The Personalization Imperative - INSIGHTS AND EXAMPLES FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES & INSURANCE - Evergage
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The Personalization
Imperative
INSIGHTS AND EXAMPLES FOR
FINANCIAL SERVICES & INSURANCE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PERSONALIZATION OVERVIEW
THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE 03
THE IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL 04
PERSONALIZATION IS THE ANSWER 05
ELEMENTS OF PERSONALIZATION 06
PERSONALIZATION USE CASES
PRESENT RELEVANT IMAGES, CTAS AND MORE
PERSONALIZE BASED ON REFERRING SOURCE 07
USE THIRD-PARTY DATA TO TARGET BASED ON DEMOGRAPHICS/LIFE STAGE 08
DISPLAY RELEVANT CTAS BASED ON LIFECYCLE STAGE 09
DELIVER RELEVANT EXIT INTENT MESSAGES 10
HELP PROSPECTS FIND APPROPRIATE RESOURCES
HIGHLIGHT RELEVANT RESOURCES ACROSS THE SITE 11
RECOMMEND APPROPRIATE NEXT BLOG POST 12
DELIVER INDIVIDUALIZED SEARCH RESULTS 13
ENCOURAGE CONTENT CONSUMPTION WITH SOCIAL PROOF 14
PROMOTE RELEVANT PRODUCT CATEGORIES 15
PROVIDE APPROPRIATE PRODUCT SUGGESTIONS 16
COMMUNICATE WITH CUSTOMERS
DELIVER TARGETED IN-APP MESSAGES TO CUSTOMERS 17
APPROPRIATELY TIME AND TARGET UPSELL/CROSS-SELL MESSAGES 18
PERSONALIZE ACROSS CHANNELS
TRIGGER AND PERSONALIZE EMAILS IN REAL TIME 19
DON’T FORGET THE HUMAN CHANNELS 20
CREATE PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCES ON MOBILE DEVICES 21
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 2
The Personalization Imperative
INSIGHTS AND EXAMPLES FOR FINANCIAL
SERVICES & INSURANCE
In today’s world, consumers expect a tailored customer experience from the
brands they do business with. They expect those experiences to be helpful,
enjoyable and relevant. Why is that? More and more companies are providing
personalized experiences across digital and in-person channels — beyond just the
first few brands that may come to mind like Amazon, Netflix and Spotify. And as
more companies provide unique and personalized experiences, the more obvious
it becomes when a company does not. This is true across industries. Consumers
don’t just compare their experiences from bank to bank, insurance provider to
insurance provider, brokerage firm to brokerage firm. They compare against
all the experiences they have.
Marketing to people as individuals with targeted, personalized experiences can no
longer be an afterthought or a “nice-to-have” for financial institutions. It’s essential.
In this eBook, we’ll outline why personalization
is so critical for the financial services industry
and provide examples of how to best leverage
real-time personalization to provide helpful
and unique experiences for your prospects
and customers.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 3
The Importance of Digital
Before we get into the importance of personalizing digital experiences, we have to talk about
the importance of digital channels overall. The typical digital consumer owns an average of 3.64
connected devices.1 The percentage of Americans that own a smartphone is up to 77%.2 And it
is estimated that US adults will spend 3 hours, 17 minutes a day using a mobile device this year.3
Clearly, digital is an important channel for marketers across industries. But just how important is it
for financial services companies in particular? The data now shows that among financial services
customers, a preference for digital-only interactions now surpasses omnichannel.
PwC found that the digital-only banking customers segment has grown dramatically in the last
five years. In 2012, 27% of customers were interacting with banks via digital devices only. Now
that number has grown to 46%. Meanwhile, the percentage of customers that interact with banks
in both physical and digital channels (omnichannel customers) has shrunk from 57% to 45%.4
While the growth in digital channels
does not mean that physical
channels such as branches or call
centers are not important, it does
mean that as a financial services
marketer, your digital experience is
more critical than ever. As more and
more customers opt to interact with
you solely in the digital world, they
will not have the benefit of speaking
with a real person to provide a good
The percentage of customers that interact with their banks solely in customer experience. Your digital
digital channels has grown from 27% in 2012 to 46% in 2017. channels will need to provide that
experience on their own.
