Personalization

Perhaps the most powerful tool on the cutting edge of Web commerce is personalization - the ability to deliver dynamic content based on customer profiles, preferences and behavior. Companies can now track online resource usage and instantly modify those resources to best serve their customer needs and desires. With customer profiling and personalization, not only the content, but the look and feel of the Web site can be modified to reflect individual customer preferences.

IT'S NOT JUST ANOTHER BUZZWORD

One of the significant benefits of targeting marketing to individual customers is the compression of decision cycles. By giving your customers information tailored to their needs and wants, their purchasing decisions are reached more rapidly. In addition to supporting more efficient and effective marketing, personalization helps to create a sense of community between the company and its customers, resulting in greater customer loyalty and return business.

Creating good customer relationships is a primary key to successful marketing on the Internet, and it is through these relationships that the flow of commerce is at its optimum efficiency. In many industries, the cost of securing a new customer is far greater than selling to an existing customer. By establishing direct and immediate interactive communication with individual customers, the ability to cross-sell and up-sell to existing customers rises in proportion to the availability of detailed customer information.

Another area in which personalization can be a valuable asset is in the international marketplace. The economics of Internet commerce is a global economy. Even small companies now have the ability to market their products and services to a world-wide audience. Personalization can help target the different requirements of this multicultural audience and deliver both content and language appropriate to regional, cultural, and linguistic preferences.

HOW DO THEY DO THAT?

The term "personalization" can cover everything from simple Web site greetings that respond with the users name and the date of their last visit, to immensely powerful intelligent taxonamy matching systems.

Simple systems which implement a few user-selectable options and utilze domain and browser detection to dynamically generate the appropriate pages in the appropriate languages may be sufficient for a small business.

For larger Web businesses, particularly those in industries like direct marketing, product distribution, retail sales and entertainment, the most effective personalization solutions are found in applications which target marketing based on individual consumer taste and behavior.

The real power of personalization is best demonstrated in high-end applications which profile user preferences and implement intelligent agent technology. These systems can also utilize the various technologies of demographics and psychographics, objective filtering, learning agents and neural networks, all of which can be very effective in specific situations. A detailed analysis of these technologies is beyond the scope of this brief overview, but Graphical Planet can provide in-depth information at your request.

STREAMLINING YOUR INTRANET

High-end personalization applications can also be implemented to help companies efficiently manage the flow of information on their Intranets and Extranets. Content can be distributed on a need-to-know or relevancy-rated basis. For example, specific marketing materials could be directed only to members of the sales force, while a progress report from the president would be distributed to the entire network. Technical information would be rated significantly lower on accounting department desktops than on engineers' workstations. Personnel need only deal with information pertaining to their interests, avoiding the time-consuming process of sifting through mountains of data to find the material they need.

LET'S GET PERSONAL

Graphical Planet can help you find a way to personalize your site that will fit both your budget and your marketing needs. For more in-depth information on the technologies of personalization and how they can make your business a leader in the e-commerce revolution, get in touch with Graphical Planet.

We're ready to get personal with you.