According to a report published by Forbes, hyper-personalization has become one of the major trends in today’s digital marketing. This approach, predated by the tech developments of the previous years, is getting new incitement thanks to AI technology. The survey cited by Forbes demonstrates that 62% of consumers will not remain loyal to a brand after a non-personalized encounter, highlighting the growing importance of the personalized approach. On the contrary, according to a McKinsey report, 78% stated that personalized content makes them more likely to repurchase.
Naturally, digital marketing experts are constantly working on new solutions to answer the growing demand for marketing and content personalization. One of these experts is Andrii Holubenko, who developed innovative tools for audience tracking and audience overlap analysis in digital campaigns. “Understanding the wants and needs of your audience was always at the core of digital marketing campaigns,” he states, “but at the current moment, this aspect plays an even bigger role thanks to the instruments that allow companies to analyze them more precisely.”
Breathing New Life into Old Methods
One of the innovations a hyper-personal approach brings to the table is the new life of marketing methods, which may seem outdated. A good example is email marketing. Most customers are used to discarding the advertising emails they get without even opening them, and they do not expect to find any information that is useful personally to them. However, the situation may change if the message resonates better with a particular audience segment, offering exactly what is beneficial for them.
“In the highly competitive field which is digital marketing today, every opportunity to win customer’s attention cannot be missed,” – reminds Andrii Holubenko, “consequently, each step towards a more personalized approach allows you to send the right message to the right segment of the audience, making the entire campaign more effective.” He put this idea into practice multiple times while working as a Digital Media Director at Optimum Media OMD Group Ukraine and taking part in successfully launching products by global companies in the Ukrainian market. He states that understanding the specifics of the local market as a whole and its more granular segments is a major factor in bringing products to a new market.
The Role of the Technological Advancements
While the concept of personalization is not new to the world of the digital market, recent technological advancements bring it to a new level, totally justifying using a “hyper” prefix in this case. They allow companies to gather and analyze massive amounts of data to better understand and predict customers’ behavior, finding out what marketing strategies are more effective and creating personalized messages tailored to the audience’s demands.
“Although practical applications of AI tools are still in their early stages,” adds Andrii Holubenko, “few will doubt that their significance will grow both in analyzing strategies and generating new content.” Currently, AI content is often easily recognizable by users and may cause the same negative response as other, non-personalized advertising messages. However, with the content becoming more human-like, the situations will change and evolve. In the coming years, marketing strategists will need to account for the possibility of creating content that precisely targets smaller audience segments.
The Demand for a New Skillset
Naturally, applications of the hyper-personalization approach are not limited to creating advertising content. Another example of this approach is recommendation engines, such as those currently used by streaming services, to create highly personalized experiences catered to each customer. “In time, hyper-personalization may diffuse into multiple aspects of digital marketing and customer interactions,” concludes Andrii, “However, this in turn, creates new challenges for those working in the field, developing strategies and determining the focus of the campaign.”
He adds that as the new approach proliferates, the demand for the corresponding tools will also rise. An example is programmatic ads, which make it possible to focus on a narrow and specified target. Andrii Holubenko implemented these ideas in practice, taking part in the development of the Fusify.io programmatic platform. Soon, one is to expect the role of such tools to rise and the businesses that wield them to gain a significant competitive advantage.
Along with opening new business opportunities, hyper-personalization brings new challenges. To use this effectively as an integral part of a marketing strategy, one will need to command both necessary technical knowledge and a grasp of actual marketing trends. Implementing data analytics and AI tools in the business process remains technologically demanding, albeit the cost steadily drops. Moreover, the hyper-personalized approach raises new questions regarding data protection, as the business may need to find a complicated balance, creating a targeted experience for the customer without the latter finding it intrusive.
“Despite these challenges, it will remain one of the major digital marketing trends in the coming years,” concludes Andrii Holubenko, “To remain competitive, the businesses, whatever market they operate at, need to start developing new strategies in advance.” When implemented correctly, the hyper-personalization approach promises beneficial outcomes for businesses and customers who are informed about products better suited to their needs.