1
Global Web Index, “Digital consumers own 3.64 connected devices,” Feb 2016.
2
Pew Research Center, “Mobile Fact Sheet,” Jan 2017.
3
eMarketer, “US Time Spent with Mobile: A Deep Dive into Mobile App and Web Time.” Jan 2017.
4
PwC, “(Don’t) take it to the bank: What customers want in the digital age,” May 2017.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 4
Personalization Is the Answer
So how can you provide a great digital experience that appeals to each person across your digital
channels? Personalization. With real-time personalization, you can surface relevant content to key
segments and to each individual person, display the right calls-to-action (CTAs) to guide visitors
through the research phase, cross-sell products based on customer intent, and more.
This might sound obvious, yet roughly 40% of all but the very largest financial institutions consider
themselves “static,” meaning they offer no personalization within their applications.5
5
Jim Marous, “The Power of Personalization in Banking,” Mar 2016.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 5
Elements of Personalization
Before we continue, let’s define what we mean by personalization.
It includes the ability to:
1 Track in-depth behavioral data across
each marketing channel
Centralize all that behavioral data, combine it with any
2 additional sources of customer or visitor data, and merge
it in a single unified profile for each individual person
Analyze and interpret that data to understand what
3 it means, including each person’s preferences and
in-the-moment intent
Act on that data in real time to affect the person’s
4 digital experience, tailoring it to the individual to
improve relevance
With this explanation in mind, in the rest of this eBook, we’ll outline several key use cases for
personalization in financial services. Whether you are a seasoned personalization pro, just getting
started with personalization, or simply thinking about how it applies to your organization, these
use cases will be valuable when planning your personalization strategy and campaigns.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 6
Present Relevant Images, CTAs and More
It’s critical that you catch the attention of each and every visitor that lands on your site by proving that your
company is relevant to their needs. The good news is that there is a lot of data you can use to personalize
someone’s experience on your site, even first-time visitors. Use that data to create subtle changes to images,
headlines, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, and more across each person’s experience on your site.
PERSONALIZE BASED ON REFERRING SOURCE
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
When you run an email, social or online ad campaign, A visitor’s personalized experience doesn’t need to end the
you often create landing pages that relate specifically second he leaves a landing page. Leverage personalization to
to the content or offer you are promoting. You may even subtly modify the visitor’s experience throughout your site – in
already apply some personalization to those landing pages the current visit or any future visit – to continue the conversation
based on the source. But what happens when the visitor begun by that campaign and landing page.
leaves that page? The referring source or campaign provides
a strong hint into what each visitor is interested in, yet
many sites do not use that information to personalize
the visitor’s experience going forward.
This site shows a homepage that is personalized to be relevant based on a visitor’s referring campaign – from the
copy to the images, CTAs and content recommendations. For example, visitors who come in through a dental financing
campaign are shown a dental financing version of the homepage.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 7
Present Relevant Images, CTAs and More
USE THIRD-PARTY DATA TO TARGET BASED ON DEMOGRAPHICS/LIFE STAGE
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
A first impression can often make the difference between Demographics can provide a good starting point to identify
a visitor continuing to explore a site, or abandoning to look what a person may be interested in on your site. By connecting
elsewhere. But instantly appealing to all visitors can be your personalization platform with third-party data provider
difficult because each person has unique needs that you such as a DMP, you can display relevant offers and messages
may not be able to determine right away. How can you to different demographic segments to make a strong first
make a good first impression if you don’t know anything impression.
about a new visitor?
This site caters to different demographics on its auto insurance homepage by displaying relevant offers, headlines and images based
on which demographic segment the visitor falls into. For example, visitors under 25 are directed to offers specific to that age group.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 8
Present Relevant Images, CTAs and More
DISPLAY RELEVANT CTAS BASED ON LIFECYCLE STAGE
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Calls-to-actions (CTAs) are often tested extensively for Dynamically modifying your CTAs to promote different actions
optimal copy, color, size, placement and more. Those depending on where a visitor is in her journey is an easy way
tests are generally run to show how the CTA performs to be subtly relevant to your visitors and make the most of the
for all visitors. But different visitors have different needs real estate on your site. Guide new visitors to the resources that
and interests. Some are new visitors looking for more will help them get more information, help returning visitors pick
information, some are returning visitors deep into the up where they left off, and show returning customers that you
research stage, and others are already customers. For recognize them. You can even show a new CTA once the visitor
critical web real estate, such as the hero section of your has already taken the first recommended action.
homepage, you don’t want to pass up the opportunity
to be relevant to each person.
