Balancing Personalization in a Global Market Strategy

We live in a digital age where marketplace landscapes defy physical boundaries. Your customers seek out information about your products online long before they make a buying decision. How do you work within the confines of a global strategy or framework and make it relevant to your local market? Marketers must understand how to balance personalization in a global digital marketplace. 

At Tenlo, we believe that the best strategy is to take a data-driven approach that allows for an agile marketing strategy to test, optimize and iterate to convert sales at the global and local level.

Do Your Research

Use digital research to build a SWOT analysis against your competitors and paint a picture of your digital landscape. Google Analytics, SEO keyword research and UX audits are all excellent tools to paint that picture. Qualitative research tactics like stakeholder interviews and surveys do an excellent job of informing personas and buying habits. Use customer journey mapping to validate survey results, identify patterns and highlight local market specific behaviors that should be considered in your plan. UX research that identifies barriers to conversion will greatly inform your design as well as success metrics.

Plan with Flexibility in Mind

The key to success is leveraging global strengths to bring credibility to local market specifics. Your digital marketing plan should be flexible enough to accommodate local search landscapes and UX experiences but deliver on a consistent global message. Having the ability to rapidly align messaging, creative and marketing channels is key to delivering on local market needs. Make sure that your messaging hierarchy leverages global guidelines but plays to local/regional strengths and voice.

Debrief, Build on Learnings, Scale

A test-and-learn approach provides a quick read on the audience’s receptiveness to creative, messaging and media channels within a few short weeks of initial launch. Tenlo’s test-and-learn approach allows us to quickly pivot, manage messaging and hit forecasts. Use the learnings to iterate and refine your tactical plan. Scale your plan based on your results.

3 Key Considerations when Balancing Personalization in a Global Market Strategy

1.     Messaging Hierarchy – Determines the structure of all physical and digital assets and must be consistent among all markets.

2.     Barriers to Conversion – Deliver what the user is looking for without the need to work for it. Be sure all calls-to-action are clear, and complex subject matter is packaged in digestible pieces.

3.     Visual Identity – Ensure that your assets feel like the brand throughout the full customer journey. Your brand should be recognizable no matter where your customer engages – website, email, social media ads, etc.