Demystifying AI: Understanding Hyper personalisation Part 2

Ai in business Oct 27, 2020

Why introduce hyper personalisation into your business services, products and operations?


Depending on its intended purpose and application, introducing hyper personalisation into your business strategy can result in numerous benefits to your company. It has already been shown that personalisation is no longer enough for the modern consumer. A 2018 study by Accenture discovered that 91% of consumers are more likely to complete a transaction with a company that offers their customer a personalised service based on their individual preferences [1]. Why hyper-personalisation will be critical to the future success of brands is clear. Now is the time for brands to investigate and understand what opportunities hyper-personalisation presents across their value-chain and how they can generate greater value for customers and themselves through this capability. It is time to catch up to customers expectations while realising the benefits it brings to those who have already realised it’s potential.
In this blog post, we will explore in further detail the different benefits of hyper personalisation across different industries and business processes.

Personalised user experience

One of the many reasons companies have started deploying hyper personalisation into their practices is because it allows them to create a personalised user experience for the customers and clients alike. Big data has equipped brands with the knowledge needed to better understand their customers and when combined with the right technology such as AI, makes the delivery of a hyper personalised customer experience easier to create. AI works hand in hand with big data to decipher this information and help brands create unique profiles for every customer so that they can offer them an experience that the customer is more likely to be engaged with, respond to and result in a better outcome for the brand and the customer. For example an ecommerce company can analyse their users past interactions and purchase history on their website and use this information to create a seamless shopping experience for them [2]. They can do this by using recommendation systems to offer personalised products and even category suggestions to individuals, with the goal being that more personalised recommendations are more useful to customers, with this utility in turn driving greater engagement and sales.


Companies such as Spotify and Youtube and many other content platforms all base their business model around offering their customers a hyper personalised experience. Their recommendation systems are based on individuals preferences and behaviours, based on what the user interacted with previously however this time their goal is to maximise engagement. Regardless of your business model or your product or service, hyper-personalization involves leveraging relevant data on your customers interests, preferences and behaviours to anticipate and cater to their needs and apply those insights to tailor your service delivery.



Personalised content and marketing communications

Personalising content to customers via targeted marketing communications has been a key strategy for marketers since the birth of digital marketing. Now hyper personalisation allows them to go one step further and instead target individual customers with highly personalised content and very specific messaging as they have more data to better understand and predict what offers their customers will appreciate and what products or services they are more likely to engage with [3]. Marketers should be aiming to use hyper personalisation to create a relevant customer experience for each customer by building it around their unique history and interactions as informed by data. This will keep the customer engaged and more likely to stay loyal as your marketing communications are actually providing real value to the end user [4]. A perfect example of how markets use hyper personalisation to their advantage is by creating individualised campaigns.
For example, say your customer was browsing your site for a particular style coat, but gave up after a few minutes without purchasing anything. Using AI and data marketers can create a hyper personalised analysis of the customers experience which they can then use to their advantage by creating a campaign based on the customers on-site experience to improve communication with that customer. They can use information such as time spent on site, items searched, purchase history, analysis of purchasing behaviour of discounted items and engagement analysis of how the customer typically reacts to push notifications from your app or website [5]. All of this information and more can then be used to create a hyper personalised campaign, or email notification or a retargeting ad notifying the customer of a sale on your site on particular style coats [6]. To be even more specific you can even have it so that the ad gets sent to the customer at the time when they are most likely to purchase off your website based on the timings of their previous purchases [7]. Essentially, AI is being combined with data to inform more intelligent and personalised engagements with customers. This is one of the many ways marketers are utilising the benefits of hyper personalisation while actually creating real value for customers.

Grow revenue and sales

Given what has been outlined above, it’s no surprise that hyper personalisation leads to an increase in sales and revenue. There is something that resonates with us all as customers is that, albeit depending on the context, we are more willing to invest more in exchange for a personalised and fulfilling experience. And there is evidence to back this up. Studies show that personalised marketing campaigns can result in an increase of at least 20% in sales [8] and marketing communications that do more than just include the recipient's name have a success rate 6 times higher than those who don’t [9]. Moreover, hyper personalisation also leads to increased revenue as it drives more impulse purchases that customers make due to personalised recommendations that align with their interests and hobbies [10]. Hyper personalisation also offers companies another huge benefit of a decrease in the return rate of goods. Customers are less likely to return items they bought due to personalised recommendations and only 5% are likely to return impulse buys that were recommended to them based on their individual preferences as companies now actually understand their customers needs[11].


Improves customer satisfaction and loyalty

A natural continuation is that hyper personalisation also leads to customer loyalty with 44% of consumers more likely to make a repeat purchase after a personalised shopping experience [12]. Hyper personalisation has also had a great impact on the financial industry in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty. 90% of customers that have been provided with personalised banking services are ‘exceptionally satisfied’ with recommendations made by their financial advisors and lead to the conclusion that they ‘definitely will’ reuse their bank for other products and services [13]. But it is not just the Fintech industry that is benefiting from increased customer satisfaction and loyalty as a result of hyper personalisation. Streaming services are also using customer data to implement more personalised marketing campaigns and recommendations. This has resulted in an increase in the amount of monthly streams and subscriptions and have helped the sites themselves gain a positive reputation conjunctively [14].

