Brands: How to do personalization better

Personalization, says our expert, is all about relevance which is all about successful customer experience. John Kottcamp is the Chief Strategy and Marketing Office with Tahzoo, an online shop specializing in creating superior customer experiences online.

"We believe that customer experience management (CEM), which is ultimately what Tahzoo offers, is quickly becoming not only the fastest growing segment of marketing, but the final step in being able to create a business strategy that understands the new role of the consumer and puts companies on the road to being truly customer-centric," said Kottcamp. "The key to personalization is having a robust content management system that can intelligently select and present the right content, at the right time, via the right channel to the right customer."

To do personalization 'right', Kottcamp explains, companies need to invest is unique messaging tactics, unique dashboards for customers and employees and trade on location in some cases. This takes a lot of organization and pre-planning, which some companies aren't doing.

"There are silos between channels like broadcast, web, email," said Kottcamp. "But different product groups are going after the same audience and fighting each other for share of wallet. To be successful in CEM, companies have to prepare and this often means tackling sometimes significant change management issues."

Kottcamp's top three tips for personalization:

• Understand what is important to your customers, not for your company or brand
• Focus on creating and managing content that lends itself to personalization - by region, language, audience or media
• Evaluate your maturity

"Do an evaluation as to how ready you are to embrace customer experience management across the company and only then will you be ready to successfully use personalization to create relevant experiences that are rewarded by customers with their spend, their loyalty and affinity."

Tags: ad targeting, advertising, location based marketing, personalized experience, Tahzoo