Building Unique User Experiences: A Guide to WordPress Content Personalisation

Personalised content is an indispensable tool that can drive higher engagement, elevate conversion rates, foster customer loyalty, and give your company a distinct edge over competitors who rely on generic brand messaging.

Consider this: would you rather buy a product from a website that presents you with uninspired content that can be found anywhere? Or from one that understands your unique needs and preferences? Seems like an obvious choice. 

With personalised content, visitors will stay on your website longer, actively engage with your content, and even return for more. 

What’s more, they’re more likely to recommend your brand to others, creating a ripple effect of positive word-of-mouth.

Sounds pretty sweet, right?  

Luckily for us, there are plenty of tools and strategies available to help you achieve this on your WordPress site.

In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at content personalisation in WordPress. We’ll outline the key strategies for content personalisation, and conclude with some useful WordPress plugins.

So, whether you’re completely new to the subject or just looking to improve your existing personalisation methods, there’s something here for everyone.

What is Personalised Content?

Content personalisation means delivering customised content to each visitor on your website based on what you know about them. 

This can include things like:

• Interests
• Location
• Preferences
• Traffic source (organic search, paid traffic, referral links, etc.) 
• Behaviour (other pages they’ve visited, how long they spend on the site, etc.)
• Demographics 

When implemented correctly, personalisation allows you to create a supercharged and responsive user experience that keeps users engaged and encourages them to return to your site.

With content personalisation, you can provide a similar experience to having a knowledgeable salesperson in a brick-and-mortar store who remembers your purchase history, preferences, and recommends products that fit your interests.

It’s just like how a good salesperson’s personalised approach makes you feel more comfortable and understood. By showing your visitors personalised content based on their previous interactions with your site, you can make them feel more connected and engaged with your brand.

For instance, you can offer product recommendations, suggest relevant blog posts, or provide personalised offers based on their previous history.

Why Personalise Your Website Content?

There are plenty of reasons why you should start personalising content on your WordPress website, including:

• Increased engagement
• Improved conversion rates
• Customer Loyalty
• Competitive advantage
• Higher revenue

Increased Engagement

When visitors come to your website and find content tailored to their interests, they are more likely to stay to see more of what you offer. You can even take it further by providing them with additional information and next steps relevant to their questions. This can keep them on your website for longer, lower your bounce rate, and ideally give them a nudge down the marketing funnel.

For instance, imagine you have a food blog, and a visitor has shown interest in vegan diets. You can personalise their experience by showing vegan recipes that match their search history or interaction with your website. This could be in the form of a “Recommended For You” section. Doing this makes the experience more personal for the visitor as they feel that their needs and interests are recognised.

Improve Conversion Rates 

Personalising your WordPress content not only keeps your visitors engaged but can also help improve your conversion rates. This means that the more personal your content is, the more likely your visitors will take action on your site, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to your newsletter.

You can achieve this by personalising your website’s messaging and CTAs (calls-to-action). CTAs are buttons or links that encourage users to take a specific action. By tailoring these CTAs to match the user’s interests, you can improve their click-through rate and, as a result, get more conversions.

According to a study by HubSpot, personalised CTAs perform 202% better than generic ones. This means that if you use a personalised CTA targeting a visitor’s specific interests, such as “Get your personalised guide to healthy living”, you’re more likely to get a positive response than a generic CTA like “Click here” or “Download our free guide”.

Customer Loyalty

According to a Salesforce report, 52% of B2C customers switch brands when they don’t get a personalised experience. 

Adding a personal touch to your website can go a long way towards building a strong bond with your customers and a loyal community around your brand. When you directly address your customers’ needs, they feel valued and understood. This creates a sense of loyalty, encouraging repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth referrals. 

Let’s take the example of an online bookstore. You can recommend books based on customers’ past purchases or browsing history using customer data. 

Imagine having a section on your website personalised to each customer, with their name and a heading like “Books Curated Just for You, Dave”. 

Dave feels like you get him. 

So when Dave wants to buy another book next time, he is more likely to return to your website instead of looking for other options.

From his positive experience, he will also be more likely to recommend your bookstore to his friends and family, leading to more loyal customers and increased revenue for your business. By doing this, you can build a community of satisfied customers who feel connected to your brand and are eager to support it.

Competitive Advantage

Tailoring your content to your target audience’s specific needs and challenges can increase your relevance in their eyes and, in turn, give you a competitive advantage over others who use generic messaging.

A simple location-based personalisation on your WordPress e-commerce store can make a massive difference in the customer experience. 

Tailoring your website’s content, pricing, and promotions to each customer’s location can provide a more personalised experience that sets you apart from competitors who use a one-size-fits-all approach. 

For example, you could offer discounts on summer clothing to customers in warmer climates or display pricing in the customer’s local currency. This level of personalisation can give you a competitive advantage in the crowded online marketplace and lead to increased customer loyalty and sales.

