The objective of personalization is to enhance the consumer’s interaction with your brand, making it valuable and tailored to positively impact key business metrics like purchases or qualified leads. Personalization customizes an experience for a specific subset of users to achieve this goal and is increasingly recognized as a revenue driver for businesses and an expectation for consumers.
Traditional segment-based personalization methods are a crucial initial step in delivering differentiated experiences. However, these personalizations may lack a personal touch as they are designed to offer a one-to-many experience rather than one-to-one.
Like any personalization, dynamic user experiences require relevant data and consumer trust, which are becoming harder to acquire.
Table of contents
Relevant data and customer trustWhy personalization can fall shortSegments can be arbitrarySegments aren’t always personalWhat are dynamic user experiences?Dynamic user experiences as personalizationExamples of dynamic user experiencesThe benefits of dynamic user experiencesRequirements to build dynamic user experiencesChallenges and solutions for building dynamic user experiencesA framework for creating dynamic user experiencesResearchExperienceCollectionTrustTestAssess resultsBuilding dynamic user experiences step-by-stepExample 1: Leveraging first-party cookiesExample 2: Leveraging HubsportBuilding trustSafeguards to include in dynamic user experiencesLightweight test-specific opt-outsAccount preferences control centerConsent management platform controlConclusion
Relevant data and customer trust
Relevance is a critical aspect of marketing/personalization, with a recent study by Optimove showing that 72% of consumers consider relevance important overall, and 36% consider it “extremely” or “very important”.
Personalizations aim to enhance relevance and value for consumers and can have significant impacts when executed correctly.
According to recent data from Segment, 80% of business leaders report an increase in consumer spending by an average of 38% when an experience is personalized.
However, the landscape is evolving. While the importance of personal relevance in marketing and personalization is growing, there are increasing regulations and consumer distrust in sharing data necessary for providing relevant experiences.
The mismatch between consumer expectations of personalization and distrust in marketing is evident across business and consumer sentiments. In 2022, over a quarter of consumers felt personalization was less targeted, largely due to privacy changes.
Meanwhile, half of companies struggle to obtain accurate data for personalization, posing a challenge in sourcing the right data while building trust and credibility with consumers.
The tradeoff between marketing efficiency and privacy is a matter of continuous negotiation in a market economy.
Blattberg and Deighton
Quality personal data is essential for a successful personalization program, and without it, there are no signals to use for creating curated experiences. So, how can you adapt your personalization programs to enhance trust and deliver valuable experiences? The first step is acknowledging the pitfalls of your current personalizations.
Why personalization can fall short
85% of businesses claim to deliver a personalized experience to their customers, yet only 60% of consumers feel they receive a personalized experience (Segment 2021).
The disconnect lies in the level of personalization. For consumers, it’s one-to-one, knowing precisely where they stand in their brand journey, their preferences, etc. (McKinsey 2021). For businesses, it often remains one-to-many, focusing on aspects like in-market vs out-of-market, prospect vs customer, new vs returning, etc.
Providing a different experience for broad segments, such as current customers vs prospects on your website, may seem sufficient. However, consumers desire personalized personalization, and the traditional segment-based approach can miss the mark.
Segments can be arbitrary
Marketers now have more consumer data and technology at their disposal than ever. This abundance of data makes it challenging to accurately assign segments that genuinely require a differentiated brand experience.
As a result, personalizations for these segments may not be valuable or relevant for consumers. Crafting relevant personalization segments is essential for delivering valuable experiences.
Segments aren’t always personal
Personalization tailors an experience for a subset of users, creating a one-to-many approach. What if the focus shifted to making each user’s experience as relevant and personal as possible?
Instead of designing an experience for users 1-1000 working in Manufacturing, what if a dynamic user experience was crafted for each individual user, leveraging relevant attributes to provide the most valuable and personal experience possible?
By integrating dynamic elements that speak to specific users, such as Mark, a CFO at an 80-100-employee Manufacturing company, a truly exceptional personalized experience can be created.
What are dynamic user experiences?
Dynamic user experiences are personalizations that adapt a user’s experience by utilizing their attributes. This results in more one-to-one experiences that are highly personalized to individual users.
Dynamic user experiences differ from traditional segment-based personalization approaches, which generate static user experiences based on a user’s segment designation.
While segment-based personalization aims to tailor an experience to a group of users, dynamic user experiences aim to tailor an experience to an individual user by leveraging their attributes.
Dynamic user experiences as personalization
Dynamic user experiences are personalizations, but each dynamic user experience leverages a meaningful data attribute with high cardinality for individual users, creating a sense of genuine uniqueness for the end user.
Examples of dynamic user experiences
Email campaigns with dynamic content blocks tailored to the recipient’s interests and behaviors.
Product recommendations based on an individual’s purchase history and browsing behavior.
