3 Reasons to Personalize the Digital Experience with AI

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Marketers have been personalizing content and targeting messages by segment for decades. But the advent of AI now gives companies far more powerful tools to take their personalization capabilities to the next level.

AI offers many options and possibilities for creating highly tailored experiences, each requiring investment and effort, and the use cases are only going to exponentially increase as the technology becomes even more advanced. It can be easy to get caught up in the AI hype, but it’s important to step back and remember what we are really trying to accomplish with our personalization efforts.

Here are three core reasons for delivering AI-driven personalized experiences:

1. MAKING THE CUSTOMER FEEL SPECIAL

When the Ritz Carlton places a handwritten welcome card in your room, they do it to make you feel recognized and cared for. When a direct email addresses you by name, it makes the communication feel a little more personal, even though we know it’s done by automation.?

These tactics aim to heighten brand intimacy and create increased affinity over time, but AI can take this much further.?

For example, a hotel can leverage AI to analyze a guest’s past interactions and preferences, and adjust the room temperature, lighting, and even music according to their taste. Delivering this experience goes beyond making a customer feel recognized and creates a sense of being truly understood.

Key tactics:

• Utilize recommendation engines to create custom-made suggestions for products and services that align with a customer’s needs and interests.
• Leverage Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand customer sentiment, examining their social media interactions, product reviews, and comments to spot potential problems and address them proactively.
• Use AI-powered chatbots to talk to customers and answer questions in a more “natural” way, capable of understanding context.

2. DELIVERING THE RIGHT MESSAGE AT THE RIGHT TIME

Good marketers understand that a key step to driving customer behavior is to communicate with customers in a way that resonates with them and speaks directly to their current needs and buying stage.

AI enables brands to understand customers more deeply by analyzing vast amounts of data to uncover patterns, predict behavior, and segment audiences with much better precision.

For example, a sports apparel company can target people who haven’t bought running shoes in a while with emails about a new running shoe technology. Meanwhile, people who recently browsed the website to look at running shoes but didn’t buy anything can be retargeted with special offers or discounts.

By understanding where each customer is in the buying journey, companies can deliver relevant messages that increase the chance of conversion.

Key tactics:

• Use AI to analyze thousands of data points and segment customers based on more nuanced criteria—such as buying motivations, objections, and behaviors—instead of traditional demographics.
• Utilize AI-powered dynamic pricing to optimize price and discounts in real time based on customer preferences, competitor activity, and market trends.
• Using location data, AI can send geographically tailored recommendations and offers for customers.
• Leverage predictive AI to identify customers at risk of churning and proactively reach out with tailored offers to keep them engaged.

3. ENHANCING CUSTOMER CONVENIENCE

Reducing a customer’s “level of effort” when engaging with a brand—whether it’s effortless reordering or easily getting the information they need—not only drives conversion but also fosters loyalty in the long term. And AI-driven personalization is a powerful driver of efficient and seamless experiences.

For example, AI can anticipate that a customer is running out of their preferred brand of pet food, give a “nudge” that it’s time to reorder, and make it very easy to complete the purchase by automatically filling their shipping and billing information.

This level of ease and convenience fosters a positive sentiment that makes a customer more likely to return for future purchases.

Key tactics:

• Utilize AI in process mining to examine user sessions and identify high-friction steps that need to be streamlined.
• Conversational AI assistants can guide customers in completing self-service tasks such as reordering or upgrading subscriptions.
• Use AI-powered speech recognition tools to allow customers to search, navigate, and complete transactions hands-free.

DRIVING OUTCOMES-FOCUSED PERSONALIZATION

Ultimately, the personalized experiences that yield business results are those that make customers feel valued and understood, while reducing friction and effort at every touchpoint.?

In implementing AI solutions for personalization, it’s helpful to assess if your initiatives are aligned with these three areas to ensure that your investments and efforts are deployed strategically and will deliver the outcomes you want.

Realize the full potential of personalization with AI. We can help.

Book a meeting with us today.

YOUR TURN

Take a look at your current personalization efforts. What more could you be doing to make your customer feel more special, target your message more effectively, and make it easier for them to engage with you? Share your ideas in the comments!

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Howard Tiersky is the founder of FROM, The Digital Transformation Agency where he works with leading brands on digital transformation.

• Check out his Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance.
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