In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, personalisation is not just a trend but the linchpin for success. With the phasing out of third-party cookies and the ascent of privacy regulations, businesses are compelled to reinvent their approach to engage audiences. Personalisation goes beyond the rudimentary act of addressing customers by name in emails; it has become a strategic imperative that crafts messages and offers to deeply resonate at an individual level. This blog post delves into the transformative power of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), exploring their revolutionary impact on marketing strategies to deliver unmatched personalised experiences.
Understanding Personalisation and Its Global Impact
Personalisation is the art of tailoring content to align with a customer’s unique preferences, behaviours and brand interactions, with a vision that extends beyond immediate gains to foster enduring loyalty. As the landscape shifts, personalisation transcends choice to become a strategic necessity. For marketers intent on customer focus, delivering personalised experiences is vital to optimising the customer journey. The global personalisation software market, valued at $764.30 million in 2021, is projected to soar to $2.72 billion by 2027, fueled by advancements in AI and ML technologies. Notably, display-ad personalisation, which commanded a 35% market share in 2022, is set to outpace website personalisation, signaling a dynamic shift in growth trajectories.
Distinguishing Personalisation and Customisation: Nurturing Unique Experiences
The dynamics of personalisation are critical in today’s digital sphere. It is essential to discern between personalisation and customisation. While the former tailors content based on user data, creating a bespoke journey for each customer, the latter places the power in the user’s hands, allowing them to set preferences. Both enhance user experience but operate on distinct principles. A CDP enables personalisation by leveraging comprehensive customer profiles, thereby aligning with user expectations, whereas customisation offers users control over their interactions with platforms or services.
Unknown to Known and Unknown User Personalisation: A Strategic Advantage
Addressing the needs of anonymous users is a strategic advantage. In 2021, a study showed that 57% of new website users remained anonymous and a striking 80% did not receive targeted marketing campaigns. With tech giants like Google and Apple championing privacy, the shift to zero and first-party data strategies becomes imperative. CDPs offer a unified customer profile for immediate segment qualification and personalised execution. By recognising and personalising for anonymous users, businesses can significantly boost engagement and conversion rates.
Same and Next Page Personalisation: Crafting Seamless Journeys
CDPs excel in executing same-page and next-page personalisation. The former involves tailoring the current page based on user behaviour and preferences in real-time. Next-page personalisation anticipates the user’s next move, tailoring subsequent interactions for a seamless journey. The effectiveness of these strategies hinges on robust data analytics, AI decisioning and an agile model—all of which CDPs adeptly provide.
The Empowering Role of CDPs in Personalisation Strategies
CDPs stand out by meticulously collecting and unifying customer data from myriad touchpoints, which is paramount for crafting comprehensive customer profiles. Unlike digital experience management tools that lack historical interaction data, CDPs retain the entirety of the user’s brand interaction history, offering a depth of knowledge for personalisation that other tools simply cannot match.
CDPs revolutionise personalisation strategies by serving as central hubs that collect and consolidate customer data, providing a unified view of each customer. This uninterrupted connection to the user’s history allows for granular personalisation, vital in today’s digital-first environment. By harnessing real-time and predictive analytics, CDPs create personalised experiences on the fly, bridging the gap in multi-channel interactions for continuous optimisation.
Journey Orchestration: A Key Aspect of Personalisation
CDPs empower marketers to craft personalised end-to-end customer journeys, which is a cornerstone of effective personalisation. For instance, if a customer frequently browses a particular category, CDPs can trigger tailored content and offers related to those interests, significantly enhancing the user experience.
Navigating the Road to Personalisation: Challenges and Solutions
While the availability of data grows, unlocking its full potential presents challenges. CDPs are pivotal for companies striving for personalisation, centralising customer data access and ensuring compliance with privacy standards like GDPR. By systematically addressing the hurdles to personalisation, CDPs enable marketers to deliver targeted messages and offers, adjusting content based on psychographic triggers for campaign precision.
Personalisation is a cornerstone of modern marketing. Leveraging CDPs and aligning with emerging trends are essential for businesses seeking competitive advantage. As we forge into the future of marketing, personalisation.
Harsha is the Director of Product Management at Zeotap and he comes with 14+ years of expertise in AdTech-focused Product Management. Simultaneously, he imparts knowledge as a Visiting Associate Professor, teaching Internet Marketing and Product Management. He led Spoyl’s team to a pivotal acquisition by Flipkart and innovated Znatta’s ‘Try before you Buy’ e-commerce model.
