INTRODUCTION The 9 keys to driving stronger relationships—one customer at a time. Any marketer worth their weight in leads knows the benefits of personalization—and yet, a surprisingly large number of companies have not fully embraced this strategic tactic. Typically, senior marketing professionals see personalization as a double-edged sword. On one hand, there’s no doubting that consumers and endusers value personalized experiences and tailored recommendations across channels. On the other hand, it’s assumed that the prospect of building out those unique digital journeys by creating the content required and managing the data to fuel the entire process seems far too complex. The good news? Industry-leading brands are showing that the opposite is true. 3 The path to personalization for enterprises at a glance Since the turn of the 21st Century, the flame of brand loyalty has wavered in the winds of the internet. According to a Forbes Insight study, only 1 in 4 business leaders believes customers are loyal to brands, while 62% say the concept of loyalty is now close to obsolete. The study, which surveyed companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue, also revealed that developing a customerfocused environment and delivering personalized marketing has become a strategic imperative. The reason is simple: customers now value the experience more than they value the brand providing it. If your competitor offers a faster, more convenient, and more personalized customer experience, you can’t rely on the aging concept of brand loyalty to rescue you. We as marketers all have to adjust to the new reality that brand loyalty is dead. Context is queen If content is king, then context is certainly queen. Delivering tailored experiences at the right time is the key difference between simple personalization and enterprise personalization at scale—and consumers can tell the difference. Marketers often personalize emails and web content, but very few deliver a continuous experience across channels by displaying personalized content at the right time in the customer’s journey, powered by the contextual information associated with the end-user. For instance, by suggesting sneaker cleaning products after a sneaker purchase, or by altering messaging and product suggestions based on the consumer’s device, the weather they’re experiencing, or local events. And no, contextualizing personalized content isn’t another luxury. In fact, an Accenture-led study shows that 81% of consumers want brands to understand them better, and they want brands to know when, and when not, to approach them. Journeys, not moments With contextualized content in place, you can finally begin constructing the customer journey. 4