Finally: personalized content at scale

Finally: personalized content at scale:

The time has come for marketers to really segment content to audiences in real time across the entire digital world. That’s because iCrossing today announced the acquisition of Red Aril, a data management platform (DMP) provider. We believe the acquisition places iCrossing squarely at the forefront of a significant marketing shift occurring from optimizing campaigns to customizing content for segmented audiences in real time.

Customizing content for segmented audiences is something that offline marketers can do well with the help of tools such as customer data bases and list matching. To cite on basic example, consider how Sports Illustrated publishes different magazine covers for the same annual college football forecast depending on what Time Inc. knows about where you live. Readers who live in the Midwest receive an SI with the Big Ten conference featured on the cover. Readers who live in the Deep South receive an SI featured the Southeastern Conference on the cover.

But segmenting content for different audiences in the digital world isn’t always so easy. Sure, marketers can customize content for you inside a channel, say, email. In email you can segment email lists and send different content to different segments of audiences. But your understanding remains channel specific. The same person who interacts with you on your website might receive completely irrelevant advertising or served up less interesting product offers because your email and website are not sharing information about the same customer.

The Red Aril DMP gives marketers one platform to view how consumers interact with a brand, ranging from one’s own email outreach to interactions on social media properties. Then all your systems can talk to each other in sync so that you can better coordinate your communications to David Deal, our email customer; or David Deal, the customer on our website.

Combining Red Aril with iCrossing’s content marketing and analytics skills, a marketer can share content in more sophisticated ways, coordinated across the customer acquisition lifecycle based on how much information a customer is willing to share with the brand. For instance, a retailer like Nordstrom might adjust its email messaging to a customer in real-time based on, say, an interaction between the customer and Nordstrom’s Facebook Wall. If a customer Likes a Nordstrom Facebook promotion for Dazzlesphere ornament gift sets, Nordstrom (using non-personally identifiable information) might provide an email offer for similar ornaments to the customer. Or imagine if REI knows you typically buy skis and snowboards in December, but you skipped a purchase this year? REI can customize a “we missed you” ad on its website offering a special deal on REI ski gear.

iCrossing will be able to identify, engage, and extend high-value audiences with a greater level of precision than ever before possible. Moreover, clients will own their audience data and deliver personalization at scale to maximize return on ad spend and increase the lifetime value of customer relationship. For instance, a publisher might customize its online content for more highly refined audience segments — say, a magazine publisher customizing online advertising not just for Hispanic women but 25-year-old Hispanic women who are working professionals and then 35-year-old Hispanic women who are both working professionals and moms.

Get ready for personalized content — at scale.

David Deal, vice president of marketing, iCrossing