Personalisation for Small Brands: Challenges, Examples & Tips

In a world where consumers are flooded with information and products, personalisation is becoming increasingly important. However, it can be a challenge for small brands to keep up with this trend. Whether you’re a start-up or a small business owner, personalisation can help your brand stand out from the competition and build a stronger bond with your audience.

In this article, I will address the challenges small brands face with personalisation, provide successful examples of personalisation and share practical tips on how small brands can tap into personalisation.

In today’s world, consumers have access to an overwhelming amount of information. And with our attention span now shorter than that of a goldfish, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to capture and hold our interest.

Chances are you won’t read this article to the end. In fact, most readers only stay with a blog post for about 37 seconds and only read about 60% of it.

To address this problem, personalisation comes into play.

What Is Personalisation?

Personalisation is the tailoring of products, services and content to each individual customer based on their interests and behaviours.

With the help of personalisation, brands can create better customer experiences and thus increase engagement, loyalty and ultimately sales. With the rise of artificial intelligence, it’s now even easier to do this.

In fact, 88% of consumers believe that the experience a company provides is just as important as the product itself.

The Benefits of Personalisation for Small Brands

Personalisation offers many benefits to small brands. Personalised interactions can help businesses stand out from the crowd in a world full of deals and information.

As a matter of fact, according to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect companies to offer personalised interactions. And brands that master personalisation generate 40% more revenue in the process.

But it’s not just about profit. Personalisation can also lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, as brands can tailor products and content directly to their customer’s needs and preferences.

So for smaller brands, personalisation is no longer a nice-to-have, but a vital part of keeping up with big companies and meeting their customers’ expectations.

From Products to Experiences: Personalisation Is Ubiquitous

Personalisation has become a buzzword in the world of marketing. It is happening all around us through personalised products, content and experiences.

Personalised products

Bespoke products and customised options, such as items embroidered with the customer’s name or customised colours, convey a sense of ownership and pride. This makes customers feel unique and valued, leading to positive customer loyalty and increased sales.

Personalised content

Personalised content such as tailored emails or advertisements makes customers feel understood and valued.

After all, personalised emails lead to six times higher transaction rates than non-personalised emails. And product recommendations are responsible for up to 31 % of an e-commerce website’s sales. No wonder, that e-commerce websites are increasingly turning to this tool.

Personalised experiences

Personalised experiences such as interactive packaging or unique shopping experiences can make customers feel truly special and valued.

Examples of Brands that Nailed Personalisation

Here are some examples of brands that are already innovating personalisation and from which small brands can learn:

1. Prose offers customised hair care products based on the client’s hair type and environmental factors.
2. Curology offers personalised skincare products and treatments through its online platform.
3. Neutrogena’s Skin360 app also uses AI to create personalised skincare recommendations.
4. Care/Of provides personalised vitamins based on customers’ nutritional needs and goals.
5. Fit My Foot creates customised insoles based on an image of a customer’s feet.
6. Grammarly sends weekly individualised insights into the writing behaviour of its users.
7. Headspace uses a quiz at sign-up to tailor the app’s content to the user.
8. Coca-Cola allowed customers to write their name or a message on a can.
9. Starbucks’ mobile app allows customers to personalise their drinks. The company also sends offers and rewards based on their purchase history.
10. MTailor uses smartphone scans to create personalised clothing. Very recommends clothes based on weather forecasts.

Although these companies are larger, small brands can take inspiration from their approaches and adapt them to their own needs and resources.

What challenges does personalisation have for small brands?

Many small brands struggle to implement personalisation because there are several hurdles. Here are a few of them:

Omnichannel Marketing

Customers today interact with brands across multiple channels such as social media, email and websites. Effective personalisation depends on a multi-channel approach.

Brands need to meet consumers where they are, not where they expect them to be. This makes implementing personalisation challenging for small businesses with limited resources.

Limited Customer Data

Personalisation relies on the collection and analysis of customer data. Small firms don’t often have access to enough customer data to carry out effective personalisation.

