Blog Post
Digital Marketing Blog
Website Personalization Will Be Your Best Marketing Tool In 2017
- By James QUINN
- •
- 01 Dec, 2016
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Create A Unique Website For Every Visitor - Plus Free Download
As the 2016 year comes to a close many of us are dining out. Wether it's because family is in town or you're out shopping or you just want to take advantage of those 1/2 price late-night shakes at Sonic. Let's say you're out to dinner though, it's Wednesday aroudn 6 P.M. You and your friends sit down, the waitress greets you and hands a menu and printed specials page. The menu is the lunch menu and the specials print out is for last weekend's specials. How rude!
This scenario doesn't present itself in real life, or at least it shouldn't. It gives you an idea of how silly it is though, for a website to display untimely information or the wrong information to a user at any given time. This applies to more than just restaurants, it's across any vertical really. Home services, Auto, Medical, so many categories can benefit from website personalization. It doesn't take rocket science to accomplish this, it just takes the right software and the right creativity.
This scenario doesn't present itself in real life, or at least it shouldn't. It gives you an idea of how silly it is though, for a website to display untimely information or the wrong information to a user at any given time. This applies to more than just restaurants, it's across any vertical really. Home services, Auto, Medical, so many categories can benefit from website personalization. It doesn't take rocket science to accomplish this, it just takes the right software and the right creativity.
So what is website personalization?
It's website magic, that's what it is. No really, it is. Magic is really just a bunch of tricks and slight of hands. Website personalization is software
that dynamically changes the content of your website based on a predefined set of triggers, or rules. Let's use our bad larry restaurant. The better restaurant on Wednesday at 6 PM would show: a) the dinner menu when you are greeted and b) specials that are for Wednesday only. This is what website personalization does. It changes the content of your website based on triggers such as time of day, day of the week, how many times a person has visited your site, if they have spent a certain of amount of time on it, etc. The triggers can also be set based on geography or a specific URL they were coming from, like a Google AdWords campaign.
What can website personalization do for my business?
The competitive edge. That's what. The majority of business owners won't adopt website personalization, so the smart ones like you that do embrace it will have a leg up on your competition. Let's say you are an oil company that offers 24 hour service, for example. Instead of someone arriving at your website at 2 A.M. In the morning with no heat and fumbling around your website looking to see if you even offer 24 hour services, let's try something different.
Try this: Let's set up a rule that basically says this: TRIGGER: If someone visits my website between 5 P.M. And 7 A.M. (When the office is closed), do this ACTION: Change the homepage to say: "We offer 24-hour oil delivery. Call our 24-hour emergency line now: 800-555-1212. You'll be cozy and warm again in no time!"
Now, let's say that person visited your site first before the other oil companies they Googled, because well, you have great search engine optimization or they found you from a well written Google AdWords campaign. It's likely you will be the person they call because you are making a very good assumption that they're looking for an emergency oil company and you're telling them you are an emergency provider immediately on your homepage.
Restaurants and Oil companies receive immediate sales and revenue though. What about categories that have a longer buying cycle, for instance a kitchen and bathroom design company. That buying cycle is much longer than just dinner options. It might take 3-6 months from the initial point of contact until they make the final decision. There's a good chance your potential customer has visited your website at least a couple of times. Your static based website though, is showing them the same content every time. They're getting bored!
Try this: On their second visit to your website, display a "Welcome Back" message. Place a contact form right next to that message inviting them to ask any questions they have on their return visit. Or on their second visit and IF they are from a certain town, display a gallery of photos of a recently completed project from the town they are currently in. It reassures them that you a) do great work and b) offer services in their town.
Their are lots of ways to use website personalization, you just have to jump in and try it out. Where can you get This type of software? A select few website CMS's have this built in. Our CMS happens to be one of them. We have a built in personalization tool that allows you to quickly set up your rule and action to follow. We think ours is the best, obviously! If you're not yet using our CMS, I feel bad for you. There are other options though. Companies like HubSpot and AddThis offer their own version of website personalization.
Want to see website personalization in action? Schedule your own personalized demo (no pun intended).
Try this: Let's set up a rule that basically says this: TRIGGER: If someone visits my website between 5 P.M. And 7 A.M. (When the office is closed), do this ACTION: Change the homepage to say: "We offer 24-hour oil delivery. Call our 24-hour emergency line now: 800-555-1212. You'll be cozy and warm again in no time!"
Now, let's say that person visited your site first before the other oil companies they Googled, because well, you have great search engine optimization or they found you from a well written Google AdWords campaign. It's likely you will be the person they call because you are making a very good assumption that they're looking for an emergency oil company and you're telling them you are an emergency provider immediately on your homepage.
Restaurants and Oil companies receive immediate sales and revenue though. What about categories that have a longer buying cycle, for instance a kitchen and bathroom design company. That buying cycle is much longer than just dinner options. It might take 3-6 months from the initial point of contact until they make the final decision. There's a good chance your potential customer has visited your website at least a couple of times. Your static based website though, is showing them the same content every time. They're getting bored!
Try this: On their second visit to your website, display a "Welcome Back" message. Place a contact form right next to that message inviting them to ask any questions they have on their return visit. Or on their second visit and IF they are from a certain town, display a gallery of photos of a recently completed project from the town they are currently in. It reassures them that you a) do great work and b) offer services in their town.
Their are lots of ways to use website personalization, you just have to jump in and try it out. Where can you get This type of software? A select few website CMS's have this built in. Our CMS happens to be one of them. We have a built in personalization tool that allows you to quickly set up your rule and action to follow. We think ours is the best, obviously! If you're not yet using our CMS, I feel bad for you. There are other options though. Companies like HubSpot and AddThis offer their own version of website personalization.
Want to see website personalization in action? Schedule your own personalized demo (no pun intended).
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