The CTAs in the hero image of the homepage of this site change depending on where the visitor is in his lifecycle. New
visitors may see a “How It Works” button and relevant navigation options (“Learn,” “Apply,” etc.) while existing customers
see a “Manage My Account” button and options like “Helpful Resources.”
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 9
Present Relevant Images, CTAs and More
DELIVER RELEVANT EXIT INTENT MESSAGES
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
As someone is leaving your site, you have one last chance If you are using an exit message, personalize the content
to be relevant to them. Marketers across industries often of that message to maximize your chances of keeping the
leverage exit intent (also called “bounce”) messages to visitor on your site. Whether providing more information
attempt to forestall visitors from leaving. But they are on a category they were exploring, pointing them to
often treated as a last-ditch effort to keep someone on the appropriate resources, or providing some other relevant
site. As a result, those marketers miss the opportunity to content based on their interests, a personalized message
provide a relevant message that has a better chance of is far more likely to be effective than a generic one.
catching someone’s attention.
Rather than provide a generic exit message that could be annoying to the visitor, this site displays
a testimonial selected based on the persona the visitor best fits.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 10 Help Prospects Find Appropriate Resources
Your financial services site likely has a variety of products, offers and content to share with visitors. One of
the main goals of the site is to help each person find those products, offers and content that best match their
individual needs. Rather than display one-size-fits-all experiences across your site, one-to-one personalization
allows you to surface the content that will be the most relevant to each individual in a subtle way.
HIGHLIGHT RELEVANT RESOURCES ACROSS THE SITE
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Most financial services institutions offer a wide array of Content recommendations across your site can improve
content across different formats and topics. The challenge discovery and engagement with your content assets even
is surfacing that content so that each visitor can find the when someone is not specifically in the blog or resources
right information they need. If they can’t find something section. Of course, you shouldn’t just promote any content,
relevant, they’re more likely to abandon the site. you should recommend those resources, guides and articles
that are most relevant to each person based on all the data
you know or infer about them — stage of life, topic preferences,
products used (if they are customers), etc.
This site recommends content on the homepage that is related to a person’s interests,
encouraging deeper engagement with the site’s content.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 11 Help Prospects Find Appropriate Resources
RECOMMEND APPROPRIATE NEXT BLOG POST
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Chances are, many of your blog readers come in through Relevant blog recommendations are critical to driving
a search engine. They may not be looking to engage with visitors deeper into your blog and boosting your brand
your company specifically — they are simply looking to exposure. Leveraging all you know about the visitor, you can
get an answer to a question or learn more about a specific algorithmically determine the best posts to surface for each
topic. How can you encourage those readers to stay on the reader. Even for first-time visitors, you can display the most
site after that first blog post? recent blog post a reader hasn’t read before in the category
they are currently viewing.
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If you’re an adventure enthusiast looking for a budget friendly option
then purchasing a pre-owned ATV is the right choice!
READ ARTICLE
This site displays relevant blog article recommendations along the left side of the screen. Driven by machine-learning
algorithms, the recommendations are unique to each blog reader based on attribute and behavioral data.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 12 Help Prospects Find Appropriate Resources
DELIVER INDIVIDUALIZED SEARCH RESULTS
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Visitors who use the search bar on your site are explicitly Shorten the process by providing relevant search results
telling you what they want. Yet most sites, regardless of directly in the search bar itself. But don’t display just
industry, don’t use this data to affect a visitor’s experience. any search results — tailor and sort them based on the
After visitors do a search, they make them navigate to a preferences of each person. Show them the top results
lengthy search results page and scroll through the results that align to the topics and categories they have shown the
until they find something that catches their eye. When it most interest in on the site so they will be more likely to click
takes too long to get to a relevant search result, you try through and engage with the content.
the person’s patience and risk losing their interest.
