Last month, I attended Acquia Engage in New Orleans. My goal was to gain a better understanding of Acquia’s Digital Experience Platform (DXP). Personalization and marketing automation using products like Acquia Lift and Mautic are the latest trends in building ambitious digital experiences, and I think they are here to stay. One of my takeaways from Acquia Engage is personalization can make our lives better.

Personalization

I see personalization having two possible impacts on digital experiences:

I lean toward the latter because I’d rather have a company make it easier for me to buy the things I want, rather than a company trying to sell me something that I don’t need or want. On a side note, I am gradually becoming obsessed with Voice Assistants, like Alexa and Google, because they have to potential to make our lives easier. For example, I would love to have Alexa buy me movie tickets at my local theater in one or two voice commands. For this to happen, Alexa is going to need to have a comprehensive user profile about me, which is then used to create a personalized voice experience. We are not exactly there yet, however, soon personalized digital experiences are going to be the norm. The immediate challenge is figuring out how to get there.

Crawl, Walk, Run Methodology

Personalization is challenging to get started with, which is why everyone is using the “Crawl, Walk, Run” methodology for gettings up-to-speed with personalization. “Crawling” begins with collecting data, “Walking” starts when organizations can understand and segment their users, and finally “Running” is creating personalized, individualized user experiences. To me, the real lesson of the “Crawl, Walk, Run”...Read More