Improve the customer journey through personalization
Digital experiences are more crucial than ever as businesses are challenged to replace or augment in-person interactions (whether in-store, at an event or even direct conversations) online. Personalizing that experience is a top goal for digital marketers, yet research shows that by 2025, 80 percent of digital marketers will abandon personalization efforts due to lack of ROI. Why? Personalization isn’t something you can simply check off a list – it’s not a task. No matter how good the technology or how rich the data, success depends on having a clear strategy and philosophy to guide the process.
I recently shared how businesses can streamline their marketing efforts and improve the customer journey through personalization. Here are four top takeaways.
1). Examine your customer journey.
Ask yourself what you can do to improve your customer journey. Personalization is all about a high-value, highly relevant experience. Consider the different places where you can increase impact and understand how what you offer fits into the context of your customer’s unique needs.
2). Earn their trust (and keep it).
Permission marketing can strengthen and deepen personalization, but only if it’s used honorably. Users are willing to opt-in and share data with a company if they feel like they’re gaining value out of it. Marketing that enhances their experience is a win-win. Marketing that becomes intrusive or creepy can break down customer trust in an instant.
3). Be prepared.
Don’t put the cart before the horse. Personalization is data-driven, but that data is only as good as your strategic approach to it. Having an understanding of what data is necessary to collect, how you will capture it, who will manage it and how you’ll leverage it to tailor the experience is critical to the success of your personalization strategy.
4). Remain committed to finding ways to deliver value
From audiences and segments to A/B testing, AI and automation, there are many tools and technologies at your fingertips to gather data and fine-tune your marketing efforts. But above all, personalization is about gaining a deeper understanding of your customer’s needs, enriching their experience and using the insights you glean to deliver value and earn loyalty.
Read more about my perspective on how to approach personalization the right way here, and discover how One North can make your digital experiences extraordinary.
Kalev Peekna is the Chief Strategist at One North. He brings a cross-platform, user-focused approach to innovations in brand development, design, data analysis and technology, and helps clients apply those innovations to their strategic aims.
If I were a vegetable: I would be broccoli. Because I have always wanted someone to call me “cruciferous.”
Most unusual job: Cocktail bartender at a Cabaret
- Personalization is all about a high-value, highly relevant experience.
- Users are willing to opt-in and share data with a company if they feel like they’re gaining value out of it.
- Personalization is data-driven, but that data is only as good as your strategic approach to it.
- Above all, personalization is about gaining a deeper understanding of your customer’s needs and using it to enrich their experience.