A complete guide to B2B personalization (+ examples)

Every marketing team worth its salt delivers tailored experiences to delight prospects across the line –B2B teams included (they are human too, after all!). And if they’re not, their competitors most certainly are.
Read on to get the low down on B2B personalization and why it’s the secret weapon to closing more B2B customers.

The psychology of personalization

People experience a variety of psychological benefits when they experience something tailored to them. Personalization acknowledges their individuality, making them feel valued and understood, conjuring up feelings of relevance, connection and appreciation. It can trigger a sense of reciprocity, where individuals feel inclined to return the effort or gesture. In fact, personalized content experiences can often evoke a sense of familiarity and comfort, building trust and loyalty towards the entity providing the personalization.

So, you can see why more and more businesses are wising up to the persuasive powers of getting personal.

This guide will show you how to not only jump onto the bespoke bandwagon but firmly take the reins.
First things first:

What is B2B personalization?

Personalization in B2B content marketing means customizing your communication to suit each B2B customer. It’s about honing in on their needs and understanding them better, so you can deliver quicker, more fitting experiences. By making them feel understood and valued, you can demonstrate yourself as a trusted partner who genuinely cares about their success.

So, how do you do it?

Well, it starts with collecting data – lots of it. You want to gather as much information as you can about your B2B prospects, from their company size and industry to their past purchases and browsing behavior. Who are the key stakeholders? Who makes the decisions? Then, you use that data to segment your audience into smaller, more targeted groups and create personalized marketing campaigns that speak directly to each segment’s unique needs and interests.

Whether it’s sending personalized emails, offering targeted product recommendations, or creating customized content throughout the customer journey, B2B personalization is all about making meaningful connections and building stronger relationships with key stakeholders. These connections can make all the difference to your bottom line.

What is driving the need for personalization in B2B? 

B2B personalization is not a passing trend – it’s here to stay. But why?

People very clearly want it

About 80% of people have said personalized experiences are important to them. It’s the payoff people increasingly expect for sharing their data and information with you. Research by Salesforce has, in fact, shown that almost 60% of consumers are willing to share personal data in exchange for personalized offers or discounts.

It cuts through the noise

B2B buyers are bombarded with marketing messages from every angle. Emails, ads, social media – everyone’s vying for their attention. In such a crowded marketplace, generic marketing just doesn’t hit the mark. Personalization will cut through the noise and get your message heard.

It increases engagement and drives growth

B2B buyers are more likely to engage with brands that treat them as individuals and make them feel valued by offering personalized experiences. Personalization makes your marketing more relevant and compelling, driving higher engagement and ultimately, more conversions.

Salesforce research has found that high-performing marketing teams are significantly more likely to use web personalization. McKinsey & Company also discovered that effective personalization boosts customer loyalty, basket size, cross-selling, purchase frequency, and beyond.

It builds trust and credibility

Businesses want to work with partners they trust and believe will deliver value. Personalization helps you demonstrate that you’ve done your homework and are genuinely invested in their success. This will establish credibility and strengthen your relationship with them.

It maximizes ROI

Marketers are looking to maximize their return on investment (aren’t we all!). By delivering more relevant and targeted marketing messages, you increase the likelihood that your efforts will resonate with your audience and drive desired outcomes, whether  for inbound lead generation, outbound lead gen and sales or customer retention.

Today’s tools and technology mean you can track and measure the impact of your personalization efforts, allowing you to continually optimize and improve your results.

It helps target high-intent decision-makers

Marketers can use the personalization process to distinguish who the key decision-makers are. (For example, those checking out your pricing pages.) This helps focus internal efforts on those high-value leads, while delivering helpful content to your prospects. It’s a win-win for both sides.

How can B2B sellers adopt personalization?

B2B personalization has come a long way since the early days of ‘Dear [firstname]’ emails. Now it’s pretty effortless and effective – with the right tool.
Turtl combines the data insights and technology that B2B sellers need to swiftly adopt effective personalization campaigns. Here’s how.

Turtl Analytics tracks reader interactions with online documents to define where their interests, values and pain points lie. This helps marketers define their audience and place them into different segments.

Any part of your online document can be personalized – text, pages, images, charts, videos, polls, tables – you decide what to reveal, and what to hide from the master version. Create customized sales proposals that address unique pain points and priorities, send personalized newsletters that deliver more relevant information, switch up brochure content based on location, spotlight a specific solution to make that sale… you get the gist.

The next part of the adoption process then steps up another notch, because personalized Turtl Docs can be scaled for thousands of accounts. You can personalize unlimited sales collateral for unlimited sends – such as online brochures, digital whitepapers, ebooks, and any type of online document such as reports, guides and digital sales presentations.

The result?

• Reader engagement improved by up to 84%
• Conversion rates increased by 88%
• Read time increased by 100%

No more whitepaper PDF downloads or set-in-stone business brochures – but dynamic, personalized content that’s backed by data and designed for individual humans. Read exactly why you should switch your PDF whitepaper to an online document.

B2B personalization examples

Let’s take a look at how Turtl customers have used personalized online documents to their advantage:

Turtl + Telenet + LeadFabric

By using Turtl to create highly engaging content and to gather actionable audience insights, Telenet and LeadFabric created a powerful content feedback loop with impressive results:

• 4 minute average read time
• 88% conversion rate
• 1400 leads generated in 60 days
• 10x more subscriptions
• 4x more meetings booked
• 11% bounce rate

Click to read Telenet + LeadFabric + Turtl | Case Study

Turtl + Community Brands

When software provider Community Brands used Turtl to create their digital content, the benefits quickly became apparent:

• Average read time more than doubled from 2 mins to 4 mins 42 secs for personalized post-demo Turtl Docs
• The bounce rate for personalized sales collateral dropped from 33% to 15%
• Turtl Analytics facilitated faster, easier decision-making on who to follow up with
• Content shelf life extended due to easy sharing, real-time updates, and ability to be atomized for distribution through different channels
• Personalized post-demo Turtl Docs could be shared (and tracked) to decision-makers

Click to read Community Brands + Turtl | Case Study

Turtl + Unit4

Recruitment and enterprise software company, Unit4, not only streamlined the creation process through Turtl but made sure each and every customer received the right content for their needs.

By implementing Turtl to create personalized welcome kits for new customers, Unit4 saw an immediate jump in performance:

• 8x engagement with personalized docs
• 50% reduction in bounce rate
• Onboarding kits were translated into 10 local language versions, resulting in read times being 4x higher compared to previous iterations
• 39% of customers returned to the documents multiple times
• Videos in personalized welcome kits were also viewed for 8 mins on average, compared to 1 min in standard kits

Unit4 gained a greater understanding of the most and least important subjects for new customers, enabling them to craft new content and deliver even better experiences moving forward.

Click to read Unit4 + Turtl | Case Study