Improving the content experience: introducing AI-enabled 'hyper-personalization'
If brands aren't relatable, their content won't be either. For The Drum's Content Marketing Deep Dive, Ellie Hanson of digital agency Rawnet explores how AI is changing the content landscape.
Personalization is as much about your brand's personality as it as about improving the customer experience / This is Engineering via Unsplash
As we approach the end of the year, it’s a good time to reflect on the success of each marketing strategy and what the industry can expect in the future. Current platforms and social media apps like Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok have made it possible for businesses to be more personable and relatable to their customers.
Whether it's following trends, publishing user-generated content, or showcasing their brand's personality through copy, being perceived as relatable continues to dominate the marketing industry. Being personal and building rapport with customers online is not a new concept, but it has been front of marketers’ minds in 2022. I don’t see it slowing down any time soon.
Content marketing dominates the overall digital marketplace, and 79% of companies use content marketing to generate new leads directly. Brands must pay attention to future trends, especially in the content space, to stay ahead of the curve and not fall behind competitors.
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Interactive & hyper-personalized marketing
Interactive content marketing is an effective approach to keeping consumers engaged while collecting data. Brands can capture the attention of their target audience and keep them on a site for longer by using interactive content like carousels, polls, downloadables, and digital tools. This engages visitors, affording businesses insight into the needs and interests of clients. Brands can then use the data collected to target prospects, generate leads, and potentially convert those leads into sales.
This relatively new trend goes beyond simply addressing a customer by name. Instead, hyper-personalization caters to the demands of the individual consumer. By definition, hyper-personalization is a data-driven content marketing approach that leverages artificial intelligence (AI), data, automation, and analytics to create personalized interactions with customers and improve their overall experience.
For hyper-personalization to work at its best, brands need to use customer data to build a comprehensive view of their needs and behaviors. With a programmatic approach, every interaction can be personalized to improve their experience, and marketers can ensure that all touchpoints and content are consistent using the same detailed picture of the customers. This approach also has the long term in mind, as AI-powered tools are designed to work effectively in line with customers’ ever-changing preferences.
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Improving the content experience
Another significant development impacting the content marketing sector is content experience. Consumer preferences change over time, both in terms of content type and how it's displayed.
To properly improve the content experience, marketers must keep informed about what customers want in order to create better and more comprehensive journeys. To provide a compelling and consistent message, marketing teams must establish a unique story and leverage it across the board, throughout integrated campaigns.
Brands should be aligning their content marketing strategy in a way that requires greater participation, further leading to engagement and community building. Keeping up to date on the interests of prospects and understanding their pain points will give marketers clear direction for their content.
Marketers have been employing email marketing for some time to create leads and increase consumer engagement with targeted messaging campaigns, but today, companies need to constantly be looking for new ways to demonstrate their expertise in customers' purchasing journeys.
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The future of content
The future of content marketing looks bright. Those that don’t stay up to date with the latest content marketing trends risk their brand being left behind and exposed to tough competition that may leave an organization struggling to retain and attract new customers.
It’s all about ensuring content authenticity and creating a platform for knowledge sharing. Brands can do this by launching personalized content campaigns which encourage conversations with their customers through engaging and interactive content that builds a sense of community and belonging.
Visit our Content Marketing in Focus hub for more news, insights and strategies around content marketing.
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Rawnet
Rawnet is a digital agency that defines, designs, delivers and drives strategic products and services that create a long-term positive impact.
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