sales funnel to become customers.

Real-time personalization (RTP) is a web engagement method used

by both B2B and B2C companies to create meaningful, real-time interactions with targeted individuals through dynamically generated, personalized communication across email, web, ads, and mobile

Introduction

According to Marketo’s

research, customizing

mobile and web experiences

can lead to a 30% increase

in conversion rates and

up to a 270% increase in

content consumption

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Who will you personalize for? The who is your target audience, which may differ slightly depending on your customers

B2B companies will focus on firmographics like company name, vertical, and overall revenue The company’s position in the customer decision journey, or buyer’s cycle, will also play a role

B2C companies will look at a customer’s geographical location, interest in products, price sensitivity, and purchase history

WHAT

What will you personalize? The possibilities are nearly endless Try a combination of calls-to-action, images, product offers, and content, which can include case studies, blog posts, ebooks, videos, and more Marketers can personalize all of these assets based on the audiences they are targeting

WHERE

Finally, where can you personalize? You can personalize your own website, email, and online ads, as well as various features on mobile And you can even personalize offline!

Let’s first take a step back What is personalization and how can you use it? Personalization applies to all aspects of the buyer journey To simplify things a bit, we like to explain personalization using our framework of the 3 W’s: Who, What, and Where

Take A Brief Primer:

The 3 W’s of Personalization

1

STEP

3

STEP

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

By employing an ABM strategy, you can target

and personalize for specific companies or

industries with the assistance of your RTP

platform For instance, you could focus on

one of the large target accounts you are

trying to go after Or you could target based

on an industry that you are trying to market

into, such as financial services

Persona-Based Marketing

Similar to ABM, marketers using a

persona-based approach to their marketing use their

RTP tools to target specific buyer personas

For instance, they could focus on Chief

Financial Officers and highlight content

created specifically for this job title

Location-Based Marketing

You could target your buyers based on location Say you are holding events in various regions throughout the country Why not create specialized campaigns to tell those buyers about your local events?

Behavior-Based Marketing

You can also target buyers based on behaviors and lead profile data such as score, product interest, and buying stage If someone downloaded several ebooks on a particular topic, why not provide him more content that fits with his interests?

There are many use cases for real-time personalization, but the key

is to start out simple and choose two or three different use cases to

implement By use cases we mean different examples of how RTP can

work for your organization

Choose Two Use Cases

B2B

Begin by asking yourself what you want to achieve by using RTP For example, do you want to

promote a product line for a specific region, or are you looking to gain new customers in a specific

vertical? Identify a few goals and align your RTP use cases to those goals

Here are some examples of how B2B and B2C companies might use RTP:

IMPLEMENTING ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING (ABM)

ABM is a strategic approach to lead generation in which your time and resources target a key group of specific accounts in a given industry.

To begin your ABM campaign, identify the accounts you wish to target You can accomplish this by reviewing your CRM or marketing automation history Or, talk with sales

to identify key high-yield accounts

You can then personalize content and calls-to-actions for your top

“sales whale” accounts!

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B2C

Location

Target consumers by geographical location

A clothing brand could choose to highlight

its swimwear for users visiting from hotter

climates, like Florida You can also personalize

based on shipping terms and pricing

Demographics

Use demographics to target customers with RTP

For instance, clothing stores can increase the

relevance of customer experiences by showing

women’s clothing when a woman visits the site,

or men’s clothing when a man visits

Behavior

If a consumer has visited your website

previously and reviewed or purchased specific

products, suggest similar products or content

the next time he lands on your home page

You can also target based on price sensitivity

and highlight more cost-effective items

Buyer Persona and History

In many cases, the buyer visiting your site has

had previous interactions with your brand and is

known to you The information you already have

on a specific buyer, such as previous purchases

or interests and profile or customer type, can be

used to further customize and optimize her buying

experience with more relevant offers For instance,

a customer that has shown previous interests in a

golf vacation will be presented with content and

offers on your latest golf package, or a customer

that bought a specific car model can be offered a

relevant upgrade or additional equipment to add

The key here is to start small and think big! You don’t need to start out by choosing 10 different use cases

Instead, choose two that are either easier for you to create or have more impact on your business

Then, get moving!

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Once you have chosen two or three use cases, go deeper by outlining the specifics of the strategy For example, if you choose account-based marketing, determine which companies you want to focus on

Similarly, if you decide to personalize by location, consider which regions make sense for your business

Go for Easy Wins

Target regions where your company already performs well and try to increase business

in these areas

Strategic Targeting

Pinpoint regions where you hope to expand your business

Leverage Existing Content

Start with audiences for which you already have good content and offers

Consider Local Events

Do you have a conference coming up in the Northeast? Use RTP to target visitors from this region and advertise the event more effectively

Take Your Use Cases One Step Further

3

STEP

Here are some ideas:

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4 STEP

ESTABLISH ANALYTICS

By setting up analytics immediately, you can see

where your campaigns are now and where they

will be in the future It will also help validate

the audience choices you made by showing

you just how many prospects/buyers actually

exist in each segment It’s important to set your

measurements up quickly so you can establish

baseline metrics and begin testing Some RTP

platforms, like Marketo’s, integrate with Google

Analytics to allow you to see how specific

segments interact with your website Combine

Google Analytics and marketing automation

to obtain a full-funnel tracking experience

CREATE SEGMENTS

Once you set up analytics, take note of how your chosen groups currently perform This information helps you further segment your markets for more effective nurturing, which refers to the process of using strategic messaging and content to guide buyers toward conversion over time Here is some

of the information you might need:

Number of Visitors

How many visitors from each segment and verticals visit the site today? Be sure to benchmark before and after you begin RTP

Demographics and Behavior

Which types of people come into the system?

