Personalizing eCommerce solutions or SaaS development for better conversions and enhancing the final ultimate value proposition you provide to a customer does have its own prerequisites.
Initially, we need to leverage from the existing data streams available, i.e. Traffic Sources.
Making assumptions or strategizing on the basis of generalized website metrics is not healthy for a retailer. This stems from the fact that all traffic does not have equal standing.
Since some of the incoming traffic to your website holds more value than others, it is imperative to segregate these traffic sources into segments. This is akin to a barkeep or a waitress saying “Shall I bring the usual order?” because you visit them daily.
Similarly, traffic sources that are frequent travelers to your website must be on a priority list. Hence, this compartmentalization of your visitors is the beginning of creating a personalized experience for your users which further leads to better engagement.
Segmenting your Traffic | How to do it?
There are 6 major segmentation to divide your traffic:
New Visitors and Returning Visitors
There are two things here that you need to understand. On the one hand, there are new visitors and returning visitors who do not purchase anything. On the other side of the spectrum, you have returning visitors which become your customers.
Source of Traffic
From where or from which channel your customer is arriving on your web address. It can be anything from email to offers, advertisements, PPC, organic research, and so on.
Location-based Segmentation
Tracking the source from its IP address or geolocation, you can segregate the customers on the bases of region, language, weather conditions, and so on. All these factors can help you devise product-specific strategies for a particular region.
Traffic Behavior
Track the behavior of your traffic and then segregate them on the basis of the activity. Try finding out where the returning visitors are landing and how they are conversing with your platform.
UTM Parameters
Track the 5 UTM parameters; Source, Medium, Term, Content, and Campaign to further segregate your traffic behavior for better understanding.
Devices Used for Access
From the make and model of the device to its operating system, browser used, and the screen size, you can also segment your traffic on these variables.
Creating Personalized experiences and campaigns for Each Segment
It is essential to create dynamic and personalized content for each of these traffic groups if you want to give them a better experience.
Also, it is important to collect relevant data to do a proper analysis in Google Analytics. It helps to improve each iteration of segmentation.
Read on to know how you can run personalized content for all the cohorts given above.
Returning Visitors
As has been stated before, there are two types of returning visitors:
- Customers
- Non-Purchasers
The key is to create personalized experiences for both types of visitors. Starting with, the returning visitors and customers, provide them with a “Last Viewed” option to help rekindle their memory about the previously viewed items.
Secondly, for the returning visitors but non-purchasers, attract them with a discount coupon or a similar offer that will entice them to stay longer and make a purchase.
Source of Traffic
Customers love when they are made to feel like an important part of your organization. It is possible to reciprocate to this feeling by providing them with sending relevant messages which are inspired by information acquired from traffic sources.
It is easy to understand the customer’s intent by knowing the source. You can easily know their intent, interest, and industry which can be leveraged to create motivating and persuading messages that help to map their buyer’s journey position.
Comparing the traffic sourced from Amazon Ads and Facebook Ads, we can strategize how to acquire more traffic from either of the platforms more specifically.
Like a one-time discount coupon or offers like free shipping might be more conducive for the traffic coming from Amazon and might help increase the conversion rate.
Location-Based Segmentation
The location of your traffic can help you provide precise recommendations that resonate with the user’s present-day demands. There are several ways in which you can use Geo-location and IP Tracking to provide personalized recommendations.
Platforms that switch the currency to the visitor’s native location is one of the ways to provide a personalized experience. In another instance, you can also give product recommendations on the basis of the existing conditions at the visitor’s location. For instance, it will be great to provide your users with product recommendations according to the weather (warm clothes, summer collection, spring break collection, and so on). Or according to any other activity that has an effect on the masses.
Traffic Behavior
Identifying customer behavior and responding accordingly can also scoop in more conversions for your brand. A popular wine brand Naked Wines has set a unique homepage for the new visitors and a completely different menu format.
Their prime motive is to incorporate the customer on their platform as a new member before addressing them in the capacity of a customer.
Similarly, several other websites use this basic information to greet the returning visitors with their names.
UTM Parameters
The UTM parameters help divide the traffic on the basis of:
- Referral Sources
- Campaign Name
- Content-Type
For a more targeted campaign, you can use any of these parameters either exclusively or in unison. For better utilization of these UTM parameters and sources, all the CRO platforms are embedded with A/B Testing and Multivariate tests to provide better results.
Devices Used
Mobile device penetration has become both a bane and a boon for marketers. The colossal presence of mobile devices in every market allows marketers to develop highly personalized ad campaigns that are addressed to increase conversions.
On the basis of a mobile device type and its configurations, you can identify the type of ads to run for the viewer. In the wake to drive more conversions, you can use the device’s screen size and curate specific content.
There are several ways to use your mobile and create personalized content for the users browsing the web via their phones.
