Optimizing Scaled Content Experiences Requires ‘Balanced Approach’
Marketers must factor for data, technology stack, and content curation process, according to Matt Egol, PwC Digital Services’ chief strategy officer.
Most marketers are investing in data, content, and digital channels to personalize customer experiences as a key aspect of their growth agenda. But PwC research shows most marketers don’t execute personalization very well. What’s more, many companies lack a content strategy (PDF) that can sustainably support personalization at scale, or are making do with one that’s incomplete.
To uncover some of the secrets to profitably enabling and executing personalized content experiences that leverage customer data and insights, I will be hosting a panel discussion among CMOs—“Personalization: Fusing Creative & Analytics”—at the DMA’s invitation-only Strategic Summit on Oct. 17.
Following is an interview with one of the panelists, Matt Egol. As chief strategy officer of PwC Digital Services, Egol is working with leading brands across sectors such as CPG, retail, technology, and financial services on their digital transformations. Read on for his thoughts about where personalization fits into the mix.
Diorio: Marketers that deliver personalized web experiences say they’re getting double-digit returns in marketing performance and response in owned digital marketing channels. How and where are you seeing your clients leverage personalization to deliver the biggest impacts in the customer journey in terms of sales, differentiation, and satisfaction?
Diorio: Every marketer we talk to–from J&J to Cisco to D&B–tells us that delivering personalization in digital and sales-enablement channels is creating a big and growing upstream content burden on marketing. What can marketers do to enable a personalized content experience at scale, while managing the cost, time, and complexity required?
Egol: Optimizing content experiences at scale requires a balanced approach across the data, the technology stack, and processes for content curation. Very often the data is a mess, which can bog companies down for months fixing the foundation. In addition, companies need to select and integrate new technology vendors beyond basic CRM and CMS solutions—for example, to leverage machine learning to optimize content that is inserted dynamically into the web, mobile, or social experience. Finally, companies need to adopt new ways of working to create, distribute, and measure content. Like at an ecommerce startup, they need to systematically test the effectiveness of different targeting and content pairings over a series of agile sprints during campaigns rather than months later.
Diorio: What is the key to fusing creativity and analytics for personalization?
Egol: Too often, marketers perceive a false trade-off between great creative and more analytically driven approaches. For sure, there are some content investments that are harder to optimize via analytical test-and-learn models—for example, great photo shoots for branded content. However, much of the content that goes into owned media investments is smaller-format content where there is the potential to optimize content insertion, similar to programmatic advertising. Optimization of this content can be tied to both brand health and sales conversion metrics. For example, the impact on social sentiment can be tracked to see whether brands are punching beyond their weight as a result of their investments in content personalization. In this way, brands can assess both the impact on sales lift and brand health.
Read previous DMA Panel Preview interview: “Every Touch Point Is An Opportunity For Personalization, Says TIAA CMO”