This site provides a personalized experience by delivering search results directly into the search box — tailored to the content
preferences of each person. For example, if a person searches for “buying car,” she can be shown various promotions and content
around car buying directly into the search bar, individualized to her preferences.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 13 Help Prospects Find Appropriate Resources
ENCOURAGE CONTENT CONSUMPTION WITH SOCIAL PROOF
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
If you provide content resources on your financial services Real-time counters of the number of viewers who have
site, it’s essential that readers feel they can trust the source. read an article that day or are viewing that article now are
How can you quickly show that your company is a trusted a powerful (and easy) way to provide social proof that your
resource to visitors who may be unfamiliar with you? content is relevant to others. This tactic is an eye-catching
way to establish the credibility of your site as a reliable
source of financial services information.
10 TIPS FOR BUYING A PRE-OWNED ATV
If you’re an adventure enthusiast looking for a budget friendly option
then purchasing a pre-owned ATV is the right choice!
READ ARTICLE
This blog displays real-time counters of visitors who have read each article that day to provide social proof and establish credibility.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 14 Help Prospects Find Appropriate Resources
PROMOTE RELEVANT PRODUCT CATEGORIES
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Many financial products and services have long By taking note of a person’s engagement with different
consideration timeframes. Researchers in the market for a product or content categories on the site, as well as a host
credit card or insurance plan may shop around to different of other factors such as referral source or keyword, stage
websites multiple times before making a purchase. How of life, etc., you can identify the categories most likely to
can you show visitors that you understand what they interest each visitor and highlight them prominently on your
are looking for and provide them with the appropriate homepage to encourage deeper exploration of your site.
resources to further their research?
After a visitor has spent some time engaging with a bank’s credit card content, the next time she visits the site’s homepage
(whether it is during that session or a later one) she can be presented with content pertaining to that product category.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 15 Help Prospects Find Appropriate Resources
PROVIDE APPROPRIATE PRODUCT SUGGESTIONS
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Product suggestions are nothing new to most digital Whether you are promoting credit cards, insurance plans,
marketers, but one of the toughest challenges is making mutual funds, or anything else to prospects or customers,
sure those suggestions are relevant and effective. How machine-learning algorithms can ensure that each individual
can you make sure your product suggestions are actually is shown the most relevant options. Surface the most
relevant to each site visitor? recently viewed, trending, newest, etc. options and then
personalize those suggestions to each person by boosting
the features that are most important to each person.
URFUNDS
This site shows funds that have been recently viewed by the visitor or are trending on the site, tailored to each person’s individual
fund type affinities, helping visitors find those funds they are most likely to be interested in.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 16 Communicate with Customers
Once a prospect becomes a customer, the need for personalized experiences isn’t over. Your customers
are thinking about you while they are managing their accounts, so you can use this time to engage with them.
Whether you are delivering targeted communications to make their logged-in experiences easier or delivering
appropriate upsell or cross-sell messages, treating your customers like you know them is critical to providing
good customer service.
DELIVER TARGETED IN-APP MESSAGES TO CUSTOMERS
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Anyone who manages a logged-in experience knows the There are many ways to use behavioral data to personalize
pain of messaging to existing customers. You want them to a customer’s experience, including identifying when users
get the most out of their experience, which means making need help and suggesting relevant resources, pointing out
them aware of all the features you have to offer. But you valuable features they have missed, drawing their limited
don’t want to annoy them by pointing out features all of the attention to related products and content, and identifying
time. How can you help your customers get the most out of churn risks. The trick is to time messages appropriately
your account management tools? based on what each individual’s behavior tells you about
their in-the-moment intent.
When customers appear to be struggling to complete a certain task in their accounts, this site delivers real-time callout
messages that ask them if they need help and provide tips to guide them through the process.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 17 Communicate with Customers
APPROPRIATELY TIME AND TARGET UPSELL/CROSS-SELL MESSAGES
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Your customers are just that — customers. They have Rather than promote additional products or services
already invested time and money in their relationships with randomly, use the data you already have (and are
you. They don’t want to feel like they are being spammed constantly accumulating) about your customers. You
with ads for other products or services — particular those can do this by leveraging your CRM data to learn what
products they have already purchased. How can you products the customer doesn’t already have, and using
ensure that your upsell/cross-sell messages don’t annoy behavioral tracking to gauge interest in other specific
your existing customers? products or guides.
