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The Personalization Paradox: How Standardized Content Creates Personalized Experiences

Contributed by Rayna Taylor

Overview

Most companies agree that personalizing the customer experience for each individual user is a necessity for business, yet only a handful have reported that they are actually implementing personalization in their content. Standardized content enables personalized experiences that can satisfy the unique needs of each customer without having to spend lots of time or money to create.

There are three common mistakes that content creators make that inhibit them from creating an efficient, cost-effective personalized experience: * Spending too much time on the delivery and anticipated end results rather than the creation of the content itself * Attempting to use new tools and tactics on the same old content that does not deliver * Attempting to use new paradigms with the same systems, processes, or departments that operate in isolation from others (silos)

Val Swisher, CEO of Content Rules, describes these common mistakes as The Personalization Paradox and further explain why companies seem to fail at incorporating personalization into their customer experience.

In order for a business to overcome these mistakes that cause them to remain stagnant, they must find the sweet spot between personalization, scalability, and standardization. This translates into the creation of small, standardized components that can be mixed and matched on the fly in order to create a personalized experience at scale.

There are 5 dimensions of standardization: 1. Output type: Determines the category of content you are delivering. 2. Components: Independent unit of content that can be combined together to create a unique experience. 3. Paragraphs: Where the voice, tone, and personality of the company is projected in order to build a relationship with the customer. 4. Sentences: Needs to be standardized through the use of a style guide to be able to mix and match content. 5. Words: Terminology management should be set in place so every piece of content uses the same terms to project the same meaning.

Key Takeaways

  • Personalization is imperative in order for an enterprise to meet specific customer needs.
  • Customers should not feel that they have to search for the content they are looking for.
  • Consumers report that personalized content has an impact on whether or not they purchase from a merchant or conduct business with a company.
  • Content creators should spend more time focusing on the creation or management of content instead of the end results or delivery.
  • In order to personalize, you must standardize a small set of components to choose from that can be combined in different ways for different people and different devices.
  • Content should be easy to read, efficient to create, cost-effective to translate.

Reflection

As technical communicators, it is our responsibility to provide content in a way that can be easily accessible and understood by users of all background knowledge levels and types. As we have come to learn during this course, it is essential that we remain adaptable and flexible in our ability to utilize different communication tactics and tools in order to get the job done. This presentation allows us to see the importance of enabling our created content to be flexible and adaptable, similar to ourselves. Efficient communication is key, so having a standardized process that can be personalized based on the demands of the moment can greatly contribute to the desired communication goal.

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