Insights from a Conversant ExecutiveScott Eagle, Chief Marketing Officer

WHAT THE %!X&! DOES “PERSONALIZED MARKETING” REALLY MEAN?

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Table of Contents

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INTRODUCTION

THE SEVEN ESSENTIALS OF PERSONALIZED MARKETING

CONCLUSION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT CONVERSANT

These days, there are a lot of companies buzzingabout personalized marketing.

In fact, a recent survey conducted by Ad Perceptions and Conversant highlighted that 73% of agency and brand-side marketers agree that personalization represents the future of digital. So it seems that everyone is jumping on the one-to-one train.

But if you look at the definitions of personalization that are being touted by vendors for marketers, it’s evident there are as many interpretations of “personalized marketing” as there are companies who claim to deliver on it. Unfortunately, most companies fall short of creating genuine individual relationships with people; many companies only scratch the surface of what a comprehensive personalized program can really offer clients and consumers. In order to get personalization right for a brand, we need to first define what it needs to have. So, here’s a “no compromises” definition of personalized marketing – one that gets to the heart of what marketers really want:

Personalized Marketing: A comprehensive and ongoing one-to-one communication approach that individually calibrates brand messages and media based upon known facts and predictions about the needs, interests and behaviors of each person in a target audience.

I’ll admit, there’s a lot going on in that statement, and that’s because true personalized marketing has many critical components. In my view,“personalized marketing” has 7 “must haves.”

INTRODUCTION

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THE SEVEN ESSENTIALS OF PERSONALIZED MARKETING

• Ongoing 1:1 Relationships

• 360° Customer View

• Genuine Personalized Creative

• Individualized Delivery

• Omni-Channel Reach

• Individualized Media Investment

• Individual User Profiles & Insight

INDIVIDUAL USERPROFILES & INSIGHT1

THE SEVEN ESSENTIALS OF PERSONALIZED MARKETING

One-to-one or personalized marketing is not possible without a rich user profile that helps you understand, reflect and anticipate consumer needs. Personalized marketing is empowered by rich insight at the individual level.

Which means, all of your customer data – purchases, loyalty programs, web browsing, site visitation and more – need to get associated to anonymized profiles. You need to turn all that big data into big profiles for each prospect and customer.

As a consumer profile for each individual is being developed,

it needs to be informed by both online and offline transactions

and behaviors. This is particularly true for retail, where a

customer may make some of their purchases online and

others offline. Without understanding both sets of behaviors,

we can’t glean the level of user insight necessary to create

personalized moments of advertising serendipity that put the

right product in front of each individual at the ideal time.

360°CUSTOMER VIEW2

All of your customer data – purchases, loyalty programs, web browsing, site visitation and more – needs to get associated to anonymized profiles.

Video ViewSite Visits

Product Search

Display Click Through

Network Web Match

First-Party Cookie Present

Third-Party Cookie Present

Mobile App Usage

LocationEcosystem IDs

Direct and Indirect Matching

Household ID Matching

Conversion Matching

Mobile Device ID

Site Login

DevicePurchase Data

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Personalized marketing is powered by creative messages that are tightly aligned to individual user insights. Sticking someone’s first name in a mass email isn’t personalized marketing. Ditto a retargeting ad that shows someone a picture of the last item they viewed on a website. Rather, it’s about messages in which many aspects of communication are precisely calibrated to a user. Imagery, products, offers and response mechanisms all need to be attuned to the particular needs and habits of an individual.

Thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of creative versions may be necessary to deliver the appropriate personalized message to all of your customers and prospects. By contrast, three different ads for three audience segments is not personalized marketing. That is basic audience segmentation, and while valuable, it falls short of the personalization standard.

Thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of creative versions may be necessary to deliver the appropriate personalized message to all of your customers and prospects.

