Customization or Personalization requires the customer experience and journey to be at the center of how your business functions, from reaching a potential customer, service, or product delivery to post-transaction interaction.

The purpose of personalized content creation is to use the information provided by the customer to give them the most unique possible experience on the platform Personalization makes the user feel like a valued customer, allowing them to form strong positive associations with companies, leading to improved user loyalty. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for customers to feel more connected virtually in a world that’s progressively disconnecting physically. This has led to a willingness in customers to pay subscription premiums to enjoy the benefits of content that is curated just for them. 

Why personalized messaging is important

With most companies having online offerings, the key differentiator is the ability to appeal to the customer’s individuality. People want to feel like these companies know them, what they want and what they could like. According to a study by SmarterHQ, 72% of consumers say they only engage with personalized messaging. Adobe’s research found that  66% of consumers say encountering content that isn’t personalized would stop them from making a purchase.

Personalization is no longer restricted to the marketing domain wherein targeted messages bearing the customer’s name were sent out through emails. Companies that have adapted this model to better anticipate customer needs have gained significant success. According to Forrester, 89% of digital businesses are investing in personalization to prepare for the future audience needs.

The case for personalization is clear but companies struggle in understanding where to personalize, when to personalize, and how to personalize. One of the biggest challenges to personalization is the cost associated with it. It requires huge capital investment that deters many company leaders from undertaking it.

Adweek found that marketers report that personalization efforts can boost revenues by up to 15%. They also found that personalization can reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50%. SmarterHQ says millennial brand loyalty increases by 28% if they receive personalized communication.

The increased number of subscriptions by customers to get personalized messages indicates a willingness to share personal data with companies. According to BRP Consulting, 64% of consumers are fine with retailers saving their purchase history and preferences if it allows them to offer more personalized experiences . Harvard Business Review found that when customers received transparent advertisements based on their activity on a site, the revenue of the product grew by 38%.

How to start customized content creation

There are several ways in which to create personalized content. Here are three easy steps to begin with: 

1. Ethical data collection: Data collected from customers for use by a company must be collected with the full knowledge and consent of the platform user. Users need to be notified as soon as they visit the platform as to how the company collects the data, where the data is stored, if and how the company shares the user’s data with third parties.

2. Data privacy concerns: Regulatory policies regarding data collection and protection are strengthening across the globe. Compliance to these policies to ensure customer data protection is essential and expensive. Any missteps could lead to not only legal repercussions but can also severely damage customer trust and willingness to share data in the future.

3. Integration of different verticals: The customer journey needs to be unified to ensure a seamless experience. The data collected from various touchpoints in the  customer journey will be valuable only if it is not fragmented due to the customer having to switch between multiple channels before reaching the desired solution. 

How can Wipro help

• Outline goals: Wipro can help you demarcate clear goals in order to concretely plan out what and how you can achieve with personalization.
• Secure and compliant data collection and storage: Wipro’s expertise in compliant data handling is further complemented by its vastly experienced employee pool. Wipro uses the latest technology that ensures high quality data collection and storage while adhering to the latest global standards.
• Analytics expertise to decide what to personalize and how to personalize: With notable industry leaders in all sectors and a world-class analytics team, Wipro can help you decide what you need to personalize and how it can be done in accordance with your business objectives and business model.
• Create customer profiles using artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML): Wipro houses some of the world’s most superior AI and ML technologies that along with Wipro’s analytics teams help you build customer profiles.
• Generate success metrics: Tracking the progress and impact of your personalization project is essential to ensure you are moving in the right direction. Wipro helps you generate success metrics to evaluate performance at various stages of the personalization journey.  

Content personalization can no longer be viewed as an additional feature to your offering but must be viewed as the medium through which you communicate your offering to the customers. All trends point towards more enhanced personalization through data collected at as many touchpoints as possible. Customers are more willing to share their personal data with companies to get personalized content given that the company is transparent about their data use and protection policies. Companies that are just starting their personalization journey, or looking to improve current personalization technique, need to first evaluate their data collection method. They need to update their current data protection policies to match global standards. Customer journey across verticals needs to be unified to collect better quality data and ensure the personalization happens across the customer experience. Without a dedicated analytics infrastructure, companies need to decide whether to undertake personalization in-house or outsource it to more experienced third parties.

About Wipro Knowledge Services

Our offerings can support you in managing your operations better with immense value add across multiple streams. These services cover: 

• Content (Content Design, Authoring and Editing, Translation and Localization, Learning Solutions, Content transformation & management, Technical Illustrations & Future-ready content with Next Gen solutions)
• Reputation  Risk  Management and Enterprise  Legal  Management  Solutions (Smart Contract Management, Corporate Compliance, Intellectual Property Management, Litigation Management, Legal Admin and Analytics), (Fraud Management, Trust & Safety, Risk & Compliance Operations)
• Data & Insights (Advanced Analytics, Data Analytics and Reporting, Data Management, Research)
• eCommerce Operations (Site Content Management, Loyalty Management, Chargebacks & Returns, Catalogue Management, Pricing & Promotions, Product Information & Metadata, Customer Journey Analytics)
• Marketing as  a Service (Campaign Management & Execution, Social Media Management, Content Management, Creative Development & Analytics)