Message personalization is often done in emails by adding the customer’s name to the subject, adjusting send time based on user location.

Personalization has become a buzzword in marketing and service industries, but oftentimes what’s being offered is information that can be captured by age and location data.

True personalization is not just about the static data that you can collect from someone’s identity. It also includes their behavior in your product, as well as tailoring your messages around them.

But as your company starts to scale, and more and more people start using your product, the number of behaviors grows exponentially.

Here’s our best practice advice to getting behavior-based messaging right.

DECIDE WHAT ACTIONS WARRANT A MESSAGE

Different actions require different responses. For example, if the user adds 5 teammates to a project it may be appropriate for you to immediately notify them that new team members have joined the group.

If you’re unsure of what your product should do to be more successful, start by asking yourself these two questions: What do customers consider the ideal end state? What is their ultimate goal when using this product? These are the actions that your products should encourage.

PRIORITIZE YOUR MESSAGES

You might be tempted to sign up for a new productivity app in addition to inviting your first teammate and creating your first task not long after.

Like a falling chain of dominoes, sometimes messages repeatedly hit your inbox until they run out. To end the chain, you unsubscribe.

Rather than sending messages for every single action, directors may find better success by following and engaging with new users.

When designing an email drip campaign, event-triggered emails can miss the mark. They’re not responsive enough to how customers use your product in different ways or recognize people’s nonlinear journeys from point A to B to C.

When sending multiple, behavior-based messages in a row, make sure their priority and do not send them close together or you risk overwhelming your users.

IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT FEATURE USAGE DATA

To deliver meaningful 1:1 personalization at scale, leverage all available context signals.

When working with this customer, ask yourself: What else do we know about them?

» Have they seen previous messages?

» Do they often visit the knowledge base?

» What size are they?

» Are they no longer receiving marketing communications?

When delivering relevant messages to customers, it is important to take into account both qualitative and quantitative data. For example, if you are trying to reach a high-value customer who has contacted customer support many times already this month, then your message will have to correspond with that information.

Proper segmentation becomes the key to sound customer engagement strategies, regardless of your company size. “Spray and pray” messages are no longer needed as soon as you properly identify segments that would be most receptive or needful of your product or service.