The merits of customizing content to resonate and relate better with your audience are numerous. It helps engage your reader, create rapport and build loyalty with your readers.

There are instances however when this can prove to be difficult. For instance, websites, which speak to a general audience, make it hard to pinpoint the kind of tone and voice that you’re supposed to take as opposed to one-on-one content. Do you speak to regular site visitors, which could then alienate new users? Or address new users, which may put off regular visitors?

But here’s the thing, there are a few things that you can tweak to still give a sense of personalization and customization to your content. Here are some ideas—

#1. Recommend products to your customers based on their purchase or search history

It’s likely that you’re already making product recommendations to your customers, but it is possible to make those recommendations more relevant to them. Use your user’s viewing, purchase or search history to see what these items are and use it to lend a sense of customization to your site.

Display product recommendations based on your user’s search, shopping or browsing history.

#2. Build a sense of exclusivity through incentives

Engage your visitors by offering exclusive deals.

One of your main goals should be to build your database of subscribers, which you can do by offering incentives and exclusives. It’s important to distinguish them from other visitors and give them preferential treatment. Depending on the ecommerce platform you are using for your site, you can make certain parts of your content accessible only to members who have subscribed to your website.

#3. Offer personalized drip content

When offering content to your visitors, the best way to do so is to share it in parts over a period of time to allow visitors time to absorb it in bite-sized pieces and keep them coming back. Drip content is a great way to educate a specific target group and is especially useful if your website has different membership tiers.

You can actually focus on giving small tips per week. If you make this a constant practice, your visitors will always come back for more tips on a weekly basis.

#4. Personalize email messages

Address your users by name to create rapport.

If you want your emails to have more impact, you have to give them a personal touch. Customers are more likely to open and read emails that are addressed directly at them. You are also more likely to get higher conversions especially if the content of your emails is something your visitors will consider relevant to them.

Creating personalized emails does not have to be difficult. All you need is to divide your customers based on criteria such as segments or customer interests and then write to the groups created.

#5. Engage directly on social media

When you integrate social media into your website, you can chat directly with your visitors and get their opinion about important issues related to your products and services. Engaging directly with your customers will break down communication barriers and encourage visitors to keep coming back.

Bottom line…

Personalization shows you care, and despite the fact that you don’t really know your users personally, these are some of the ways that you can customize your content to highlight the attention and customization that ultimately improves the user experience.

Start implementing these ideas in your website and let us know if your efforts start paying off in terms of increased conversions.