Six Steps To Create Intentional Consumer Personalization Programs

While “personalization” remains a hot topic for organizations, consumers feel lukewarm about personalized interactions. Most organizations struggle to deliver relevant and valuable moments that resonate with their target audiences. To succeed, organizations can better understand consumer appetite for personalized interactions, define a vision, develop a strategy, audit their data, coordinate technology, and have a measurement plan.

Check out our updated report, Forrester’s Essential Research For Approaching Consumer Personalization, and follow these six steps to build intentional personalization programs that resonate with your customers:

Step 1: Understand Your Consumers And Customers

Allow your customers’ needs and preferences to guide when and how you deliver personalized moments.

Outcome: Understand how consumers feel about personalized interactions — and how that compares to your organization’s current practices.

Outcome: Gain deeper insight into where, why, and how consumers are open to personalized interactions.

Step 2: Define Your Personalization Vision

Establish a clear, organizationwide vision that’s grounded in customer needs, positive customer outcomes, and shared value.

Outcome: Craft a single-sentence vision to guide all personalization efforts.

Step 3: Build A Strategy For Execution

Turn your personalization vision into a clear, actionable plan.

Outcome: Explore personalization tactics across the consumer lifecycle and understand the different modes and depths of execution.

Step 4: Identify Customer Data

You need the right customer data and context to deliver personalized experiences.

Outcome: Understand the data requirements needed to execute a specific personalization tactic.

Step 5: Coordinate Technology

Personalization requires a tech stack that works across five key functions: recognition, insights, decisioning, delivery, and optimization.

Outcome: Learn how to integrate and align technologies to deliver personalized moments across the consumer lifecycle.

Step 6: Create A Measurement Framework

Without a shared definition or consistent tactics, measuring personalization tactics is tough. A clear framework helps track impact across teams and time frames.

Outcome: Learn how to align customer and business goals, define metrics by organizational function, and measure short-, medium-, and long-term results.

Explore the full updated essentials report for deeper insights and practical tools; check out our initiative blueprints for marketing leaders or digital business and strategy leaders; or schedule a guidance session to build your personalization initiatives today.