Privacy Concerns

Growing privacy concerns pose an increasing challenge. More and more third-party providers are blocking cookies and online shoppers are more aware than ever of their privacy rights. Governments are also cracking down on data breaches.

Clearly, consumers want personalisation, but not at the expense of their privacy. Therefore, brands need to balance personalisation and privacy to maintain consumer trust.

Lack of Resources

Implementing personalisation can require a significant investment in technology, data management and staff.

Plus, it requires specialised skills in areas such as data analytics, customer segmentation and marketing automation. Small businesses may not have adequate resources to successfully implement these aspects.

So, an omnichannel approach balanced with privacy considerations can help brands deliver personalised experiences their customers will appreciate.

But how to do that?

Simple Ways for Small Brands to Implement Personalisation

Implementing personalisation can be overwhelming for small brands. However, it doesn’t have to be as difficult as you think. There are simple ways to do personalisation.

Personalised Email Campaigns

Small brands can use personalised email campaigns to increase customer engagement. Platforms such as Mailchimp allow companies to segment their email lists and send targeted emails based on customer interests, behaviour and demographics.

Personalised Product Recommendations

Tools like Barilliance use machine learning algorithms to make product recommendations based on customers’ browsing and buying behaviour.

Personalised Website Content

Another way to personalise is to tailor website content to the individual customer. Optimizely can help here by displaying personalised product recommendations and content based on browsing and buying behaviour.

Targeted Advertising

With advertising platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Google, it’s a piece of cake for small brands to serve personalised ads to specific customer segments.

Customised Products

Smaller brands have the advantage of being able to customise their products or services more than larger providers. This allows them to create unique experiences that larger companies have difficulty matching.

Other

Companies should focus more on zero- and first-party data collection methods and give their customers control over their personal data.

A creative way to make data collection transparent and interactive is through quizzes or surveys. In this regard, Typeform offers a great way to make online forms appealing and user-friendly.

Besides quizzes and surveys, there are other ways to optimise the customer journey and improve the customer experience while collecting data, such as implementing loyalty programmes, communities and apps.

Small brands in particular can benefit from these strategies, as they offer an effective way to increase customer loyalty and collect valuable feedback.

How to Measure the Success of Personalisation?

Conversion Rate

One of the easiest ways to measure the success of personalisation is to review the conversion rate. If personalisation turns more visitors into customers, this is a good indicator that the personalisation is effective.

Customer Feedback

If customers give positive feedback and find the personalisation helpful and useful, this is an indicator of success.

Retention Rate

Another way to measure the success of personalisation is to check the retention rate. If customers who have received personalised recommendations are more likely to come back and buy again, this is a sign that personalisation is successful.

There are many more ways to measure the success of personalisation, but these indicators are a good starting point.

Conclusion

Personalisation has become an important factor in marketing. Customers now expect companies to offer personalised interactions.

Brands can implement personalisation by creating personalised products, content or experiences.

Many companies have already successfully implemented personalisation, providing richer experiences for their customers.

Smaller brands that do not implement personalisation risk falling behind. But with the help of various online tools, even small brands can integrate some form of personalisation into their business.

So what are you waiting for? Use personalisation to take the customer experience to the next level, drive brand loyalty and attract customers who remain loyal to your brand.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Your support means the world to me. I would be truly grateful if you could show your appreciation by clapping or following.

Originally published on my blog. Truthfully, I am not a marketing expert, but I wrote this article to better understand personalisation and to find out if or how it can be infused into brand strategy.

I would also like to thank my newest followers, I’m beyond grateful you’re here, Nash Fünfzwei, Analisa Plehn, By Ratan, Charlene Ann Mildred and Gaurav Sharma!

References

Forbes. The 20 Most Compelling Examples Of Personalization.

Forbes. Why Every Business Must Embrace Personalization And Micro-Moments

Shopify. The Future of Personalization and How to Get Ready For It

Title image by Kaboompics