Personalization has grown from being a buzzword in marketing to an essential cog in the SEO machine. There are no two ways about the fact that readers today expect a greater push towards personable and contextually relevant content.
Tip: A 2022 McKinsey study showed that 71% of consumers expect personalized experiences, and brands that personalize effectively generate 40% more revenue. For example, an Indian ed-tech startup improved lead conversion rates by 2.3x after personalizing landing pages based on user persona.
For years, personalization has been a vague concept discussed profusely by marketers with no great actionable plan to actually deploy it. Now, we see a different outlook on things. SEOs have started implementing personalization tactics with actual concrete techniques. SEOs are not alone in this push. From paid newspaper marketing to TV ads, every bit of marketing space has advertisers trying to strike a chord with customers says Gaurav Heera.
Tip: Netflix and Amazon have built billion-dollar growth models purely on personalization. A small SaaS brand in Bangalore replicated this approach for email content personalization and increased paid signups by 38% in 60 days.
In this rush for personalizing content for the target audience, a newcomer may find the concept a bit difficult to comprehend. While it may seem easy in theory, writing a piece of content actually tailored to a given set of audience is not easy. It requires the use of some common basics and other finer tools which may not seem apparent at first.
Tip: A Delhi-based fitness blogger segmented his audience into beginners, intermediate and advanced users, and offered personalized workout PDFs. His email open rate grew from 11% to 49%, and memberships increased by 5x in 3 months.
In this article, we discuss the basics of personalization which are most applicable while writing SEO-optimal content.
Tip: Research shows that personalized blog content can reduce bounce rate by up to 30%, helping pages rank longer in search results.
Country
Perhaps the first thing a writer can address is whether a given piece of content is relevant to the audience by checking whether the people of a given country understand it.
Tip: A US auto accessories company saw poor conversions in India because their content referenced US driving laws. After rewriting product pages with Indian context and pricing, conversions increased by 71%.
For instance, consider you run an e-commerce website and plan to run a marketing blitz combining SEO content and social media. In a country like India, the festive season is set between October and November around the time of Diwali. If to an Indian audience, the marketing blitz is done around the time of Christmas, there is bound to be some form of dissonance says Gaurav Heera.
Tip: A Delhi-based electronics brand launched Diwali discounts 30 days early based on keyword trend analysis, resulting in 3X more sales compared to previous years.
Similarly, in a Middle-Eastern country, the festive season will be around the time of Eid. These finer details have played a huge role in personalization. If you want your marketing blitz to be successful in India, make sure you run it around the time of Diwali. If your target audience is in the US, the Christmas period is the right time.
Tip: A global clothing brand localized campaigns for Eid in UAE, Diwali in India and Christmas in the US, resulting in 47% higher seasonal revenue worldwide.
Locality
Let’s continue with the same example. You plan on running a marketing blitz in India through SEO content and social media during the Diwali season.
Tip: A Delhi bakery brand ran Diwali SEO and social ads targeting South Delhi only and reported 200+ walk-in sales per day, compared to just 35 earlier.
This will only work if your target audience is North Indian. In South India, the festive season is around the time of Pongal and Onam. Thus, understanding the specifics of a country may not always be enough. In a country like India rich with diversity, understanding deeper local contexts becomes even more important says Gaurav Heera.
Tip: Zomato uses hyperlocal personalization like “Hyderabadi Biryani Offers Today” which increases CTR dramatically. Their regional campaign in Chennai improved app installs by 63% within 2 weeks.
Interests
Geography is not the only factor. People can also be segmented based on their interests. By creating content tailor-made to attract a community of people sharing a common interest, brands can cut across borders and reach a worldwide audience.
Tip: A gaming YouTuber in India created content around PUBG Mobile leaks instead of generic gaming news, and gained 900,000 subscribers in 8 months because of interest-based personalization.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, this article covers the basics of personalization and how basic tools can be used to induce personalization in content.
Tip: A SaaS company created three landing pages for different user segments—freelancers, agencies, and enterprises. Conversion rate increased from 2.2% to 9.6%, showing how personalization produces exponential ROI.
About the Author
About the Author – Gaurav Heera is a digital marketing trainer and writer with many years of experience in the field. He often writes guest posts for Delhi Courses, an institute known for its digital marketing course in Delhi.
Tip: Gaurav has trained 20,000+ learners, many of whom now lead digital teams in startups around India, proving the long-term impact of practical digital marketing education.