According to Gartner:
Personalization engines are software that enables marketers to identify, deliver and measure the optimum experience for an individual customer or prospect based on their past interactions, current context and predicted intent. Personalization engines help marketers identify, select, tailor and deliver messaging such as content, offers and other interactions across customer touchpoints in support of three primary use cases: marketing, digital commerce, and service and support.
Personalization engines leverage data from user profiles or tracking of anonymous user behavior — usually on the web. Those profiles are enhanced with additional first- and third-party data, such as real-time behavior, transactions, geography and, even, affinity. It is then used by a personalization engine to segment and target audiences, and trigger messaging and content in one or multiple marketing channels (marketing use case).”
Marketers use these personalization engines to improve the user experience by ensuring visitors see the information they want to see, in the way they want, and when they want to see it. For example, if a college student visits a website, he or she may see more video options than a senior citizen who wants to read large print. Or, a visitor with an affinity for the New York Giants may see promotions for merchandise touting their favorite team while another gets served products related to the Philadelphia Eagles. Smart businesses incorporate this customer experience strategy into their conversion optimization plans and employ tools and/or services to capitalize on this capability
With audiences demanding brand interactions tailored to their unique needs, growth in personalization technology has skyrocketed, leading Gartner to identify the top solution providers in the burgeoning market via it’s Magic Quadrant Report on Personalization Engines.
To many, this report confirms the significance and validates personalization within the marketing landscape at large, crystallizing the promise of an emerging industry into one of real commercial viability.
Website Personalization Tools
While Gartner’s Magic Quadrant focuses only on vendors who offer personalization engines as stand-alone solutions, they can be embedded in web content management, content marketing, multichannel marketing hubs and digital commerce platforms.
In fact, there are a number of point solutions and personalization platforms that can be used to personalize various elements of the customer journey. However, while point solutions can excel at solving specific siloed challenges (such as product recommendations, triggered emails or A/B tests), their utility begins to break down when looking at the holistic onsite experience, which is why a unified solution is recommended. With it, data is able to flow freely and machine learning algorithms can serve personalized experiences, recommendations, and targeted messaging based on all available consumer data, ultimately making a business more money.
Recognized as a Leader by Gartner for our ability to execute and completeness of vision, read more about Dynamic Yield’s about our unique personalization and automated conversion optimization solutions.
