How to Personalize Your B2B Content When You Have a Large Audience

I'm just gonna ignore the fact that England lost Euro 2024 for now and take you back to Wednesday night (July 10) when England took home the win against the Netherlands.

While most of us armchair footballers watched the game at home, a few thousand were over in The O2 where the band The Killers got to treat their English fans to a once-in-a-lifetime moment.

Videos circulating social media show the band pausing their concert to play the last few minutes of the game on the venue's massive screens.

And when the final whistle blew, and the English team emerged victorious, the arena erupted in cheers, Red and white streamers shot out over the crowd and the band launched into their biggest hit, "Mr. Brightside."

You see, this wasn't some coincidental fluke - no - this was planned, planned, planned.

Nothing builds stronger connections and customer loyalty than being in tune with what your audience wants.

And it's moments like these that exemplify the power of personalisation.

The Killers understood their audience (this wouldn't have meant as much anywhere else) and tapped into how their English fans were feeling.

Yesterday my little not-thought-about comment went viral

There was no magic arrow

No secret algo hack

Just an observation that others could relate to.

 Simply put, people connected with it 

Most marketers write Personalization in their emails like it's a hallmark card. But Personalization goes beyond one single moment.

When it comes to writing, if you can encapsulate what your audience is thinking, feeling, or doing, you'll attract their attention quicker, and they'll stick around for longer.

It's the one thing that turns a fan into a lifelong champion.

But Personalization starts with research - lots of research.

1. Keep an Eye on Events -

Regularly monitor trends and news in your industry, your social media page, and Competitors and keep an eye on the calendar to look for ways to build content around topics and themes your audience finds interesting.

For example, Tesco closed its Express stores in England early at 7:30 PM on Sunday to give their employees time to go home and watch the match. Great for their employees and great for building their reputation as a good employer.

2. Analyze Customer Data

Deep dive into your data to better understand your customers' preferences, behaviours, and pain points.

You can analyze customer data from various sources. You can collect data from surveys and feedback forms (e.g. Typeform, SurveyMonkey, or Google Forms), website analytics, and social media interactions to identify trends and patterns that can inform your content strategies.

This data can help you gain insights into your audience's interests, challenges, goals, preferences, demographics, location, purchase history, and engagement level, and can help you identify areas where you can improve or adapt your content strategy.

3. Engage with Your Audience

Encourage open dialogue with your customers through social media.

Suja Juice as part of their #ItsTheJuice marketing campaign, used social listening to identify people who were either having a bad day, tired, sick, hungover, etc., and offered to brighten their day with a delivery of nutritious juice.

The team searched Instagram for hashtags like #sick #mondayblues #mondays #hungover #butfirstcoffee #isitfridayyet #gradschool #momlife #momprobs #lackofsleep #mood and during final exams week at colleges looking at #finals #midterms and #deadweek hashtags.

With their data, they began to reach out to these individuals and offered to set them up with a juice delivery.

In total, they reached almost 400 people and successfully dropped or shipped nearly 6,000 bottles of product.

4. Invest in Employee Training and Development

Equip your team with the skills and knowledge necessary to deliver personalized customer content.

Train employees to listen actively, empathize with customers, and proactively address their needs.

5. Be Flexible and Adaptable

Just like The Killers, be ready to adjust your plans and adapt to unexpected events or changes in your audience's preferences.

Being flexible and open to new ideas can help you stay relevant.

Create different versions of your copy for your different audience segments depending on their interests, challenges, goals, or stages in the buyer's journey.

You can use Dynamic content, geo-targeting, or time-sensitive messages to adapt your copy to their specific situation, needs, and preferences at the moment of interaction.

6. Personalization, if done poorly or excessively, will backfire.

• Using the wrong name, location, or offer

• Targeting the wrong problem or focusing on the wrong desired outcome

• Too many personal details can make your audience feel uncomfortable

• Too few personal details can make your audience feel ignored or generic.

Avoid these common pitfalls by making sure your data is accurate, updated, and verified regularly.

Continuously Test, Evaluate, and Adapt

Regularly review your strategies and processes to ensure they are aligned with your customers' evolving needs.

Set clear goals and metrics to track your success, such as open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, retention rate, or revenue.

While click-through rates and optimization matter, feedback from customers and employees can help you see opportunities for improvement.

And that's a wrap

Nothing builds stronger connections than being in tune with your audience and making them feel you understand them.

Whenever I write about personalisation, I refer back to my first "real" marketing job. I was helping the Marketing Director launch their luxury dinnerware's Christmas campaign.

1,000 catalogues that looked more like a Coffee Table Book by Tatler than Argos were to be sent to their clients.

Each salesperson had their own VIP clients and would handwrite a note to be placed inside the accompanying catalogue.

But there was one salesperson who went above and beyond. He had kept a record of his top spenders (anyone who spent over £50K or had purchased in the last 3 months) and what they had bought.

It took him 4 days to bookmark certain products in the individual catalogues that would complement the client's previous purchases.

So, how are you going to personalise your content for your customers?

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