Custom Product Catalog Pages: One of the key aspects of creating content for mobile phone users by listing relevant products. As per a statistic, the average order value is lower on mobile phones.
This means that on average, the users buy small and everyday items via their mobile phones. On the contrary, if they wish to buy items that are expensive or need more research, the users switch to a computer or go for offline shopping.
Thus, to address the customers on their mobiles, create product catalogs that have lower value items relevant to a customer’s search query. The key is to present the customer what they need to see and nudge them towards making a purchase.
Create a Unified Experience: You cannot control the usage aspects of the user. You can only ensure that their search history, preferences, and wishlist matches on the mobile and the browser.
This is particularly important for returning customers as they have a history of products and have already provided you with the basic details. Prompting the customers to enter their details again on the web browser can discourage them to engage with your platform.
Login Via Other Accounts: Gmail, Facebook, Yahoo, among others, leverage the API connection of these platforms to help your users sign up directly.
This motive is to reduce the friction or time frame from the moment the user visits your web address to the moment they place an order.
[Case Study] Optimize organic search traffic using log files analysis
What are the best CRO tools to ensure effective segmentation?
CRO tools are the bread and butter of an effective marketing strategy as they help you set a concrete road map of attracting, inviting, and converting new leads. A good marketing campaign is developed on the basis of many parameters, but the most important of them all is:
- Website Analytics
- User Feedback or Behavior
The basic motive to effectuate conversion rate optimization is not generating more traffic, rather it is about leverage the most from the existing traffic pool. Your aim must be to convert your existing traffic into recurrent and loyal paying customers.
Having said that, here are some of the best CRO tools that aid and abet in developing conversion-ready campaigns and source effective data from multiple sources.
- Omniconvert: This tool makes it easier to convert and automate the eCommerce experience that is backed by customer surveys and retention metrics.
- Visual Web Optimizer: VWO is touted as a single full-stack A/B Testing platform that assists with testing, getting insights, enhancing engagement, and planning.
- Optimizely: A unique platform that not only helps deliver the personalized campaign creation and management experience coupled with data-specific results.
- Bunting: Bunting is another new age CRO platform that allows conversions and retaining customers.
Dynamic Pricing
Repricing the products on the basis of traffic segments and their response indicators is an area which is still unexplored in this domain. Enterprise-level marketers like Amazon resort to dynamic pricing or alters the prices of the products every 10 minutes.
A couple of more factors that lead to this increase or decrease in the pricing is motivated by the time of the day a user and the competition analysis. Amazon and Staples were once offering different prices to the customers based on their geographical locations and income estimations.
Working on similar lines, online retailers, and other businesses including HomeDepot, Sears, JCPenny’s, Macy’s Orbitz, and others.
Do you want to know something interesting?
Shopping from an iOS and Android-powered mobile device or Mac will invite more prices as compared to shopping from other platforms and devices.
Also, there is a concept called Price Steered. Price steering is another aspect of personalizing user experience and building loyal customer relations. Examples of this price steering are seen with brands like HomeDepot, CheapTickets, and Orbitz.
One example of price steering is when a brand shows different search results sometimes fewer and in other instances more results. Further, the differences arise when they are shown more expensive choices when browsing from a mobile device rather than searching from a computer.
All of this is highly variable and personalized to bring more conversions and sales for a business. Marketers resort to different forms of personalizations depending on their target customers and their specific characteristics.
It all depends on your understanding of the customers…
Developing effective conversion campaigns and setting targeted prices is a highly subjective subject matter. You need to understand the customer’s journey, preferences, location, past shopping history, and how they have conversed with your brand.
It is about getting the gist of your customer and extrapolating their behavior to present them with better options. Deeper and more granular research into all the aspects will help build conversion-oriented campaigns for effective marketing.
Personalization vs Segmentation
Before we bring this discussion to an end, it is important to address another one of the important questions that you might ask. It is about the difference between personalization and segmentation.
Is there a difference between the two? No, both the terms can be used synonymously in this particular aspect, they both lead to the same end and that is delivering better and granular customer experience. Why bother? As specified in one research, a great customer experience (CX) leads to 3.5x more sales and 5x more positive referrals.
Thus, creating personalized customer experience on the basis of a multitude of parameters is essential to achieve marketing success. eCommerce store marketers and tailors need to understand every single customer’s buying journey before engaging with them.
Conclusion
In the end, always remember that marketing is something that can be done by the book. A/B testing and multivariate testing is the holy grail of every marketer, you need to hit the several balls at the wall simultaneously and analyze which comes back with speed and accuracy.
However, if you already know which part of the wall has a better bounce rate or can revert back with better efficiency, you would like to hit that region more, is it not? The same is with segmentation or creating personalized experiences.
If you are aware of the metrics and customer preferences or you can read the indicators that can lead to better engagement, go for it. This will increase your conversion rates along with helping you build a credible and loyal customer base.
