Remember the days when adding someone’s first name to your
email marketing was the height of personalization? Those days are over.
Because of technology innovation, the tools exist to provide
individual, customized customer experiences on the Web. For over a decade, a personalized online
customer experience has been the Holy Grail of marketing.
Consider
the lengths marketers go to in order to collect data about their website
visitors, not to mention the time spent on studying it to predict what they
want, and how to best give it to them. This wealth of knowledge about customer
preferences, behaviors, needs, wants, habits, etc. is the foundation of personalization.
As of late, customers have become skilled at
comparison-shopping, or comparison-anything. While searching for the best deal
once required serious effort — driving from store to store, comparing catalogs,
calling up several businesses for a price quote. Now, with just a few clicks,
they can quickly find the best service or price available. As a result, cultivating
customer loyalty is a huge challenge for marketers – one that can be addressed by
personalization.
When it comes to technology, we tend to under-utilizing the available
tools. And, we don’t always realize that the only thing standing between us and
much better results are simple changes. Personalization is the most
under-utilized component known as Customer Experience Optimization (CXO), the act
of tailoring online visitors’ experiences to their individual needs. In other
words, it is the means by which marketers will offer their customers’
experiences so customized it will seem as though they’ve arrived at their own
personal sites. By personalizing the online experience, companies give customers
the opportunity to engage on an individualized level. The Internet has become
an integral part of the consumer's day-to-day life, whether it's used for
business or pleasure, nearly everyone uses the Web to interact with friends,
family, colleagues, and favorite brands. But, while we connect with others on a
personal level, many brands have yet to master personalized online experiences.
According to Econsultancy's
"The
Realities of Online Personalization" report, most marketers see personalization
as a vital component for business success, but many fail to comprehend the
processes behind integrating these engagement tools. This study examines the issues
behind personalization, the tactics and types of data being used to shape
online customer experiences as well as the obstacles blocking success. The
survey polled 1,107 digital professionals working for brands to explore how
they perceive personalization and its impact on the digital customer
experience.
The study found that 94 percent of respondents believe that
personalizing their Web experience is critical to current and future success.
Those companies that have personalized their Web experience have measured 19
percent boost in sales. In addition, 66 percent of all client-side respondents
cited improved business performance and customer experience as the primary drivers
behind personalization.
While the majority of respondents recognize the benefits of
personalization, 56 percent haven't personalized their Web experiences because 72
percent still don't know where to start. Also, when adopting or improving
personalization, IT roadblocks (47 percent) and legacy technology (46 percent)
present the biggest obstacles overall, with 32 percent of companies citing this
lack of technology as the primary barrier against real-time personalized
experiences.
For client-side respondents, lack of budget and staff act as
primary barriers (44 percent). For supply-side respondents, lack of knowledge
(54 percent) and the inability to translate data into action (51 percent) are obstacles.
Though 43 percent of those polled deliver personalized desktop experiences,
with 40 percent planning to implement such experiences in the next year, few
in-house marketers offer personalized experiences via tablets (14 percent) and
mobile phones (13 percent).
The Web has made a mark on how companies do business, but online
strategies continue to leave marketers perplexed as technology evolves. So, companies
must look beyond the mere act of data collection by analyzing consumer
information in ways that allow both parties to engage with each other effectively.
By doing so, companies can establish constant connectivity with their client
base, while determining a method for continued reevaluation of personalized
experience.
