Web personalisation is about delivering targeted content and adaptive web experiences based on what you know about each visitor. For ambitious web marketers looking for the next leap in returns, this is a massive opportunity.
Of course, it’s not without risks. Get it wrong, and you’ll confuse visitors, waste resources and depress conversions. But get it right and you’ll surprise and delight your web visitors while driving your website to new levels of effectiveness.
Personalisation can be taken from any or all of the following sources of insight:
- Users’ profiles and preferences: everything they’ve told you about themselves (if you already know them).
- Customers’ history with you: what they’ve done on your site, in your community, in response to your emails, etc.
- How they found you: the search terms or PPC ads that delivered them, or a tagged URL that they clicked on.
- Their immediate behaviours: what they’re doing in the current session (clickstreams, site searches, etc).
- The context: including time of day, day of the week, geography and your own strategic agenda (targeted offers, surveys…).
- The dynamic environment: real-time factors like the weather and commodity pricing. When the rain falls, you can show ads for umbrellas or raincoats, and when the snow lands, skis and goggles.
Your own personalisation efforts can use as much or as little of this kind of insight as you need to drive the content you choose to present in each session.
The point is not to make every session perfectly targeted from day one, just to improve the relevance of each session so the visit is more compelling. As the project proves itself, you can grow your ambition and sophistication.
Do you have clear goals and objectives for personalisation?
Have you the right team to implement this?
Can you Keep it Simple? – it can get complicated with many different options available.
Can you integrate your systems? – CRM, Accounts, sales, marketing, Analytics etc? if not you run unnecessary risks.
