Introduction

I read a comment on LinkedIn the other day. 

It said, “Personalization and being personal are not the same thing.” 

That stuck with me. And I’ve been thinking about it ever since. 

Here’s what I believe it means.

Personalization is about the tools and technologies that allow you to make messages feel more personal. 

But being personal is about relating to your customers on a one-to-one, human level. Communicating with them in a way that aligns with their wants and needs. It warrants that you understand more about them before you begin interacting. 

Being personal (and thus, personalization) is incredibly important in today’s marketing world – including those in the heavy equipment space.

Let’s jump into how you can improve your outreach effort, and lean into personalization, to generate better results.

It’s Time You Better Understand Your Customers

The thing about personalization is that we experience it every day as consumers. 

We sign into Netflix and see recommended titles based on what we’ve previously watched. On Amazon, we’re presented with accessories for past purchases. 

Why should B2B be any different? 

You must start first with building out buyer personas.

These profiles not only help you establish your ideal customers but also dive deep into their buying habits. 

How often do they buy? How many brands do they consider? Where do they source information ahead of, during, and after purchase? Include demographics and psychographics (what they are like) but focus heavily on their pain points and buying decisions (what motivates them to do business with you) for a more comprehensive view. 

By building out your personas – through the help of data and analytics, team discussions, and customer interviews – you can better understand your customers, and the details will help you get more personal when building out marketing campaigns. 

Why Is It Important To Get Personal?

Thankfully, the answer to this question is straightforward. It’s because it pays dividends. 

Here are some stats worth mentioning: 

• From an Accenture study, 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations relevant to them.
• SmarterHQ references that 72% of consumers say they will only engage with personalized messaging.
• From Epsilon, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences. 
• And Salesforce produced a recent report that stated 97% of marketers had seen a measurable lift in their business outcomes as a result of personalization efforts.

The advent of the internet (and the massive improvements around data collection and data management) has made it so marketers can be much more targeted than ever before.

And buyers have gotten spoiled.

There are so many ads and so much content they see each day, that they want those messages to be as relevant (and as personal!) as possible. 

Catering to that expectation helps your company save dollars (you’re only paying for content/delivery to relevant buyers) while also improving the likelihood that they will choose to do business with you.

5 Tools That Can Help You Personalize

Your messages need to be personal. They need to speak directly to each buyer group and focus on how their problem can be solved using your product or service.

Buyers need to feel like the message is intended for them. And only them.

That’s where personalization comes into play. With the help of technology, we can do this at scale while being mindful of our team’s resources and bandwidth.

Here are 5 tools that can help you add personalization to your marketing efforts with some tips on how to best use them.

Email

Email personalization is probably the one most business folks are familiar with. 

Most email marketing software – like ActiveCampaign –  can add personalization. But it’s essential to get creative. Look beyond the {Hello First Name} switch-out and really think through how that email can be more tailored to the customer. 

What about a custom subject line? A different banner image or gif? Is the body text or offer geared toward a specific challenge or frustration he/she is likely experiencing?

Make sure you have as much customer information in your database as possible, and you’re liberally using lists and tags. By grouping customers based on buyer type, you can conditionally format your campaigns with messages most targeted to them. 

Direct Mail 

One of the most fascinating improvements that we’ve seen in recent years is the marriage between online data and physical direct mail. 

It’s a match made in heaven, and the offspring? Personalized physical experiences. 

Special software – like Alyce – can understand a person’s online behavior (captured via CRM) and immediately trigger the send of a physical good that’s mailed directly to the prospect. 

It can be a “handwritten” note, a gift card to their favorite restaurant, or a free t-shirt. Try to select items with personalization that make it as meaningful as possible for the receiver.

By properly setting up rules and triggers , direct mail and digital gifting can make a far more significant impact than standard, blanketed, bulk mail.

Website 

The days of static websites are long gone. A tool like Webeo can help you optimize your web pages so they feature different content based on the user.

To recognize who that visitor might be, it looks at the user’s IP and cross-references it against its massive database. In understanding that buyer’s location, industry, company size, company name, etc., you could create personalized web experiences where the content focuses specifically on that user’s needs. 

Consider how your messages may look different among an agriculture customer versus a municipality. Or to a buyer in Raleigh vs a buyer in Las Vegas? 

To go even further, by looking at that buyer’s past buying history or recent intent data from their behavior on the web, you can capitalize on timeliness by offering incentives that can spur an action right there and then. 

There are a number of areas you can personalize:

• Banner image
• Links
• Call to actions button(s)
• Copy
• Recommended services or products
• Offer or incentive
• Featured case studies
• Featured client logos or “companies we work with” 
• Salesperson or rep’s contact info
• All of the above

To think that every buyer has the same needs is not only ignorant, but costly. 

More businesses than not try to force all users down the same navigational path with the same content and the same offers – knowing darn well that their needs differ. 

It’s always best to customize web pages when possible. 

Videos

Videos can be an extremely powerful ace up your team’s sleeve if done right. 

Hubspot noted earlier this year that 86% of video marketers say video has been effective for them in generating leads, up 2% from 2021 and up 5% since 2019. 

A tool like Vidyard helps you create buyer-specific videos without having to be an After Effects wizard or an expert in post-production. 

You can create personalized videos at scale using placeholder tokens (like name, title, company, etc.) or record one-off videos specifically meant for the receiver. 

They can be sent via email or LinkedIn direct message. 

The beauty here is that – though we already know video is much more engaging than plain text – personalization makes it that much more compelling and worthwhile to view.

Ads

This last one is less of a tool and more of a setting. 

In each of your advertising platforms – Google, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc – you have the ability to set up custom audiences and choose your targeting. 

One of the most common errors I see from businesses whose accounts we take over is far too lenient or too loose of targeting. Having wide, generic audiences leads to unqualified clicks and wasted ad spend. The further you target, the most likely you’ll have your ads presented to the correct type of buyers. 

Don’t stop there. 

Ensure your ad copy and ad designs are tailored specifically to those audiences. That means you’ll want to build as many ad groups or ad sets as needed in order to reach each of your important audiences. From there, you’ll want unique ads that cater to each of those audiences and speak directly to their needs. 

Summary

Global management consultant McKinsey & Company noted that personalization could deliver 5x to 8x the ROI on marketing spend, and can lift sales by 10% or more. 

It’s a worthwhile investment for any business – including equipment dealers both large and small. Every buyer is unique. From parts to service to new to used. To where they are located and the project they are working on. To the terms they may be interested in. 

Gather your data. Build your buyer personas. Then develop your messages for each based on the material, content, and offer that will resonate best.

By investing and using tools that allow you to personalize – and by being more personal with your campaigns – you’ll be able to better meet your buyer’s demands and expectations!