What do they do once they arrive on your site?

Is there specific content they consume?

Engagement

Which audiences are and aren’t engaging with you at the moment?

After you’ve given more thought to your use cases, it’s time to start

putting a basic strategy together The next step is to set up metrics

and segment your use cases so you can create a benchmark before

you actually start your RTP campaigns

Segment and Gather Initial Analytics

Once you set up analytics,

take note of how your chosen

groups currently perform.

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5 A successful RTP campaign requires content To create a fully

personalized experience, include customized calls-to-action for each segment that lead to more personalized content For instance,

a CTA to download an ebook should be personalized based on the site visitor, and the ebook itself should be consistent with the CTA

It may sound daunting to create the amount of customized content needed to implement RTP, but there are strategies you can employ to do more with less To make your existing content

go further, you can re-create sections to make them more relevant to specific industries or demographics The fact is that most of the content you need for personalization already exists! Think about all of those ebooks, case

studies, and testimonials you have Can you use those for different segments? Can you change

a few minor details in order to be relevant?

Employing a content recommendation engine helps you to provide a seamless, relevant experience while at the same time allowing you to more effectively use the content you already have

Leverage Existing Content

To make your existing content go further, you can re-create sections to make them more relevant to specific industries

or demographics

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Marketo’s content discovery and

recommendation engine (CRE) combines

the speed of real-time targeting and

personalization with the insights of

machine learning and predictive analytics

It is designed to identify visitor profile and

behavior patterns and automatically

discover and recommend the most

appropriate content for each interaction

The content discovery engine automatically

identifies all of the content assets on your

site—blogs, videos, case studies, ebooks and

more—eliminating the need for a manual

inventory project This engine shows you all

the “ammunition” you have, including the

consumption performance of each content

piece The second part of the CRE leverages

machine learning to recommend the right

content, to the right visitor, at the right time

Essentially, the platform discovers and maps

your content assets, learns which content works

best for specific users, and uses this information

to recommend the most relevant content to

visitors and leads This tool supports your RTP campaigns by providing valuable content in real-time to drive prospects down the sales funnel You will still run your specific, targeted campaigns, but the CRE will also be running in the background to supplement with additional content in order to increase consumption

Think about it this way: while a CMO at

a financial services company might be underwhelmed by a general marketing whitepaper, she might be more likely to take

a look at a marketing whitepaper written with her industry in mind The CRE system also takes previous behavior into account to deliver new results with each new visit, slowly drawing the lead down the sales funnel So

in this example, after the CMO downloads a whitepaper, she may be presented with a new content asset, such as a different targeted whitepaper or webinar Content suggestions allow you to dramatically increase the value

of RTP with little effort

PREDICTIVE CONTENT

RECOMMENDATION ENGINE

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REPURPOSE CONTENT

To maximize the potential of your personalized

campaigns, you may have to create new

content, but you may also be able to

repurpose some of the assets you already

have Take a look at the relevant content

you’ve already developed and see if you can

revise the following to make it targeted to

your specific groups:

Titles

Revise titles as necessary to better match

your target readers

CTAs

Edit the call-to-action to reflect the

targeted segment

Statistics and Copy

Look for industry-specific studies or other

data unique to each segment

Maximize Content

Slice and dice the content you have into

smaller assets, like cheat sheets, short

ebooks, or even blog posts

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The goal of RTP is to drive buyers down the sales funnel using

personalized content and website experiences To accomplish this

effectively, outline which content you will deliver during each stage

of the customer journey

Use Customer Journey Maps

CAMPAIGN PROGRAM MATRIX

EXAMPLE: VERTICAL CUSTOMER JOURNEY: COMPANY X

Segment / Asset

Type Awareness Interest Evaluation Commitment

Fortune 500

Companies

State of the Modern Meeting

Infographic

Facebook

Case Study

How Company X Helps You

Live Demo

Company X Advanced Solutions

User Group

Educational

Industry

Learning with Company X

Use Case

Wharton University

Testimonial

Cloud-based Video Conferencing

Whitepaper

Company X User Summit

Event / Conference

Named Account

Lists

Company X Demo Center

Overview Video

Wharton Connects Students

Videocast

Company X Mandate and Promise

Advanced Services

Join Our Top Executives

Networking Meeting

6

STEP

Map out each customer journey

If you are a B2B marketer, create a graph that looks like this:

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