BIG BET #2: AUDIENCES
Personalization just got more personal
Consumers are human. And humans have a universal desire to feel valued and unique. Guess what kind of marketing addresses this primal need? Marketing that’s personalized. We know; marketers have been using (and abusing) that word for a while now. But this time, it’s different – we swear.
In the past, personalized marketing hasn’t always lived up to its promise, owing to some formidable constraints: insufficient data, limited access to sophisticated tools, and difficulties in tracking the customer journey. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that GenAI is changing all that. What once qualified as “personalization” (e.g., dropping a recipient’s name in a subject line or recommending a product based on past behavior) will now seem slightly charming or utterly archaic depending on what mood you’re in.
Here is a taste of where AI-powered personalization is headed:
- An email, social post, or blog post personally matched to the writing style and tone that matches a user’s unique communication style.
- Completely intuitive voice and visual search integration where consumers can simply describe or show an object they want to buy, and AI interprets the request accurately.
- Chatbots that not only perfectly interpret customer queries but also detect subtle emotional cues in chat.
- Video interfaces that analyze facial expressions and voice tones during virtual interactions.
Personalization won’t just power Lifecycle and Social content but will bleed into the post-click experience onto the website. As a person navigates across your site, the entire experience dynamically adjusts, providing hyper-personalized product suggestions, language style, imagery, and promotions. Localized and tailored landing pages will become places that grab and maintain audience attention – places users actually want to engage with.
We are also going to see conventional Influencer Marketing get upended by User-Generated Content (UGC) Creators, who will play a critical role in personalizing brand marketing efforts. We predict their creative will usher in a scalable (and affordable) way of developing authentic, believable, cost-effective content that speaks to all levels of the sales funnel in a personal way by showcasing products through the lens of a wider variety of consumers. Brands will hire these creators to produce quick-hit videos featuring specified products, investing their own media dollars to promote the content via Paid Social. Additionally, from what we're seeing, UGC and reviews are increasingly impacting Search rankings (see Bet #5), owing to their perceived authenticity.
And as privacy prevails and the cookie goes away, we know that humans are willing to hand over personal data if it means the way you market to them becomes more human. The emphasis on transparency and user consent will become a standard in personalized marketing practices.
“TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are the primary channels where brands and UGC Creators are finding success. Investing media dollars behind the UGC content is critical as it allows for scale, targeting, and mass reach.”
Kelsey Abell
Vice President, Influencer Marketing, Tinuiti
OK, SO NOW WHAT?
- Brands should view UGC Creators as extensions of their team. Start small. Identify two to three creators to develop and test content in paid media efforts. Determine what content is working, what needs tweaking, and continue the cycle. Over time, you can add more creators to help add diverse, authentic, and personalized voices to the mix.
- The time of thinking about AI and first-party data separately is over. 2024 will be about getting closer to striking a healthy balance between the two that honors humans as customers while also leveraging tech to create tailored messaging.
- Brands should start thinking of an ad and the landing page it leads to as a single consumer journey. Run experiments that include both facets, testing content, interactive quizzes, and other unique experiences to personalize the value of the product based on the individual consumer.