PERSONALIZING ADVERTISEMENTS FOR INBOUND
Ankita Chandra MBA-Final Year Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad. The term inbound marketing was first used by Halligan & Shah in their seminal 2009 book, but the concept has been around much longer. As far back as 1999, Seth Godin referred to the same concept under a different name in his blog. Permission marketing is the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them. Inbound marketing is about using marketing to bring potential customers to the products and services of the company. Inbound marketing refers to a style of marketing that is designed to bring visitors to the firm. It envisages content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimization to seek their attention and convert the strangers into satisfied customers and subsequent promoters. It aims at creating irresistible experiences that connect with people personally and create the desire to share with others. Inbound marketing is about creating and sharing content with the world. By creating the content specifically designed to appeal to the dreams of the customers, inbound attracts qualified prospects to business and keep long term relations with the customers. Since 2006, inbound marketing has been the most effective marketing method for online business. Instead of the old outbound marketing methods that included advertisements on television, print media etc., inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people towards the company, its products and services. It involves alignment of the content published in the interest of the potential customers, attract inbound traffic to convert, close and delight them from time to time. For instance, Mr. Mehra started Capillary Technologies in 2008 which provides e-commerce platform and related services for retailers and brands. He used the outbound marketing techniques, which consists of push
techniques like TV, print, and radio advertising, public relations, direct mail, and telemarketing. However, Mr. Mehra found that the firm could not be recognized. The firm faced difficulty in promotions and hence it could not earn good revenue. Further, the cost was high and the yield was low. His company needed more customers. He had a brain storming session with an expert who recommended him to go for inbound marketing. He was advised to use the four modes of inbound marketing that brought the customers to the Capillary Technologies. It included search engine optimization that made changes in different areas of the website and presented it in a way that the customers were targeted easily. He also used the keyword-matching based advertising (pay-per-click advertising). Mr. Mehra laid stress upon promoting the firm on social media that gave his firm an opportunity to connect with people on a more personal level. Further, a big part of inbound marketing was used in creating and sharing useful content with the target audience. Earlier, the company was engaged only in reaching customers but now it started going for inbound marketing as well. The company had generated more leads than the traditional outbound marketing. Thus, by implementing all these changes in his business strategy, Mr. Mehra was able to transform the company as a legitimate source of information and knowledge. Consequently, Capillary Technologies became a popular e- commerce platform in the country. Research findings (Bleoju et al., 2016) indicated that, 54 percent of consumers find personalized advertisements to be more engaging and 74 percent of customers indicated that they desire some type of content personalization. In order to increase customer engagement, companies are now-a-days moving towards personalized marketing. The American Marketing Association states that marketing today is full of personalization. Using data-driven insights, brands craft messaging, particularly across the digital-ad stratosphere that is individualized to best reflect the interests and behaviors of their customers. Personalized marketing is a marketing
strategy by which the companies customize the products or services through personal interaction between a company and its customers (Adobe). It includes controlling data analysis and digital technologies to deliver individualized messages and product offerings to current or prospective customers. The research article by State of Inbound in 2015, suggests that mobile advertisements blocking have increased year on year by 90%. Customers have more power than the marketers. Thus, the marketers need to target its customers by one-to-one marketing. As the economy shifts from products to experiences, consumers want personalized ones. The report of Harvard Business Review (2011) indicates that more than 79% of US consumers expect personalized experiences from the brands. Personalized advertising, also known as interest-based promotions, enables advertisers to reach users, based on their interests and demographics. It should help to develop the website more efficiently, increase value for advertisers and provide a better experience for users. According to the Business Insider (2016) Google drives 95% of all paid ad clicks on mobile. Of late companies are implementing strategies of personalization into their marketing campaigns. According to EPiServer's data, 14% of marketers indicated that personalized campaigns generate a better response rate than mass-market campaigns. The technique of customization has also been adopted by Harley Davidson, where each motorcycle is different because it can be modified according to the need of the customer. Similarly, the great innovation of Dell was to let customers personalize the specifications of their computers. Interactive media strategies and digital tools have enabled advertisers to target the prospective customers with promotional offers and creative appeals. It was pioneered by Amazon in its retailing website under books category. We may envisage the benefits of personalized marketing in a better way through the lens of Nandini, a teenager who was very fond of cooking. She selected a few cookery books from one category. She was regularly recommended books
from the same category, from different chefs and about unusual cuisine across the globe. Thus personalized advertising made Nandini more curious and stimulated her to buy more books. Apart from stimulation, personalized advertising also provides better information insights that increase the relevancy of an advertisement. These insights can be as simple as human wants/needs, geographic location and basic demographic information to more specific insights such as a niche interest, buying intent, and even behavioral patterns. Advancement in data collection methods, analytics, digital electronics and digital economics have enabled marketers to deploy more effective real time and prolonged customer experience personalization tactics. The next wave in digital marketing is all about personalization of advertisements. An American multinational entertainment company, Netflix was able to deliver awesome effects of a personalized experience to its customers. The customers need not browse pages after pages of movie titles, rather Netflix offers them a list of suggestions based on the movie preferences and viewing history. Another example of one-to -one marketing being implemented perfectly in India is carried out by Domino’s Pizza chain. We may be able to better comprehend this through the following scenario: Ritesh, got promoted from the post of Software Engineer to the position of the Team Lead. His friends decided to visit his apartment to congratulate him. Ritesh was a bachelor and stayed alone. The surprise visit of his friends baffled him and he immediately called Domino’s for ordering food. As he had ordered earlier, his mobile number was already registered, it really saved his time as he need not repeat his address and other personal details for they were already known. Thus, his time was saved and it also enabled him to attend his guests and have unplanned fun. Consequently, Domino’s is efficiently using one to one marketing to ease the customer order placements and service delivery.
