Personalized marketing, which we explained in our last post, is a growing trend among businesses large and small. Because we live and shop in such a customer-centric marketplace, consumers expect personalized messages and recommendations from brands with whom they interact.

Studies show that businesses that personalize web experiences see a 19% increase in sales, and businesses who personalize their marketing emails garner 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click-through rates. Another study revealed that more than 85% of consumers say personalization plays a role in their purchasing decisions.

Personalized marketing can be difficult for smaller businesses without a dedicated marketing team and comprehensive data and analytics. However, if you have a CRM, such as Redtail or Salesforce, and use a marketing automation system, like FMG Suite, a few simple tweaks to your marketing can create more personalized messaging.

Here are three easy ways you can add more personalized details to your digital marketing that prospects and clients will notice and appreciate:

Provide Personalized Content Recommendations on Your Website

When you read an article on a news site or blog, a lot of times there are recommended articles on the same or a similar topic. This encourages readers to stay on the website longer and continue reading your content. Depending on your website platform, you can implement this same strategy without lifting a finger. If you’ve custom built your blog, your platform may allow a “recommended content” plugin that will recommend other articles based on their category or tags.

Or, if you use FMG Suite’s website platform, we do this for you. On your website’s content library, we recommend content based on what the website visitor is reading. If they’re reading several articles on retirement planning, your website’s content library will recommend other retirement-related articles and videos.

Segment Your Email Lists to Send Personalized Content

Beyond general financial tips and content pieces you send via email to your contacts, take the time to segment your list into a few different groups based on criteria most important to you. This may be age range, income level, gender, geographic location, etc. However you choose to segment your lists, create at least three different lists and send each list a unique email once a month or once every few months. If you’re targeting pre-retirees, send content on estate planning or IRA rollovers. If you want to reach high net worth investors, send a market commentary. This content has a much greater chance for resonating with your recipients and receiving more callbacks and interest.

Send Timely Messages

One of the easiest ways to personalize your marketing is to send holiday and birthday well wishes. If you use a CRM, you can make a note of your contacts’ birthdays and any holidays they celebrate. Sync your CRM with your email marketing platform and use a birthday campaigns tool to automatically send personalized birthday messages. Do the same with holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Fourth of July.

While there are countless other personalized marketing strategies you can implement, these are the top three with which to start. Once you graduate from these, start brainstorming for other ways to personalize your marketing and make your prospects and clients feel special when you send them a message or interact with them online.