Personalisation is a highly interesting topic, as personalisation is one of the more challenging strategies for digital marketers to implement.

One of the main challenges in personalisation for marketers is privacy. However, I would like to approach a few other challenges that marketers may face but I will touch on the privacy issues further down.

Once all the privacy and GDPR elements have been taken into consideration and addressed, one of the main challenges for marketers is the complexity of implementing a personalised experience for consumers. According to Meghan Keaney Anderson, nearly 75% of online consumers get frustrated by websites with content (e.g. offers, ads, promotions) that has nothing to do with their interests. (Meghan Keaney, Anderson 2017). With this knowledge, it a good explanation as to why 83% of marketers and C level executives plan to increase their personalisation efforts and budgets (MarTechSeries, 2019).

I ‘somewhat’ disagree with notion that there is not a unified definition of personalised marketing. Given that personalisation is having the ability to send the right message to the right people at the right time (Mail Chimp, 2019) coupled with a practice of delivering relevant and unique experiences. Whilst there does not appear to be a ‘unified academic’ definition there does seem to be a general consensus of what personalisation marketing is.

However, given the outlines of what personalisation in marketing has been defined as, therein lies the list of complex issues. Only 28% of companies surveyed in the US say they have nearly or fully implemented a personalisation strategy, that figure is even lower in Europe at 23% (Monetate, 2019). Monetate’s survey can be further backed up by Adobes report which shows that that less than a third of companies say that they are offering the right level of personalisation (Adobe, 2019). Because of these low percentages, I believe this is an indicator of marketers and organisations struggle with the complexities that personalisation poses. Conversely in a trends report, 98% of marketers agree that personalization helps advance customer relationships (Evergage, Inc 2019).

If we take a look at an individual aspect of personalised marketing such as geo-IP integration. The concept being that you are able to deliver relevant content and experiences based on consumers IP addresses (location based) such as displaying certain currencies depending where consumers may be or, country specific TLD (top level domain) website (IP Stack, 2019). Whether it be on mobile or desktop, implementing this technique can be fairly simple however the complexity lies when you need to expand to multiple geo-ip features, which every business will need to do in order for the personalised experience to be most effective. Hackernoon illustrates the mammoth task developers would face adding and managing this personalisation functionality for marketers (Hackernoon, 2019). Just to note that post GDPR does not allow users to automatically be redirected to country specific websites in the EU. Permission needs to be sought from the visitor to be re-directed to a country specific website.

A great example of personalisation marketing (using geo-ip integration) is Marie Curie and their Great Daffodil Appeal. Using geolocation data and matching this with their collection sites, they were then able to integrate a personalised map in their email campaigns. Coupled with persona driven messaging, which was based on previous interactions with Marie Curie, they were able to offer a real personalised experience which drove up sign-up’s year-on-year. (Christopher, Ratcliff 2015).

There is a direct correlation between Big Data and personalisation. One of the stages of a personalisation strategy is the segmentation of data which, in an ideal scenario, there would be a big data strategy. “Segmentation offers companies the opportunity to define the specific audiences that matter to them and surface unique experiences to each of those groups” (Optimizely, 2020). I think that most of us are in agreement that one of the benefits of a big data strategy was being able to create personal experiences and that segmentation aids to that. One of the idea’s behind developing a data strategy is to make sure all data resources are positioned in such a way that they can be used, shared and moved easily and efficiently (SAS Data Management 2018). Therefore, I believe this would add to the complexity in enterprise level businesses personalisation struggles.

However, following closely from the challenges of data management above in personalisation marketing, seems to be finding the next steps in drawing up actionable insights from the data that has been collected / segmented.  A really insightful report from Adobe shows that 60% of companies feel like they collect too much data, and 56% cannot process data quickly enough (Adobe, report 2019).

As I previously mention that I would touch on the privacy and ‘creepy marketing’ challenges that personalisation poses. I do concur with your notions, that the lack of transparency is an issue with personalisation being effective to marketers. Nicole Martin talks about ‘creative empathy’ being one of the tactics to avoid the lack of transparency and the ‘creepy marketing’ aspect. Creative empathy being a step-in moral judgement, there have been quite a few high-profile examples of personalisation gone wrong. However, the mentioning of transparency does go hand-in-hand with GDPR which Gwen right stated. Thus, with GDPR measures enforced this resulted in 62% of people opting-in, in the UK (Nicole Martin, 2018). Because of this, when you have consumers voluntarily offering their data, this builds trust in the brand and it is an indicator that consumers ‘want’ relevant ad’s, content and experiences.

The five ‘I’s that Dawn breaks down, identification, individualisation, interaction, integration and integrity very much apply to all aspects of personalisation with respects to privacy (Dawn, 2014). To mention Dawn further, personalisation is also about continually learning about customers preferences and goals. In an Accenture study, research shows 81% of consumers are happy for businesses to use their personal information to offer a more personalised product or service (Accenture, 2018). Once permission has been given, it is a strong measure than trust has been established. Despite the privacy challenges that companies may face, consumers seem to ‘want’ a more personalised experience. Deloitte states that on average 36% of consumers expressed an interest in purchasing personalised products or services and 48% are willing to wait longer for a more personalised product or service.

To conclude, Accenture highlight that 75 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognises them by name, suggests products based on previous searches, or has knowledge of their past purchases (Accenture, 2016).

Personalisation has come a long way since Accenture’s report in 2016 but it is still relevant. I believe personalisation also should not be an ‘afterthought’ in digital marketing because it is not easy to get right in the beginning and requires long term commitment. With that being said digital marketers also need to go beyond ‘basic’ personalisation techniques such as addressing customers by name or basic product recommendations which highlight a lack of knowledge as to what a personalisation marketing strategy entail.

I believe the future points towards using AI and machine learning which can help overcome some of the challenges in advanced personalisation techniques and offer greater control of data to improve areas such as relevancy. But regards to AI, aside from budget constraints that companies may have, limitations that their current technology platform may have could also be a factor as to the lack of personalisation from many companies. Context is highly important in achieving any set goals, whether it is upselling, increased engagement or increased general sales. “Context allows you to target without being invasive” Steve Hemsley (2014), which I firmly agree with because as an example, I would not want a product recommendations and emails for laptops worth £3000 when I have recently set the price filter on their website to £700-£900, having previously purchased from said company.