What? How? Why? Everything answered about Personalization!

Personalization is the next big thing. It is everyone’s favorite marketing buzzword. For a very long time, personalization has been the face of digital marketing. It has been kept on the forefront for a good reason.

Using customer data will only be useful when it is validated, accurate and up to date. Sometimes, if you open Facebook and take a look at what your data shows about you, you will come to realize there is a lot of false information there based on inaccurate data.

This is why personalization is needed. Sitecore CDP allows not just traditional personalization but hyper-personalization. Let us understand in deep the What, the Why, and the How of personalization before we jump into how Sitecore CDP is best for your personalization-centric marketing strategies.

What exactly is real-time personalization?

Real-time personalization means instantly delivering content that is tailored to each individual user on the basis of their current interactions, s, behavior and engagement. This allows you to understand your customers today as opposed to who they were a few months back.

Personalization in real-time is actually a very highly effective and impactful strategy when it comes to marketing. Personalization will reduce the cart abandonment rate, and increase sales revenue.

How does it work?

Just like traditional personalization, real-time personalization also leverages the collected data which is stored in user profiles to allow brands to deliver experiences that are contextualized for different users.

Through real-time personalization, the user profiles are enhanced with the inclusion of first and third-party data. Let us take an example. If you enter your location information such as zip code or city in an app, the information tailored to you will be based on the zip code or the city.

However, if you have turned on location tracking, the real-time data will be much more powerful and accurate. This way, the content that will be pushed to that user will be tailored to their location.

Using real-time data will help you ensure that you have the very latest and current information for your consumers.

Why real-time personalization?

• Loss of third-party cookie
• Content explosion

Loss of third-party cookie

Marketers were always relying on third-party cookies and its data when collecting information for their digital marketing strategies. For years, this is how digital marketing worked with no idea about personalization.

But ever since it was phased out by Google, Firefox and Safari, it has provided a golden opportunity named First-party data. This is an opportunity for raising the personalization game and delivering meaningful digital experiences.

When you collect and use information directly coming from the customers, it allows your brand to market to the individuals based on their behavior as opposed to a generic marketing strategy forwarded and pushed to them.

Content explosion

Content fatigue is real and it has started with the digital noise and content explosion causing the users to quickly switch from one place to another online. Their attention span has started reducing and they are focusing no more than a few seconds on the content provided to them. If your marketing message is average, it will drown among the thousands of others.

How do marketers find a way to cut through the noise? They want the users to stop hitting unlike, unfollow and even unsubscribe. The answer is again more content. It is astonishing that the answer to all this digital noise, content explosion and content boom is also more and more content.

The only difference is, here it means, quality content. Content that users are actually looking for. The right content that makes them stay.

Why Sitecore CDP for real-time personalization?

Sitecore CDP helps you truly personalize the customer experiences. The Sitecore CDP helps you in separating the data to identify high-value customers. It also provides you with customer pro for you to conduct personalized marketing campaigns.

For example, through Sitecore CDP, your customer profile will be narrowed down like this – John, age 27, likes to play football and works in accounting. Now Sitecore CDP will help you push out offers specifically catering to the likes, the age dynamic and the preferences of John.

Personalized experiences go a long way and increase customer trust as well as loyalty. Through real-time personalization done by Sitecore CDP, your customers will turn into advocates for your brand.

Conclusion

Real-time personalization is in need right now and through the help of Sitecore CDP you can activate impactful marketing campaigns. There is no doubt that personalization is the future of marketing as this is a customer-centric market and customers demand unique campaigns.

Customers value effort and through the Sitecore CDP, you cater to exactly what the customers are looking for. Real-time personalization is certainly more than a buzzword and is going to be the it thing for marketers.

Maulik Dudharejia - Co-Founder & CMO - ADDACT

Sitecore MVP 2021-23 || Digital Transformation Strategist || Marketer

Maulik Dudharejia is a visionary author, co-founder, Chief Marketing Officer, and a digital transformation expert with over 12+ years' of experience. He leverages industry certifications to translate complex tech concepts into engaging writing. His areas of expertise include Sitecore, IoT, and IT Service Management. Maulik offers valuable insights and strategies to help readers navigate the evolving tech landscape.