Personalized website experiences where the content surfaces or highlights information relevant to that particular user.
Customized push notifications contextualized with information unique to the user.
Shopping experiences like Amazon where past purchases shape recommendations throughout the site.
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Adaptive learning platforms like Duolingo where lesson sequencing and review are personalized based on an individual’s demonstrated strengths and weaknesses.
Streaming services like Netflix recommend specific shows and movies based on an individual’s viewing history and preferences.
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Social media feeds personalized based on relevance to the user using data like pages followed or liked, clicks, and browsing behavior.
While these are personalizations, they are designed with scalability in mind by leveraging user attributes. They are not static segments based on industry or new vs returning, where static elements are altered on a website or in an email. Instead, they are dynamic.
The benefits of dynamic user experiences
Dynamic user experiences offer 3 main benefits:
- They are truly individualized, especially when leveraging attributes with high cardinality.
- Being individualized, they are more likely to be personally relevant and feel more one-to-one for users.
- They can be tested for inclusion/exclusion, similar to personalized segmented experiences using a testing platform.
Requirements to build dynamic user experiences
To successfully implement dynamic user experiences, you need three key components:
- Personal user data attributes from your consumers that can be leveraged.
- Repeat user engagement with your brand in the channel/medium where you will craft your dynamic user experience. For example, a dynamic user experience that modifies sections of your website based on a user attribute will not work well for a user who only visits your website twice throughout their full customer journey.
- The ability to test your dynamic user experience using a testing platform.
Challenges and solutions for building dynamic user experiences
Challenge:
Data attributes that may provide personal dynamic user experiences may not be readily available in the channel/medium where you intend to build the experience.
Typical solutions and their downsides:
CDP: A common solution is to push all data into a single Customer Data Platform (CDP) like Segment and query that one data source.
Problem: Not all organizations can afford a CDP or have the expertise to manage it.
Web/App User Registration: If your website/app has user registration, you can store all relevant data points for that individual within the backend of their profile. When they log in, you can access their attributes.
Problem: Not all websites/apps support user registration experiences, as some users may not want to create an account to shop online or browse a brand’s services.
Lightweight solution:
A lightweight solution is to code to pull attributes from systems as needed, such as your CRM.
- You won’t need to adopt an enterprise SaaS tech just to pull a few attributes.
- If the test shows the dynamic user experience is not valuable, you can easily discontinue without being locked into a contract.
- You have more flexibility to choose which system to pull data attributes from on a case-by-case basis.
A framework for creating dynamic user experiences
Research
Conduct research to identify experiences that will be valuable and personal to your users.
Identify which data attributes are needed for a specific user to make that experience effective.
Ways to do this include:
- Interviewing customers/prospects to learn what would make their experience with your brand more valuable and personalized.
- Consulting your sales/customer service team to understand groups facing challenges in their customer journey and common user attributes used to create tailored experiences.
- Conducting routine closed win/loss analyses to gather insights.
Experience
Brainstorm dynamic user experiences.
Seek feedback and prototype the experience, conducting user testing or client interviews to gauge how personal, relevant, and valuable the experience is. Compare the qualitative data from the original experience to assess the effectiveness of the new experience.
Collection
Collect the data needed to create a dynamic user experience. Consider prototyping to avoid building a perfect system for testing experiences that may not succeed.
Trust
Using a specific user data attribute in a dynamic user experience may lead users to question how their information is used. Be transparent, empathetic, and provide users with options to opt-out if needed.
Test
Don’t assume that your audience will automatically appreciate the experience. If an experience is unsuccessful, analyze why. It may not be the hypothesis but the execution of the experience itself.
Assess results
Dynamic user experience tests are similar to traditional A/B tests. Compare a Control group with no dynamic user experience to a Variation group with the experience. Evaluate the impact on your business’s KPIs using your chosen testing platform. Also, consider assessing “soft” metrics.
Personalization is inherently focused on marketing, tailoring experiences to a subset of users to achieve marketing/business objectives. However, consumer-desired personalization is less transactional, focusing more on building relationships and trust.
Consumer’s likeliness to buy a product
A study by Nielsen in 2023 showed that if a brand provides a relevant and valuable experience beyond selling its product, 63% of consumers are somewhat, very, or completely likely to buy a product.
Measuring how valuable and personal an experience is for an individual is subjective and challenging to translate into immediate business objectives. Pairing quantitative and qualitative measurement approaches can better assess this nuanced metric.
Building dynamic user experiences step-by-step
Example 1: Leveraging first-party cookies
What it does
Sets a list of pages to track across your website.
Creates a first-party cookie for each user storing an array of those tracked pages the user browsed.
Utilizes JavaScript in a testing platform to introduce Variation members to the dynamic user experience, accessing the cookie and modifying a website’s HTML to use the dynamic value of that cookie.
Does not rely on User Registration or a
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