A Unified Platform Is Key To Content Personalization

Unification goes beyond simple integration. For a marketer, it means having a single interface and, more importantly, a single integrated workflow.

A big challenge with personalization is that it isn’t just personalization. A marketer needs to work across many functions, from content management and digital asset management to analytics and personalization itself. With different vendors, standards, technologies, and workflows involved, the process is tricky at best.

People may think a unified platform’s sole purpose is to integrate these functions. However, unification goes beyond simple integration. For a marketer, it means having a single interface and, more importantly, a single integrated workflow.

This functionality should work right out of the box, and the platform should be easily built upon and extended. You might start out using just a few of the functions, but as your business grows and as your team becomes more advanced, you should begin capitalizing on the full extent of the system’s capabilities. This results in faster content creation, more effective targeting, and less dependence on IT.

Benefits Beyond Personalization

A unified platform breaks down business silos, enabling the entire marketing organization to become part of the same publishing workflow, pursuing a common goal. This integrated workflow will help you deliver more optimized personalization faster and to more devices. If you are not personalizing your offers with this level of efficiency, chances are your competition is.

Reorganizing your team around personalization and implementing a new platform at first seems to represent a significant cost and a steep learning curve. However, a unified platform reduces costs over time because one does not have to integrate current platforms. It also reduces the need for intense training. Your team can start by utilizing functions with which they are comfortable and build on that continually. They don’t have to wait to venture into personalization; everything is right there to play with and test, so they can quickly see what works and what doesn’t.

With a unified platform, you are future-proofing your investment, allowing you to receive new technology by simply turning on new features. You’re not replatforming and going through an extensive and expensive process. More than just eliminating conflicting technologies and standards, a unified marketing platform provide easy, fast communication with other marketing functions. That produces more effective personalization. It’s future-proofed design assures you see greater benefits as markets evolve.