Personalization in Lead Generation: 7 Strategies for Quality Leads

Personalization in Lead Generation: 7 Strategies for Quality Leads

In the increasingly sales-driven world we live in, everyone is trying to sell you something.

From online blog banner-style ads and YouTube commercials to telemarketers (yes, they do still exist and are more aggressive than ever), the world of ecommerce is booming. 

In this high-competition landscape, a salesperson who knows what you like has a clear advantage over their colleagues. 

When it comes to lead generation, simply having a gut feeling about what a potential buyer might like is not enough. Nowadays, companies will routinely spend millions of dollars developing and pursuing high-quality marketing strategies. 

In virtually all of these strategies, personalization plays a major part, as no one is simply satisfied with being presented with a potentially cool product they can buy. In fact, a bit over 70% of consumers see personalization as a basic expectation. 

A product or service that suits your unique interests and can immediately improve your unique life, however, is a different story. 

In this article, we’re going to talk about how personalization can lead to lead generation. As you will see, taking your time to truly get to know the interests and tendencies of your target audience tends to pay off big time down the road. 

Without further ado, let’s take a look. 

Human psyche: Why does content personalization work for generating quality leads? 

The reason why personalization plays such a significant role in lead generation is fairly simple—we are attracted to what we like. As a matter of fact, 71% of consumers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal.  

Personalization in sales seeks to tailor the products and services on offer so that they appeal to every individual’s interests, rather than simply presenting them with whatever wares you have on you at the moment and hoping for the best. 

Also, the fact alone that a user receives a personalized roster of products means that you as a seller are willing to take time out of your day to figure out what that person likes. This increases trust and the willingness to buy from you in the future. 

Personalization in lead generation will also help you attract and retain the sort of leads that will stick with your brand in the future, too. 

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator 

The benefits of content personalization in lead generation 

Taking time to learn more about your customers so you can give them what they need, when they need it, and for a reasonable price has a number of benefits when it comes to lead generation. Here are some of the most important ones: 

-Better user experience: In order to ensure your potential buyers will have a great user experience with the landing page, checkout process, shipping, and other parts of completing a sale, you have to put yourself in their shoes. By going through the entire purchasing process, you can see any potential errors and fix them in a timely fashion, so that when your ecommerce store goes live, for example, users will have a seamless and smooth buying experience. 

-Increased number of conversions: As you attract more customers with highly personalized content, the number of conversions goes up, as 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that personalize offers and recommendations. The important thing to remember here is that this is a process rather than a one-time growth spurt. Having patience and grit to push through with your personalization marketing strategy will, in time, give you the desired results in terms of attracting and retaining customers. 

-Better understanding of users: Before you can provide an excellent user experience for your customers, you need to gain an understanding of the customers themselves. Other than gaining insight into what your potential buyers want, learning about your customers can help you organize marketing strategies that will make them stick around. 

For example, if you know that your customers are buying your products because they hope to get rid of cellulite, doing some homework on cellulite and then sending them customized messages about how they can take care of it, will let them know you’re on the same page. 

-Increased customer loyalty: Customers who are well-treated are more likely to stick around in the long run. Unless you plan to sell off all of your assets and move to Alaska to live in a log cabin, ensuring you’re attracting long-term customers is of great importance for your business. 

-Effective targeting: Personalized content takes time to research and create, but once you have it, it allows you to target your preferred audience with pinpoint precision and get some pretty good results right off the bat. 

Photo by Silvan Arnet on Unsplash

Two types of customer content personalization: Pull-based vs. push-based 

The tug-of-war in sales—and the strenuous, ever-expanding and contracting forces of the market—demand a flexible marketing strategy.

This is where two forces of lead acquisition come in: push and pull customer content personalization.

Let's explain both of these phenomena in a bit more detail.

What is push-based marketing & examples 

As the phrase itself suggests, push marketing sends a sales force out to a target audience, so to speak. The point of this shockwave is to bring content to the customer and entice or “push” them to buy something.

Examples would include target emailing, TV, radio, or podcast ads, as well as real-life product placements.

What is pull-based marketing & examples

Pull-based marketing targets potential customers in more of a passive way. Rather than actively seeking to sell something to a customer by pushing your sales pitch on them, you seek to attract them by proclaiming to have a solution for their problem. 

