Specifically: Website personalization and real-time targeting using the example of utilities and municipal utilities
Website personalization is seen by many as an exceptionally theoretical subject. You know that the idea is theoretically good and right, but you can’t really imagine how it should be used on your own website.
With this example, we would like to show a concrete application case to raise the important topic from the theoretical level to the real business world. We have chosen an industry that everyone knows: energy suppliers. Let’s go.
However, many companies find it hard to imagine how a personalization strategy can be applied to their own company site.
But the use of website personalization and real-time targeting does not mean that the whole site needs to be relaunched.
Using a specific example, we demonstrate how small changes can have a major impact. The case can be applied to large electricity providers as well as to regional companies in the energy sector or municipal utilities.
Table of Contents
Geolocation: Easy entry with big implications for business in the area
For those of you who are wondering why you should personalize a website at all, we take up the customer segmentation of our example company here. An energy company’s customers are more segmented than you might think. Everybody needs electricity, but different customer groups have very different needs.
An energy supplier in a large city ideally supplies not only the inhabitants of the city but also customers from the nearby area. Of course, they have to be addressed differently from the inhabitants of the city, and their lifestyle means that they also have completely different requirements.
In Universal Messenger, the access point is automatically recorded and stored every time a website is visited.
The evaluation of the IP address and thus the assignment of a website visitor to his respective access point is so simple.
Best Practice: Geolocation for Utilities
Businesses in the surrounding area can be very lucrative for utilities, but marketing can be hard. Many potential customers are unaware that the electricity provider from the nearest city also offers a tariff for their own home.
Example: If the visitor accesses the website directly from the city, the following view is used.
The following personalized elements can be identified:
- Image with a clear focus on the city
- The intro text creates proximity and local color
- The teasers adapt to the usage situation, e.g. moving into your first home.
- In addition, the teasers enable an evaluation of click behavior, but more on this later.
Counterexample: If a website visitor from the nearby area accesses the website of the electricity provider, the website changes automatically in the following areas:
- Stage or imagery
- Title and the intro-text
- Related link
The visual language places a stronger focus on nature and ecological aspects. The teasers also underscore the central message for potential customers in the area, namely that electricity can also be supplied at home. The part is reinforced by the link to “Energy for the Region”.
For such anonymous personalization, the electricity provider does not require any other data than the IP address of the website user. Despite the small amount of information about the visitor, comprehensive targeting can take place that responds to special wishes and needs and delivers the corresponding content. Thus, the question of the relevance of the provider is clearly clarified, and the customer feels well understood and in safe hands.
Next step: Skillful personalization according to target groups
The above-described personalization methods of the website can be used before the user has even made a single click on the website. However, the limits of personalization possibilities are far from being reached. Also, the behavior of anonymous users can be specifically evaluated. Thus, users can be assigned to a target group, whereby further personalization can take place depending on the target group affiliation.
This can be done naturally by the Universal Messenger, for instance on the basis of the scoring method. Content is assigned a previously agreed score, with clicks on the corresponding content the user collects scoring points in this topic area. If a user clicks on ” offers for families” at the top of the screenshot, he or she will be assigned a corresponding score for the family topic.
The more content clicked on a particular topic, for example, “family,” the more clearly the target group is defined. As soon as a user can be sorted accordingly, the content can of course also be customized in the mobile website view, as the following example shows.
Here, too, the images and texts have been adapted, and corresponding products and offers teased, in this example a baby bonus. The more accurately the target group can be defined, the more accurately it can be explained. This makes it significantly easier to attract new customers since the relevance of certain products and offers are automatically determined even for anonymous users.
For municipal utilities, personalization in several divisions
business areas can serve as a specific blueprint for cross-divisional personalization, for example, for municipal utilities that offer not only energy but also other services such as swimming pools, waste disposal, and the like.
If a user is already assigned to a target group, such as the “family” target group, this information can be used for cross-departmental personalization. Thus, a father not only has certain requirements for his electricity price but is probably also the right customer for a transport offer for schoolchildren. Custom web development services open up new market segments for website users across all areas.
The user can also have options to “manually” adjust the score. If other personalization categories are offered for selection, scoring can be refined as needed. Such navigation also provides other target groups with direct access to the areas of the website that are relevant to them. For the website operator, this implies that the scoring model can be implemented faster.
Conclusion
Website personalization does not have to be a dive into the depths. Simple customizations allow existing content to be used for a personalization strategy. In addition, information that has already collected after conversion can be used. Thus, website personalization can be extended from new customers to existing customers to promote customer loyalty.
- Personalized content can likewise be demonstrated to anonymous site users
- Small changes can have a huge impact
- Website personalization is extensible and can be expanded after a conversion
