![\"Feature](\"https:\/\/static.wingify.com\/gcp\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/04\/Feature-image_How-Data-Can-Drive-Increased-Personalization.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPersonalization isn’t just about sending out random discounts or automated birthday greetings. It’s about understanding the customer, their preferences, and behavior across different touchpoints and delivering a tailored experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where visitor or customer data lays the foundation of kickass personalized campaigns. If brands don’t collect and bring together customer data, they’ll be light years away from acing their personalization game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this blog, I discuss why and how you can use data to get personalization right so you connect with your audiences and improve their experiences with your brand. Let\u2019s begin then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Data Should You Track?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Long gone are those days when businesses could rely on just identification data to create basic-level personalized content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, you need to track everything a customer does across their buying journey starting from awareness to purchase and even post-purchase. So, here are the types of user data you need to collect to deliver personalized experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Identification Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This type of data provides basic demographic information about a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Name<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Location<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Contact<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Age<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Job title<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
2. Descriptional Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This data centers around where users work, their habits, and their lifestyles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- In which company do they work?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What is the size of the company?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What\u2019s the salary they get?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Lifestyle, habits, and hobbies of visitors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
3. Contextual Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Contextual data shows a visitor\u2019s unique properties and gives context to their session on your website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Are they using a desktop, mobile, or tablet?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What is the location of the device?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Which browser do they use?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What day of the week did they last purchase?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What time of the day do they purchase?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
4. Behavioral Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Behavioral data<\/a> tells a great deal about a user\u2019s interactions with your brand. Such data will answer questions like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- How many times has a user purchased from your website?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Has any user brought the same product twice?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What products do a user search for the most on your website?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Has the user clicked on any upsell offers<\/a>?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How many times does a user interact with a live chat?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How many times a user has opened the monthly newsletter email?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
When you combine the power of all types of data, you unlock the real magic of personalization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n ![\"Banner\"](\"https:\/\/static.wingify.com\/gcp\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/04\/image-11-2.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow Can You Track & Use Data For Personalization?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Collecting data from multiple customer touchpoints is challenging already. Using this data in the proper context is even more difficult. Wondering who can make the job easy for you? The answer is simple – a Customer Data Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to strike a chord with your customers through your personalization efforts, then a CDP is going to be your true friend and guide. Here are some reasons why CDPs are a must-have for modern businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n ![\"What](\"https:\/\/static.wingify.com\/gcp\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/04\/What-is-Customer-Data-Platform.png\")
<\/figure>\nImage source: insideBIGDATA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n 1. Collect & Unify Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Collecting and bringing together all the data is step one in the personalization game. From what your users are searching for on your website to how they’re interacting with your email campaigns, to even if they clicked on your targeted ads or checked out a product demo in-store, your CDP can scoop up data from everywhere. Whether you want to keep tabs on what your visitors are up to, track their behavior, or see how they react to different things, your CDP brings it all together from a ton of sources (like DMPs, CRMs, ABMs, browsers, and so on). Then it unites them all together in its database so you can use them to send out personalized campaigns across channels through any third-party platforms<\/a> you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Single Customer View <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
With the data all consolidated and brought together, the CDP can now create a Single Customer View (SCV) where you can find everything related to a visitor in a single profile page – properties, attributes, segments, and experiments they are part of. This view hosts real-time and accurate data on each visitor that allows you to tailor your marketing efforts to deliver the right message at the right time to each individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okay, let’s think back to my experience with the luxury skincare brand that sent generic emails. If they had a super smart single customer view with all that extra data, they could’ve easily sent me tailored offers or content based on my preferences or concerns. Not taking advantage of all that data to connect with customers at the right time is a big loss, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further, having a centralized view ensures that all individuals within your organization know where to access customer data. This streamlines the process and eliminates the need to spend time searching for and verifying data, thereby increasing its usefulness and value for your company as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n ![\"Vwo](\"https:\/\/static.wingify.com\/gcp\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/04\/VWO-Data-360.png\")
<\/figure>\nSingle customer view on VWO Data360<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n 3. Segmentation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Okay, now that SCVs are ready, it\u2019s time to figure out who your key website visitors are so you can better cater to their needs. Segmentation is a surefire way to do that<\/a>. Let me give you an example to help you understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So you’re the owner of an online shoe store and you’re curious to see how well your new orthopedic shoes are doing in Canada. Based on the data drawn from SCVs, you group customers aged between 40-55 sharing a common interest in this type of shoes in a single cohort. Within this, you further see that most of them are women. All you want to know now is where they’re finding out about your product, and it turns out they’re coming from organic search results. Now that you\u2019ve narrowed it down to a very specific segment, you can start an ad campaign aimed at these customers who looked for these shoes but didn’t buy anything yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is how a CDP allows you to unlock the power of data, fine-tune your customer segmentation, and launch targeted campaigns for maximum conversion. Also, this is just one way to use customer data for personalization. You can also use it to make all sorts of personalized campaigns, like email, website content, and push notifications<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listen to this interesting conversation we had with Joost Kuijlaars and Bas Cuperus about leveraging data from CDP for your personalization strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n