A Recent Survey by Susan Aldrich Reveals 3 Can't-Miss Personalization Trends

Boston, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/18/2013 --Susan Aldrich, a thought leader and authority on personalizing the customer experience, has released the results of a recent survey. Full report is available here: http://susanealdrich.com/2013/01/10/eagle-eyes-on-the-future-3-trends-for-2013/. For the survey she interviewed six leading technologists who work on commercial personalization solutions, as part of her information and consulting service (susanealdrich.com) on personalization technologies and practices. The survey reveals three trends in personalization with significant impact on digital marketing in 2013: mainstream adoption of personalized recommendations, multi-channel and –touchpoint solutions, and wider application of the underlying technologies.

Interviews were conducted with leaders from Adobe Systems, Avail, Baynote, emailvision, Locayta, RichRelevance, and SilverEgg. These companies all offer services used by online marketers to deliver personalized content to visitors, for example showing product recommendations to shoppers. The details of each interview are published at susanealdrich.com.

First, there was broad agreement that 2012 saw recommendations move into the mainstream in retail and that usage will increase in the year to come.

Pontus Kristiansson, co-founder and CEO of Avail, said it this way: “Virtually all the early adopters have now installed some form of [recommendation] solution.” Pontus blogs about recommendations and personalization at http://avail.com/knowledge/

A second important trend is the broadening of recommendations into personalization solutions that address not just product recommendations on a Web site or in an email, but any element of any customer interaction. Aldrich’s analysis indicates that managing this breadth will be impossible if available tools remain fragmented, addressing individual channels, devices, and touchpoints.

Kimen Field, Senior Product Manager at Adobe Systems Incorporated said it this way: “[Clients are moving] toward including recommendations in a broader optimization and personalization strategy, rather than just offering (and implementing) Recommendations. ” Kimen blogs on digital marketing at http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/

Jake Bailey, VP of Product Marketing and Solutions at RichRelevance says: “Personalization technologies are still in their infancy. There are so many other channels where this technology has not been used effectively.” The RichRelevance blog is http://www.richrelevance.com/blog/

The third trend, and the most important for the future of digital marketing, is the spread of the technology to new arenas.

Junko Nishimura at Silveregg observes: “We have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Today we have islands of optimization. Recommendations are not well coordinated with advertising campaigns and landing pages, and powerful signals from consumers are being ignored.” Junko blogs in Japanese about recommendations at http://silveregg.typepad.jp/blog/

Dan Darnell, VP of Marketing and Product for Baynote, predicts that “The fundamental technology supporting recommender systems, such as machine learning, will support the next generation of customer experience solutions.” Dan blogs for Baynote at http://www.baynote.com/blog/

Susan Aldrich is a leading authority on optimizing the methods that help customers find what they need to make buying decisions and/or to solve problems. Her research and consulting address the technologies and practices that help marketers get the most useful content in front of customers at the right moment: personalization, recommendations, search, discovery, targeted marketing, and web content management. Her blog, at www.susanealdrich.com, aims to fill the need for Personalization for Leaders and Learners.

Contact:
Company: Susan E. Aldrich
Boston, MA USA
Sealdrich@gmail.com
Website susanealdrich.com

Media Relations Contact

Alan Wake
http://www.susanealdrich.com

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