Why personalisation at scale matters during uncertain times

The battle to win the hearts and minds of customers – both B2C and B2B – has never been more challenging or more complex. Compounded by soaring energy costs, political instability and the lingering threat of a global health crisis, consumer confidence has been reported at its lowest ever across Europe.

The result? Businesses and consumers are being more thoughtful about how they spend their reduced budgets and who they spend it with. Their spending decisions are influenced by many factors and trust is critical. They are more likely to spend with brands that reflect their own values and demonstrate a deeper understanding of their individual needs at the right time, through the right channels.

Customised experiences for every customer

Businesses can build trust by making customer experiences more personal – creating and delivering relevant experiences, content and information to each individual customer – both online and off-line. Personalisation is not a new opportunity for businesses but when you’re delivering customised experiences for potentially millions of customers, in milliseconds, we call it “personalisation at scale”. It requires businesses to bring together data, intelligence and content at the right time and place, and deliver it to customers at every stage of their journey.

Adobe recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to look at how the most successful businesses are executing personalisation at scale and identify the best practices they use. Forrester surveyed 562 EMEA decision makers responsible for personalisation programmes at their companies. As a member of our Executive Programme, you have exclusive access to the findings and analysis in our EMEA Spotlight report.

Personalisation priorities

The Forrester survey sheds some revealing light on how to get personalisation at scale right – and highlights particular areas of focus for business leaders.

• Budget cuts put emphasis on efficiency. “Limited budget” is ranked first on the list of challenges among EMEA decision-makers, meaning business leaders must do more with less. In this environment, it’s never been more important for brands to build and strengthen customer relationships by providing pertinent, relevant information at just the right time – helping to deliver value, efficiency and convenience for customers.
• B2C customers need more reassurance. The research found that while B2C customers in EMEA demand more from digital experiences, they are also mistrustful. Less than a quarter (just 22%) said they trusted companies to use their personal information responsibly. That’s a big challenge for business leaders. To win consumer trust they must do more to demonstrate that while they are supporting customers individually, they’re also doing everything to protect their data and privacy.
• B2B buying processes make personalisation complex. Getting personalisation right for B2B customers is more challenging than for B2C customers – because multiple teams and departments are involved in making decisions. Forrester’s research found that B2B decisions in EMEA are even more likely to be committee-driven since 2019 – involving multiple ratifiers. It is therefore paramount that content is customised to meet the needs of the various decision makers – 68% of EMEA B2B customers said it’s very important for brands to make it easy to share information with their purchasing committees.

Opportunities to take the lead

There’s a real opportunity for businesses to take the lead in personalising customer experiences. The Forrester report found that just 15% of companies can be classed as ‘Experience Leaders’ in this area. That leaves the door open for your business to outmanoeuvre competitors, build trust and drive sustainable growth.

It’s an opportunity that’s worth grasping. The survey found that the ability to personalise delivers real business benefits, with Experience Leaders outperforming other businesses on key customer metrics, such as acquisitions, lifetime value and customer experience.

How to get it right

The survey found that Experience Leaders have expertise in three core capabilities: data and insights, content creation and management, and omni-channel journey orchestration. It also requires co-ordination across team and departmental boundaries to fund and manage strategies and deployment. That takes leadership from the C-Suite.

To win the hearts and minds of customers, businesses need to invest in the technologies and capabilities required. Leaders must then empower teams to share intelligence, skills and resources so that personalisation can be embedded throughout every individual customer’s journey and becomes part of business as usual.

Download the full EMEA Spotlight report to find out how your business could become an Experience Leader in personalisation at scale. The report includes detailed insights on best practice, as well as key recommendations for implementation.