Higher Revenue

Along with enhancing customer experience, personalisation directly impacts your revenue.

The engagement, conversion rates, customer loyalty, and competitive advantage you gain create an environment that generates more sales, repeat purchases, and ultimately boosts your business revenue. 

Plus, your sales team can leverage the ability to track a user’s interaction with your website’s content. This allows them to focus on the most promising leads and move them down the sales funnel.

Now that we’ve looked at the benefits of personalisation, let’s explore some of the techniques you can implement to personalise your WordPress website.

The Best Content Personalisation Strategies

1. Tailored Recommendations Based on Past Browsing Behaviour

You know when you’re browsing a website, and it magically seems to know what you’re interested in? That’s because it keeps track of what you’ve looked at and suggests similar stuff you might like. This is especially common on e-commerce sites, news sites, and blogs.

Strategy: This involves analysing users’ past browsing behaviour on your website, such as pages visited and shopping history, to identify their interests and preferences. Then, you leverage this information to offer relevant content or product recommendations for a bespoke user experience.

Example: Amazon analyses your purchase history, items you’ve marked as owned or added to your wishlist, and those you’ve rated. They look at what other customers with similar tastes are doing on the site and suggest other items you may be interested in based on this information. 

They also have a system that analyses your browsing history to predict what you might want in the future and suggest products accordingly.

2. Using Geolocation Data for Personalised Content

Strategy: By incorporating a geolocation plugin, you can capture a visitor’s IP address and use it to filter website content, providing personalised content that is tailored to their location. The plugin can filter location data based on various factors, such as continent, country, state, city, or time zone. 

Example: Macy’s uses a popup, as seen below, to tell their visitors that they ship to their country and offer pricing in their local currency.

3. Referral Source-Based Personalisation

Strategy: This involves customising the content on your web page according to the referral source that led a visitor to your website. Referral sources could be another page on your website, a specific URL or a third-party domain. You can then include or interchange relevant content that matches the particular referral source, improving the user’s experience and engagement.

Example: BlendJet uses personalised content based on the traffic source visitors arrive from, acknowledging that visitors from different sources can have varying interests and characteristics.  For instance, they offer a special welcome to visitors who find them through Instagram and Facebook, as seen in the bottom left corner of the image below.

4. Custom UTM Parameter-Based Personalisation

Strategy: UTM parameters are tags that marketers add to the end of a URL to track campaign performance. Adding custom UTM parameters to your marketing campaigns lets you track every user who arrives on your website through that campaign. 

When a user arrives through a campaign link with UTM parameters, the content on your website will be personalised to align with that campaign. You can customise parts of your landing page content to incorporate the exact search term the user uses before clicking on your ad. This way, your website can provide a direct and personalised answer to the user’s question.

Example: Woodhouse clothing implemented this strategy to customise their homepage banners to display a specific message for shoppers who arrive on their site through an email newsletter advertising discounted products.

This is what the homepage looked like without the email UTM tag.

This is the homepage customised based on the UTM tag from the email.

Adding small, personalised touches like these can make a big difference in how your customers perceive your emails. It can be the difference between them feeling annoyed by yet another promotional email and feeling grateful that your email is doing them a favour.

5. Browser Language-Based Personalisation

Strategy: Customise the content on your web pages to match the default language settings defined in your users’ browsers. This may include translating your call-to-actions or redirecting to a page that matches the user’s default language. 

According to a survey by CSA Research, 76% of consumers are more likely to purchase if the website is in their native language. Therefore, implementing this strategy can significantly increase your user engagement and conversion rates, especially if you have a diverse audience. 

Example: Wix automatically redirects their visitors to a version of their website in the user’s default language. 

This is what the Wix homepage looks like if your browser’s default language is English.

This is how the homepage appears if your browser’s default language is set to French.

6. Personalisation for New or Returning Visitors

Strategy: You can track how often a person has visited your site and tailor the content accordingly. You can entice new visitors by displaying an introductory offer or showcasing your product’s benefits. For returning visitors, you can offer them loyalty rewards, ask them to subscribe to a newsletter or showcase new products they may be interested in based on their browsing behaviour. The goal is to provide a personalised experience that keeps new and returning visitors engaged and returning for more.

Example: Lunya uses this type of web personalisation to display a tailored message on its landing page. For new visitors, they show a 15% discount offer on first purchases.

By implementing these personalisation strategies, you can create a more engaging and relevant user experience on your WordPress website, leading to higher conversion rates and increased customer satisfaction.

You’ll need to use a personalisation tool to create WordPress personalised content. There are many options, so choosing the right WordPress plugin can be overwhelming.

5 WordPress Plugins & Tools to Help You Personalise Your Site

WordPress offers a plethora of plugins that can enhance your content personalisation efforts, catering to your unique objectives. Below is a list of personalisation plugins that you can use to deliver unique user experiences.