In order to create more customized and personalized advertisements based on audience data, firms now moved towards social media platform. 92% of marketers believe that social media is important to their business and 90% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses (KĂśhler & GrĂźnder, 2016). Paid search accounts for 47 per cent of online advertising budgets (Strauss, 2016). The State of Inbound (2016) mentions that over 2 billion people use Facebook to search for content every day. It has been known that in 2014, Facebook increased the size of the right-hand column unit and introduced new dynamic capabilities into the news feed. It was found that companies using personalized retargeting and dynamic creative went up to 115% greater click through rate. Further, companies also create a Facebook page to connect easily with their clients and customers. Inbound Mantra, a marketing consultant at Gurugram, Haryana, has also created a Facebook page to spread the word about their work and to take its advantage. It has been mentioned that more than 800 people like and follow the data driven inbound marketing agency. The page also features inbound marketing features, blogs, photos, videos, newsletters etc. about Inbound Mantra. The website of the company, addresses to various questions like who they are, what they do, their achievements and resources. There is also a link directing the viewers to the Blog page. The website also requests the audience to take a look into the inbound marketing credentials including pricing. They can also contact the team, if they require any further clarifications. Researchers (Soares & Pinho, 2014) indicated the role of perceived enjoyment as a predictor of both social identity and group norms. Furthermore, social identity and group intentions have a positive impact on perceived advertisement relevance. Finally, group intention towards advertisements and perceived advertisement relevance have a positive impact on
perceived advertisement value, which in turn has a positive response. This can be well understood through the following example. Mr. Krishnamurthy started a BPO in Chennai in 2010. The BPO provided back office business, customer support and e-commerce maintenance. It served a wide range of industries including healthcare, automotive, telecom, real estate, banking and insurance. He realized that his customers had problems from different areas. The customers had to devote a lot of time to explain their problems. The team also faced time constraints in delivering the services. This incurred cost as well. Consequently, Mr. Krishnamurthy tried to customize the services rendered by the firm. The internet software allowed the company to identify the physical locations of the customers, keeping their transactions records with it, and use tracking cookies to learn about consumers’ interests, taste and preferences. With this data in hand, the BPO was able to personalize a visitor’s experience by showing them a customized page, featuring their inclination so as to seek their attention and turn them into satisfied customers, hence converting them to promoters. Personalization gave his start-up businesses an edge over the competitors. It also helped to maintain long term relations with the customers. Personalizing advertisements act as a major tool to expand his business operations by publishing market strategies and talk about the solutions to meet the customer’s expectations and to share user experience on his company’s website. Earlier, Mr. Krishnamurthy addressed to his clients as "Dear friend," or "To [First Name]" or "Hi Customer" he received a cold response from the clients. Now, he became more open to his customers. The prospect or lead's name is one of the easiest pieces of lead intelligence to gather. He made the contents more effective while sharing the company's story online and with more visitors searching for solutions from inbound; he created hype in the market. He took a personal approach to marketing. It was all about framing the message in a way that invited and engaged the visitors. Then his content
was able to create a need for the service offered by the BPO. Further, targeted landing pages were created towards different marketing persons. Landing pages proved as the finest personalization tools. The marketing automation tools were used to trigger lead nurturing campaigns based on content interest. The inbound marketing team responded to prospects and customers in social media and used lead intelligence to personalize sales follow up. Mr. Krishnamurthy observed that the business that creates a personal connection to develop relationships goes beyond than just sale. By customizing the user's experience, educating them and sharing their views through inbound; a bond is created between his firm and customers. The firm becomes more specific and focused on key accounts thereby driving quality and interesting prospects to target the accounts that matter. Thus, personalization is about creating further human connection using the tools that are available. Inbound can achieve distinction only if it actually understands its audience. It starts with connecting with the visitors in a more personalized manner. The easiest way to start creating a more personal experience can be done by sending emails. According to the E-consultancy report of 2016, three-quarters of companies agree that email offers "excellent" to "good" ROI. The mail should not be auto generated. Instead it should be sent by a member of the marketing team and should bear the recipients’ name. Forrester Research (2014) has interviewed dozens of companies to learn about their experiences with personalization. In Forrester’s report, “Create a Pragmatic Personalization Program”, one can learn where others have failed, and get a guide on how to succeed. It may also provide more content delivery platforms. This type of promotional measure offered a perfect opportunity for the organization to show off their product catalog, service, or brand and with retargeting, the organization can show the ideal images to specific customers, at the time when they are most
likely to buy. Many companies give a title to their trade which introduces them to the business. The title should be creative to hold the clientele. For example, the punch line of Google Shopping Campaign is “Turn online browsing into online buying.” The site also mentions that ‘With Google shopping campaigns, you reach the shoppers who matter most - the ones searching for what you sell.’ Similarly, Inbound Mantra pioneers itself as a ‘Data Driven Inbound Marketing Company’. Therefore in this current era, personalization and mass customization of advertisements are the buzz words for the success of many companies involving innumerable categories. Personalization is a more human approach to inbound marketing. It leads to highly targeted campaigns and increases velocity and efficiency in the sales cycle. It is relevant and appealing. It attracts the lead, converts prospects and grows customer value. As a result, it helps to build a strong customer base and develop customer loyalty.
References
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