How Personalization Can Tackle Content Fatigue

The internet is filling up with content marketing. Since it became clear that this was the best way to engage people online, search engines and social media have been filling up with blogs, gifs, videos and apps all created by marketers. Unfortunately, this oversaturation is causing people to become fatigued, and the content less effective.

Internet users can only consume a certain amount of content before they become tired of seeing it, and that is a point we've now reached for many people. MarketingProfs found that 60 per cent of content is "irrelevant" to users, making it less likely that people will gain anything valuable from the many marketing efforts online.

If the majority of the content that people engage with is not useful to them, they will soon stop clicking on links that previously would have seemed interesting to them. This is a problem that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, as the amount of information online is predicted to increase by 600 per cent by 2020.

So what can marketers do to prevent this content fatigue?

Quality over quantity

The best thing you can do is focus on quality rather than quantity. Instead of adding to the deluge of irrelevant content, you need to make sure everything you create has tangible value to users.

One way to achieve this is through personalization; something that an Econsultancy survey found 94 per cent of companies think is critical to their success. By making content more relevant to each individual user, you increase the chance of them engaging with it. When this happens on a wide scale it can be the key to content marketing success.

Use data

The first stage to this is to use data. Marketers have access to a multitude of information via Google Analytics, SEMrush and the various tools available on social media sites. This should allow you to build up a picture of exactly who your main target audience is.

Once you have identified your customers, you can use personalized content. However, it's important to remember that the focus of this should be on them, not you. Rob Bassett, head of UK and EU multinational advertising at eBay, said to Marketing Week:

Ann Handley, bestselling author and chief content officer of MarketingProfs, is fond of saying:

This definitely applies to personalization. Your audience won't be interested in the quantity of content you publish; they want interesting pieces that add value to their lives.

If you can identify an audience and use your content to improve their online experience, you will have more success than you would by simply publishing as much as possible in an attempt to get noticed.