Improved cross-selling and upselling

Hyper personalisation gives companies the added advantage of being able to upsell and cross sell more effectively. Brands with a deeper understanding of their customer can more effectively make recommendations of similar products that the customer might like before they check out. This has both a positive impact for the customer and brand alike. Customers don't have to spend a long time scrolling through websites looking for items of interest while brands can increase their sales by upselling and crossing to their customers [15]. The reduced cost of search greatly benefits consumers as it offers them the convenience of improved time efficiency and decision making. Amazon has capitalised big time on their hyper personalised recommendation system by recognising this and thus converts more than 60% more than other online retailers through their on site suggestions [16]. Their winning recommendation system has helped them overtake Google as the prominent source of product searches [17].

Creating a seamless experience like so can ensure customers are receiving significant benefits without even realising it or viewing as companies just trying to make a quick sale. This has also proved to be of great benefit to the financial sector where cross selling is an important aspect of the industry. Consumers who have car insurance might find themselves receiving personalised relevant offers and services such as life insurance, again providing benefit to both the consumer and the company.

Conclusion
As more customers continuously seek more personalised experiences is it important to adapt your business to cater for their needs. Hyper personalisation is almost at the stage of becoming a basic requirement for customers, and when it offers so many benefits to both consumers and business alike there really is no excuse to wait until it becomes an absolute necessity. Start before your competitors and gain advantage from becoming more in tune with your consumers needs before it is too late. Creating an effective hyper personalisation strategy now could be key in building customer loyalty and satisfaction so that you can work on improving your growth and revenue.

In a previous blog post we discussed in more detail what hyper personalisation is and how it can and is being implemented by many industries and organisations. For a more in depth understanding of hyper personalisation click here to read more. https://blog.brainpool.ai/demystifying-ai-understanding-hyperpersonalisation/



Written by Alana Finnerty

References:

[1]Accenture. (2018) Pulse Check 2018. Retrieved from: Accenture: https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-83/Accenture-Making-Personal.pdf#zoom=50

[2]Medium. (2019). “Hyper-Personalization: The Next Wave of Customer Engagement.” Retrieved from:Medium:https://medium.com/smartkarrot/hyper-personalization-the-next-wave-of-customer-engagement-9e68c7a7c9ad

[3][4]Morgan., L (2019). “Three eCommerce brands that nail hyper-personalisation.” Retrieved from: Vertical Leap: https://www.vertical-leap.uk/blog/three-ecommerce-brands-hyper-personalisation/

[5][6][7] Ekbote., E (2022). "Hyper-Personalization: How to Use it to Power Your Marketing Success" Retrieved from: Videoform: https://www.videoform.com/blog/hyper-personalization/

Farris., P. (n.d.). “Why You Should Use Hyper-Personalization in Content Marketing.” Retrieved from: Filestage: https://filestage.io/blog/hyper-personalization/

[8] [9]Campaign Monitor. (2019).  “25 Email Personalization Stats that might surprise you”. Retrieved from: Campaign Monitor: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2019/07/15-email-personalization-stats-might-surprise-you/

[10][11][12]Hyken., S. (2017). “Personalized Customer Experience Increases Revenue and Loyalty”. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2017/10/29/personalized-customer-experience-increases-revenue-and-loyalty/#82bf9a14bd61

[13]Samatha,. C, (2020). “Why AI is the Key to Hyper-Personalization in the Fintech Sector?). Retrieved from: FintechBuzz: https://fintecbuzz.com/why-ai-is-the-key-to-hyper-personalization-in-the-fintech-sector/

[14]Crowdfire. (2019). “Hyper-personalization: According to Statistics and studies”. Retrieved from: Crowdfire: https://blog.crowdfireapp.com/hyper-personalization-according-to-statistics-and-studies-be48773f10c

[15]Shankavaram,. D. (2019). “How marketers can prepare for the rise of hyperpersonalisation”. Retrieved from: Marketing Tech News:

https://marketingtechnews.net/news/2019/jun/17/how-marketers-can-prepare-rise-hyperpersonalisation/

[16]Annas,. C. (2020). “ What Is Hyper-Personalization?”. Retrieved from: Abtasty: https://www.abtasty.com/blog/what-is-hyper-personalization/

[17]Bench-Capon,. S. (2020). “Amazon vs Google: The Battle for Product Search”. Retrieved from: Searchmetrics: https://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/amazon-google-product-search/

Brainpool AI

Brainpool is an artificial intelligence consultancy specialising in developing bespoke AI solutions for business.