Alternatively, you can achieve the same effect by simply placing yourself in the right place at the right time.

Examples of pull-based marketing include SEO, social media marketing, and cross-promotion.

Which types work best for generating leads? 

For generating leads, a mixture of push and pull approaches is necessary.

Markets are way too demanding for a simple marketing strategy, so a more complex approach may be needed.

Content personalization techniques: How to add personalization to your lead generation strategy 

1. Use statistics: Some number-crunching is always a good idea when it comes to managing and increasing your online audience of buyers. Sometimes, using a highly customized digitized tool can be a great way to save yourself and your team a lot of labor. Lead generation marketing tools come in all shapes and sizes nowadays and finding one that suits your needs will be a piece of cake. 

You might encounter a slight problem in having too many choices—but other than that, you will no doubt be able to find something that will help you make your business more efficient. 

2. Create buyer personas: One of the best ways you can do this is content localization. If you are—or are bound to become—an international enterprise, what you can do is introduce marketing localization so that the content you’re making is better suited for the local audience. 

3. Divide your target audience: Being the jack of all trades and master of none is never a winning strategy when it comes to attracting customers. For best results, dividing your target audience into sections according to their interests, preferences, and affinities informed by lead intent data is essential. You will be able to concentrate on giving groups with varying interests exactly what they want, when they need it the most.

Whether it's purchasing power, gender, age, or some other parameter, making precisely personalized content for the members of your audience will help you detect where most of your revenue is coming from. In turn, it will give your customers excellently tailored content and a unique user experience. An all-around win-win.

4. Personalize your content: Writing a blog can be a fantastic way to engage with your audience without appearing too salesy or aggressive. Blogs represent the perfect platform for solving problems, answering questions, and even teaching your potential buyers about the new features or products you have in store for them. (This can be a how-to article about capturing great footage with your new model of mini-camera, for example.) 

That said, the fact that blogs don’t directly involve aggressive sales pitches, doesn’t mean that your blog potential should go unused. The traffic you generate via your blog can become the basis for your new audience of buyers. 

5. Leverage technology: We touched on this idea above but it’s more than worth revisiting in more detail. Namely, using high-tech tools to improve your content SEO status, incorporating AI to help with chatbots, leveraging learning management systems to educate your audience, and other tools for making unique, personalized content, can take a world of stress off your shoulders. Also, your team members will be thankful for relieving them of having to do boring and repetitive tasks that can be completed more easily through automation.

Photo by cottonbro studio

6. Personalize your sales approach: The way you pitch your product or service matters a great deal when it comes to how well it will be received. If you've ever seen the show Shark Tank (or its British equivalent, Dragon's Den), you know that a powerful sales pitch can mean the difference between securing a client and downright losing one. Whether it's the opening sentence, the way you carry yourself, or the type of message you're sending, you can rest assured that your prospective lead will take notice. Even small touches, like SMS personalization to address specific needs or interests, can make a significant impact. And there’s only one opportunity to make the first impression. To make the best of it, be sure to understand your audience, what they want and what they need.

7. Personalize marketing messages: Marketing messages represent a major part of sales that can make or break a marketing campaign. If you can put together a major marketing endeavor by sending out personalized messages, you can rest assured the recipients will be more likely to answer. 

Just imagine email marketing from the customer's perspective. You get bombarded with all kinds of monotonous, boring, and at times obviously spam messages all day, every day. When a well-thought-out message comes your way, opening and reading it feels like you’re being intentionally, mindfully addressed by a friend. 

One way to make sure you understand your audience well enough to send them personalized messages is using customer experience management tools. They provide various methods of connecting and communicating with your customers for the purpose of getting to know them better. 

Conclusion 

All in all, when it comes to attracting new potential customers to your business, there's no better way to establish deep communication and understanding than via personalized content.

Whether it's emails, ads, or using advanced AI tools to optimize your content, you can be sure that personalization is a major contributor that leads to plenty of new leads and conversions if you're patient with your marketing strategy. 

So, what are you waiting for? See how LeadGen can give you the confidence and tools you need to boost your audience and capture high-quality leads.