The accelerated pace of all things digital and massive disruption to analog operations over the past several years have impacted brands in Singapore and Asia Pacific in unprecedented ways. While this has brought many challenges, it has also revealed exciting opportunities. The nascent digital economy took flight and catalysed a digital-first approach to commerce and communication. At the root of it all lies an undeniable fact: the digital economy is personal.
While in-person experiences will always be crucial in brand-customer relationships, a new Adobe study confirms that digital experiences are now on-par—and in the case of younger consumers, more important—than physical experiences in building trust with brands. According to another Adobe study, 77% of businesses in Asia experienced a surge in new customers through digital channels during the pandemic.
“On the surface, digital experiences may seem less personal. However, combining data and sophisticated analytics and technologies enables brands to gain a deeper understanding of customers than ever before, and respond with powerful, personalised experiences that deliver new levels of value to both companies and their customers,” says Simon Dale, managing director of Southeast Asia and Korea, Adobe.
Personalisation at scale must replace legacy approaches
The old approach of delivering customised experience to the right customer on the right channel isn’t enough to allow brands to tap into the full potential of the digital economy. To do that, brands will need to offer customised experiences to the right customer on the right channel—in real time. In reality, this means executing millions of interactions. In milliseconds.
The challenges and opportunities
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Customers choose their own journeys in the digital environment. Brands must be prepared to personalise their experiences in real-time at every touchpoint based on both immediate context and previous behaviours—as well as a company’s business objectives.
Yet, most brands are still a long way from being able to engage with customers this way. Data silos, data deluge and continually evolving regulations make it challenging to get the right insights as well as properly manage privacy, security and preferences. These challenges are compounded by the need to deliver the right content, in the right format, at the right time and place – all while coordinating consistent experiences across multiple channels.
Despite the challenges involved, brands who make the shift stand to reap the rewards. According to McKinsey, personalisation at scale has the potential to create up to $4 trillion in new value. A study conducted by Adobe and Incisiv found that brands that scale personalisation can achieve massive gains in specific business metrics – with brands observing up to 10-folds improvement in conversion rates revenue per visitor, and average order.
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Three keys to getting personalisation at scale right
While achieving personalisation at scale isn’t easy, there are three keys to mastering the practice.
1. Data and insights
The first step is bringing together data from all relevant sources into unified customer profiles that brands can use to build rich audiences, and then activate those profiles and audiences on all relevant destinations. Proper data governance will ensure compliance with data privacy and security regulations, as well as customer preferences.
2. Content and collaboration
Creative content that’s relevant and delivered at the right time and place is what makes experiences feel personal—and according to Adobe research,--also build customer trust. To do this at scale, brands need to achieve content velocity by connecting all phases of content production—from creation to delivery to optimisation.
3. Customer Journeys
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Bringing these elements together to orchestrate and elevate customer journeys creates consistent experiences that increase customer satisfaction, conversion rates, customer retentions, and brand affinity.
To achieve this, brands need to leverage real-time customer data to personalise the experience across their web properties, mobile apps, and campaigns to deliver the optimal combination of experience, layout, and offers.
Making the digital economy personal
The opportunities in the digital economy is clear. Companies that deliver experiences that are tailored to meet the expectations of each individual customer are inspiring trust and loyalty that’s translating to millions of dollars in additional revenues today. For brands that want to follow suit and earn a leading role the dynamic digital economy, delivering personalisation at scale is the path forward.
Want to learn how businesses can create better, more personalised digital experiences? Watch Adobe Summit 2022 on-demand keynotes, workshops, and a variety of learning opportunities here.
