With dozens of businesses reaching out to your target audience every day, you need to make your business stand out from the rest. One of the best ways to get a leg up on the competition by creating personalized web content.

On this page, we’ll provide you with six tips for creating tailored content for your audience.

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1. Understand your target audience

The first step in learning how to personalize web content is to understand your target audience. You can’t successfully personalize the experience if you don’t know who wants your products or services.

So, how do you figure out who’s in your target audience?

Start by looking at your typical customer(s). Identify and document information like:

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Location
4. Occupation
5. Income
6. Buying Habits
7. Hobbies/Interests

Knowing this information will help you create a well-rounded profile of your target audience and you can use that information to form buyer personas. Buyer personas are fictional representations of actual customers that you can use to help you target new, similar customers.

In addition to knowing who’s in your target audience, you also want to identify their pain points. What problem do they want to solve, or what frustrates them in their daily life? When you know their pain points, you can show them how your product or service will solve their problems.

2. Display a custom message on your homepage

Next on our list of website personalization ideas is to create a custom message on your homepage for your visitors. When users visit your site, you want them to feel unique and valued. A custom message can help personalize the experience for them.

So, for example, let’s say you’re a store that specializes in shampoo and soap. You know you’re targeting women between 25-45 who have an interest in your bath soaps. So, when these women visit your page, you could have a personalized message like “Hi [name], check out our sales on signature bath soaps” to greet them.

It’s a small gesture of personalization, but it can have a significant impact on your audience. It can make your audience feel welcome immediately, as well as expedite the shopping process by directing them straight to products they’ll love.

If you don’t know the customer’s name, you can still personalize their message based on past shopping behavior instead of using their name.

So, if you knew someone interacted with content on your organic shampoo previously, you could personalize the offer to their specific browsing habits and interests. Your message may look something more like this: “Welcome! Check out our deals on organic shampoo and conditioner!”

3. Focus on topics of interest to your audience

When you learn how to personalize web content, you learn that content marketing plays a substantial role in helping you create a more personalized experience. Content marketing is a strategy that allows you to create compelling content related to your industry.

You have tons of knowledge in your industry, and your audience wants it. Content creation helps you share that knowledge while attracting interested leads to your business’s site.

One of the best website personalization ideas is to focus on topics of interest to your audience. What does your audience want to know about your industry?

You can use a tool like Google Trends to help you identify popular terms your audience searches about your industry.

So, for example, you could look at the keyword “how to make soap bars” to see how often people search the term as well as peak search times for the term.

Google Trends helps you identify topics and ideas that your audience searches often.

You can also survey your current customers and get insight into content creation ideas. You can ask them about topics that would have helped them convert sooner or if there is information they still want.

Your current customer base can provide valuable insight into what prospects want, so you can create more personalized content that meets their needs.

4. Make distinct calls to action (CTAs)

Next on our list of website personalization tips focuses on the call to action (CTA) buttons. CTA buttons are critical for helping your audience take the next step.

Many businesses fall short with their CTA buttons because they’re generic and don’t excite leads about their products or services. Seeing a CTA button that says “click here” isn’t exciting for your audience — it doesn’t catch their attention, nor does it tell them what happens if they click.

These generic CTAs make the user experience feel lackluster.

You need to spice up your CTA buttons to help you provide a better experience for your audience. You can improve CTAs by personalizing them.

So, for example, let’s say you own a women’s fashion boutique. You create a personalized page, based on user browsing history, that highlights fall fashion clothes they may like.

Instead of using a generic CTA like “click here,” you can create a more personal experience by using a CTA like “Click here to find your fall fashion style” or “Check out your fall fashion lineup.”

Creating more personalized CTAs can help you increase engagement with your audience and make them more likely to interact with your business.

5. Use ‘you’ in your content

This idea may seem like one of the most straightforward website personalization ideas, but it’s effective. Whether you’re creating a blog post, adding text to your homepage, or shooting a video, a great way to personalize your audience’s experience is simply to use “you.”

When you address your audience as “you,” you put them in the driver’s seat. They see themselves as part of the experience, which makes it feel more personal for them.

Take this example from Lush. When you look at their product description, you can see they address the shopper directly.

Lush uses “you” and “your” to tell the shopper how their product will help them and why they’ll want to buy it. It’s a small note of personalization, but it helps your audience get into the mindset of using your product or service and shows them how it impacts them.

6. Offer additional products or content based on previous behavior

If you want to know how to personalize web content, start by looking at your audiences’ past behaviors. Their past actions can help you deliver a more personalized experience by knowing what they want and what interests them.

There are two avenues for personalization based on previous behavior:

Personalize product choices

One of the best website personalization ideas is to offer past customers products based on previous purchases. Many ecommerce companies take advantage of this by creating a “you may also like” section or “recommended for you” section.

On Amazon, they offer an “inspired by your purchases” section.

This feature creates a personalized experience for your audience. You can show them products based on their browsing history or purchase history to encourage more sales for your business.

Personalize content choices

Another website personalization idea is to personalize content choices. You can deliver curated content based on content people viewed on your site previously.

You can do this by providing links to related content at the bottom of your site. So, for example, if someone reads a blog about the top fall fashion for 2020, you could have links on the bottom to articles you wrote about the top fall accessories or must-have boots for fall.

Here’s a great example from Food Network of this principle in action. When you scroll down to the end of the article, you’ll see links for related content. In this example, the core content focused on the zucchini loaf.

As you can see, the related content focuses both on zucchini and creating bread loaves.

Food Network takes this personalization one step further. If you continue scrolling down the page, you’ll see more articles about recipes using zucchini.

Food Network offers additional content filled with recipes on how to use zucchini in different ways. So, anyone looking for zucchini recipes gets curated content that fits their interests.

You can take a similar approach to your content on your site. It’s an excellent way for you to create a more personalized experience for visitors.

How to personalize web content: Hire content experts

When it comes to personalizing your website content, it’s challenging knowing what will work for your audience. It may take some time and testing to find the right website personalization features that encourages your audience to engage.

If you aren’t feeling confident with implementing these website personalization ideas, WebFX is here to help. With over 20 years of experience, you can feel confident that we know to help you build a more personalized web experience.

Give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online to speak with a strategist about how we can help you personalize your audience’s experience on your site!