The age of real-time omnichannel personalization is here, which is both a great opportunity and challenge for marketers: namely, how do you implement effective personalization without overwhelming the customer, or worse yet, coming off as a creeper?
Most of us are already numb to the blitz of retargeted ads that follow us around offering the same product or service. It becomes even more annoying when you’ve already bought that product, and yet, they continue to show it to you, instead of taking the opportunity to show related products (for example). Another prime example of over-engagement, is going into attack mode with your browse or cart abandonment emails, which can ruin an otherwise effective program.
The real problem is that marketers are not personalizing the total customer experience. Instead, marketers are trying, through no fault of their own, to personalize everything in siloes – product recommendations, display ads, content, etc. It all needs to be brought together, and managed by a specific set of rules.
Here are three keys for transforming your personalization efforts from overwhelming to highly engaging:
Once you have these rules in place, it is important measure their impact on consumer behavior and make adjustments. Ultimately, this all needs to be tied to your calls to action (conversions specific to your brand).
Ultimately consumers desire a personalized experience when they perceive it benefits them. Tailor the experience so it takes less clicks for customers to get to the content and deals they desire, and make it a goal to improve their access to experiences they value.
If brands are not following the “single truth,” i.e., storing their customer journey data within universal profiles, they will find diminishing returns on their personalization investments and dilution of their relationships with their consumers. They will become just another vendor, and a creepy and annoying one at that.