1. If-So Content Personalisation Plugin

If-So Content personalisation plugin is a WordPress plugin that allows you to display dynamic content based on user attributes, location, or actions. You can create personalised content for first-time visitors, returning visitors, or users from specific sources.

This plugin also supports geo-targeting, browser language, and time-based conditions. If-So is compatible with page builders like Elementor, and you can personalise almost every element, including images, titles, and even menus.

How to use the If-So Content plugin

After installing and activating the plugin, go to If-So On your WordPress Admin dashboard. Click on “Add New Trigger” to create a new dynamic trigger. 

On the “New Dynamic Trigger” page, you can set conditions and create content variations. You can then generate a shortcode to insert into your post or page to display personalised content based on the specified conditions.

Simply select a condition you want to apply on the left (e.g., user location or referral source) and set the content to be displayed when the condition is met on the right.

For instance, in this example we chose User Behavior and selected Returning Visitor as our condition. Then we opted to show the content after the users’ first visit. You can add multiple conditions for more complex personalisation. Once you add your customisations, click publish to generate a short code. 

Finally, copy the generated shortcode and paste it into your posts or pages. It’s as simple as that!

You can also set up If-So conditions right within your posts and pages. To do this, go to the post or page where you’d like to add personalised content and access the Block Settings.

Next, locate and unfold the Dynamic Content tab. Click on “Select a Condition” and input your desired criteria. For example, as shown below, we’ve configured our image block so that only users on desktop devices can see it. 

Pricing: If-So offers both free and paid versions. The pro plans start at £72.5 per year.

2. Logic Hop

Logic Hop is another excellent personalisation plugin that enables you to create personalised content based on user data such as behaviour, location, and more. It integrates with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder and supports dynamic text, images, and forms content. Additionally, the plugin offers conditional logic, lead scoring, and UTM tracking features to boost your marketing efforts further.

How to use the Logic Hop plugin

Once you’ve installed and activated Logic Hop, navigate to your WordPress dashboard and click Logic Hop > Integrations. This will take you to the integrations settings page. You can connect Logic Hop to other tools, services, and page builders, such as Elementor, WooCommerce, or Beaver Builder, to enhance your personalisation efforts. 

We’ll be integrating WooCommerce with LogicHop, so find the WooCommerce integration option and activate it as shown below.

You can set up Logic Hop directly from your product page as well. To do this, go to a specific product you want to personalise or create a new one. In the product editor, click on the Logic Hop tab. 

A pop-up will appear, which allows you to create and insert conditions. For example, we set our condition to “If Users are From Google Search”. This means the personalised content will be displayed only to users who have reached your product page through a Google search.

After inserting the shortcode, add the content you want to be displayed in the two blocks of code.

You can also create a condition from the condition builder: 

• Click Conditions > Add New  under the Logic Hop menu in your WordPress Dashboard
• Add a title and description for the condition
• Choose a Condition Type in the Conditional Statements section
• Select a Comparison Operator, Value, and Click Publish

Pricing: You need a licence key for Logic Hop to function. You can obtain a licence key by purchasing one of their pricing plans starting from £162. 

3. Jetpack

Jetpack is a multi-functional plugin with various personalisation options, such as related posts, sharing buttons, and custom widgets. It also provides security features, site performance optimisation, and automated social media posting. Jetpack’s personalisation features help you engage visitors with relevant content, improve social sharing, and create a tailored experience.

Pricing: Jetpack provides a mix of free and paid features. Packages start at different price points for complete customization and personalisation features to accommodate personalisation budgets.

4. OptinMonster 

OptinMonster is an excellent lead-generation tool that lets you create personalised opt-in forms, pop-ups, and other campaigns based on user behaviour. You can target visitors by location, device, or referral source and use triggers such as exit intent, time on page, or scroll depth. It also offers A/B testing, analytics, and seamless integration with email marketing services.

Pricing: OptinMonster’s pricing is structured into several tiers, starting at £7 per month. Each tier offers a range of features and options to fit different needs and budgets.

5. OptiMonk

OptiMonk specialises in on-site retargeting through personalised pop-ups, banners, and side messages. You can create targeted campaigns based on user behaviour, such as exit intent, cart abandonment, or scroll triggers. The plugin offers a wide range of templates and a drag-and-drop editor for easy customisation. It also supports A/B testing and integrates with popular email marketing services. 

Pricing: OptiMonk has both free and paid plans. The paid plans start at £24 a month.

Personalised Experiences in WordPress

So there you have it, the power of WordPress content personalisation. By taking the time to understand your audience and creating personalised content, you can transform your website from a generic experience to a tailored one that keeps visitors engaged, converts them into customers, and earns their loyalty. 

Of course, if you want to turn your WordPress site into an experience that’s engaging and converting, you can always turn to the experts in WordPress experience (that’s us). Our WordPress services include personalisation, localisation, UX/UI design, and a host of other ways to enhance your WordPress site!