Mellonaid

Isn’t an experience so much better when it feels personalized and tailored to you? I dream of the day that I can go to McDonald’s and have a personalized experience when ordering (and eating) my golden-brown, extra crispy chicken nuggets and slightly salted fries. According to a recent Epsilon research from 2017, 80 percent of the people surveyed said that they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers a personalized experience. That’s a pretty large majority. As to be expected, businesses are grabbing hold of this statistic and weaving personalization into their products and marketing through the use of interactive media.

What is Interactive Media Anyway?

Interactive media refers to any content that responds to and engages with users. This means that it can be print, digital, or a combination of both. Elements such as text, graphics, videos and sounds are forms of interactive media that can be used to enhance user experience. And user experience is the golden key to being impressive and yielding results. By allowing users to participate and by reciprocating their actions with real-time feedback, brands are giving users more enjoyable and interesting experiences—and that is something invaluable for brand presence.

What Do We Mean When We Refer to ‘Personalization’?

Now that we understand what interactive media is, let’s think about what personalization is. Personalization can fundamentally be defined as interacting with consumers based on their unique interests and desires. In marketing, this means analyzing data and identifying consumer preferences in order to create relevant and customized dialogue. Being able to connect with consumers through personalization is insanely advantageous. It lets current and potential customers know that your brand invests in them. More importantly, it portrays the idea that your brand knows them including all of their likes and dislikes. How can they turn down a brand that seems to know exactly what they want and are looking for?

Why Do Consumers Seek Personalization?

Consumers seek personalization because they are busy. Let’s face it: They have jobs and kids, dogs and chores to take care of. They don’t have time to engage in conversations that don’t fulfill their needs. What would you do if you saw a sterile ad that didn’t align with any of your interests or desires? You would probably disregard it, not even giving it a second glance. That’s exactly what brands want to prevent and it’s why personalization is so sought-after.

At this point, I think that we can all agree that personalization is important in reaching your brand’s target consumers. Yet research from Rapt Media, an interactive video technology provider, indicates that 83% of marketers have trouble producing personalized content. Why is this significant? Because lack of personalization can lead to consumers choosing other brands over yours.

Why Is Interactive Media Personalization Important?

In this day and age, consumers have endless choices and they are sharply looking for brands that engage meaningfully and personally. I daresay that they even crave and expect it. Everyone wants to feel understood, valued and like they are connecting with brands on a deeper level. This is where interactive media plays a critical role.

Content that is interactive allows personalization to flourish. It gives users the ability to actively participate and engage with a brand. When users feel like they have had a great experience that is personal and captivating, they make note of it. They remember it and will look forward to interacting with your brand again. This increase in brand recognition and interaction can lead to a boost in market presence, immense growth and notoriety.

Conclusion

With digital technology advancing and trends climbing towards customization, interactive media personalization plays a critical role in connecting brands with consumers. In order to be relevant, brands must engage with their consumers in unique ways and take advantage of new ways to interact with them. This idea of personalization is transforming how brands reach their consumers and subsequently build meaningful conversations for their tailored offerings.

Carefully considering strategy, content and the use of interactive media will help businesses to respond to consumers more effectively and with better results. Analyzing consumer data and applying it in smarter, more thoughtful applications is how brands can stay ahead of their competitors. Consumer preferences change constantly and brands need to possess evolving strategies centered around the consumer in order to successfully grow.

With all of that being said, you can bet that we’ll be practicing what we preach here at Mellonaid! Creating personal touches is what we live for, and we see immense opportunity in using interactive media to do so.