When an auto insurance customer shows interest in a home insurance offer, this site recognizes his intent and presents an offer for
bundling auto and home insurance. This allows the site to illustrate a key benefit of selecting its insurance over a competitor’s.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 18 Personalize Across Channels
Personalization isn’t just limited to your website. Your email campaigns, mobile experience and even your
branch, call center or chat interactions should deliver the same level of personalization as your website.
In these channels, you want to enhance your ongoing relationship with your customers, create consistency
across touchpoints, foster loyalty, and help prospects and customers find what they are looking for.
TRIGGER AND PERSONALIZE EMAILS IN REAL TIME
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
Email remains a critical channel for marketers across Approach your emails with personalization in two ways:
industries. The number of emails sent and received daily is triggered at the right time and personalized to reflect the
expected to grow at an average rate of 4.4%, reaching 319.6 most relevant content possible. When you send emails
billion by the end of 2021.6 This volume of emails has driven triggered based on a person’s actions and leverage all you
consumers to ignore many of the emails they receive. How know about them to personalize the content when the email
can your emails to prospects and customers stand out? is opened, you can ensure that your emails are tailored to the
individual to help you capture their attention.
6
The Radicati Group, “Email Statistics Report, 2017-2021,” Feb 2017.
When a person starts an application for a credit card but abandons the site before completing it, the bank can send a triggered email reminding her
of her incomplete application. The email can also be personalized at open time to deliver suggestions for other credit cards if she has changed her
mind about the one she was researching, suggestions for other products and services, or credit card-related articles that she has not yet read.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 19 Personalize Across Channels
DON’T FORGET THE HUMAN CHANNELS
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
The human channel is, in some ways, the most obvious Don’t forget that the same valuable information that you
form of personalization; it’s very easy to provide a collect online can also be passed on to call center, chat, or
personalized experience to a customer when you’re in branch personnel to deliver more relevant live customer
a one-on-one conversation. At the same time, it’s also interactions. All of that data is critical to understanding
the least considered form of personalization, as many each person and can be used to show customers that
marketers do not realize that they can use the same you understand them and can provide them with a truly
principles and data to power their human-based customer personalized experience that fosters loyalty.
interactions just as they do their digital interactions.
When a person who has been researching credit cards on a website dials the call center for assistance or initiates an online chat session,
the support agent has access to the person’s site behavior when he identifies himself. With access to that data, the agent sees what his
preferences are and what he has been researching, so the agent can provide the most relevant assistance possible.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 20 Personalize Across Channels
CREATE PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCES ON MOBILE DEVICES
CHALLENGE SOLUTION
More than a third of consumers say they expect their Consider how your prospects and customers use their
mobile apps and websites to be more personalized over mobile devices and target them with personalization at the
the next three years.7 Yet while marketers are making right time. While you should leverage all of the techniques
strides in their website personalization initiatives, mobile is already outlined in this eBook, you should also create
sometimes an afterthought. unique mobile experiences. Use the the mobile behavioral
data you collect to affect the experience in other channels,
and the behavioral data collected in other channels to
affect mobile experiences as well.
7
Sitecore, “How to Keep Pace with Consumer Expectations,”
conducted by Vanson Bourne, May 2016.
If a person who receives an email to finish requesting a quote clicks through the email on her mobile device, the mobile site should
recognize her and provide personalized experiences based on everything it knows about her from the desktop site. This includes any
product or content suggestions, homepage experiences, CTAs, and more.
© 2018 EVERGAGE, INC THE PERSONALIZATION IMPERATIVE | 21START PERSONALIZING TODAY
The possibilities for personalization for financial services and insurance companies are endless, but the
use cases described in this eBook should give you a good foundation to start brainstorming and planning.
As a next step, make sure you find the right partner to help you establish your personalization strategy and
implement campaigns that improve engagement, provide better customer experiences and build loyalty.
About Evergage
Evergage’s real-time personalization platform delivers The Power of 1, enabling digital
marketers to transform the dream of 1:1 customer engagement into reality. Combining
in-depth behavioral analytics and customer data with advanced machine learning,
Evergage provides the one platform you need to systematically understand and interact
with each person that visits your site or uses your app – one at a time, “in the moment”
and at scale – to deliver a maximally relevant, individualized experience.
Contact Evergage at 888-310-0589 to speak
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