FALL FASHION LAUNCH

FALL FASHION EVENT

FEATURED PRODUCTS

FALL PROMOTION

“NEXT BEST”OPPORTUNITY

Female/Age: 39

• Income: $130K• Oakbrook, IL• Married, Presence of

Children• Multichannel Shopper• Value Shopper• Outdoor Fitness/Yoga• Buying for Man• Purchased In-Store Last

Month: Jeans, Tops• Recently Purchased Online:

Sweater, Blouse

Female/Age: 28

• Income: $85K• Oakbrook, IL• Single• Redeemed Shopper Points

within last 3 months• Urban Style• Fashionista• Multichannel Shopper• Recently Purchased Online:

Gown, Couture Pants

PERSONALIZED ONLINE ADVERTISING CREATIVE JOURNEY BASED ON REAL-TIME RICH PROFILES

GENUINEPERSONALIZED CREATIVE3

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Once you’ve created a personalized creative message,it’s critical that you have the technology and visibility to deliver that message to the ideal individual on the appropriate device. It’s become progressively easier to reach millions of users across digital. But it’s far more difficult to reach particular individuals – and do so on a timely basis and at the scale necessary to move the needle for a major brand.

Today’s consumer lives in a multi-device world. And in order to create truly personalized marketing, we need to be able to reach an individual wherever and however they spend their digital time. This means we need to be able to deliver personalized messages on any device at the most opportune times for the individual. While connecting all of the devices an individual uses to one anonymized consumer profile can be challenging, it is absolutely essential for “no compromises” personalized marketing.

THE CONVERSANT PLATFORM CAN DELIVER MESSAGES TO SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS ANYWHERE ACROSSITS MASSIVE MEDIA FOOTPRINT.OUR POTENTIAL REACH INCLUDES:

» Facebook

» Twitter

» 6K+ web publishers

» 20K+ Android and iOS apps

» 25 major media exchanges:

• Display

• Mobile

• Video

• Vertical

Display

Site

Video

Email

Mobile Affiliate

In-Store

Tablet

INDIVIDUALIZEDDELIVERY

OMNI-CHANNELREACH4 5

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True personalized marketing is about creating ongoing relationships between each person and a brand. While making a sale to someone today is a beautiful thing, the true value of personalization is in not only pleasing someone today, but also anticipating their changing needs and attitudes over time.

This is one of the key ways personalization delivers better results – it’s through this long-term understanding that we can unlock the true value of personalized marketing.

INDIVIDUALIZEDMEDIA INVESTMENT6

The power behind personalized marketing is the ability to create profitable relationships with individuals. To do that effectively, a brand needs to invest the appropriate amount of money in each individual. Since every individual offers different

annual potential revenue value for a business, the amount of money invested to market to them should also vary. Thanks to exchange-based media, brands can do just that. They can purchase the optimal mix and quantity of ads to reflecteach person’s potential business value.

The amount of money invested in marketing to each individual should vary based upon their potential value to the business.

The true value of personalization is not only pleasing someone today, but also anticipating and their changing needsand attitudes over time.

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CONCLUSION

In the coming months, you’ll probably hear even more people talking about personalized marketing. Make sure they’re using a definition that you agree with – one that ensures your brand creates an ongoing personal relationship with every person in your vast target audience. Even more important, make sure thattheir solutions live up to YOUR definition.

I welcome your comments and ideas on this topic. Please write to me at: ScottEagle@conversantmedia.com

ABOUT THE AUTHORScott Eagle leads Conversant’s global marketing function, including strategy and the integration of marketing programs across our solutions groups. An accomplished senior executive with a strong background in client-side digital marketing and consumer brand management, Mr. Eagle has over 25 years of experience as a marketing leader managing major Fortune 500 brands and building successful new companies. Mr. Eagle has served as CMO for Empowered Careers, eHarmony and Claria Corporation, and he has held management positions at Concentric Network Corporation, MFS Communications and P&G. Mr. Eagle holds a B.S. in economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and serves on the board of Akademos, Inc.

ABOUT CONVERSANTConversant, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNVR) is the leader in personalized digital marketing. Conversant helps the world’s biggest companies grow by creating personalized experiences that deliver higher returns for brands and greater satisfaction for people. We offer a fully integrated personalization platform, personalized media programs and the world’s largest affiliate marketing network – all fueled by a deep understanding of what motivates people to engage, connect and buy.

For more information, please visit www.conversantmedia.com.

Thanks to DMNews for publishing a version of this content first.

Copyright 2014, Conversant, Inc. All rights reserved. Conversant is a trademark of Conversant, Inc. 8