The Future of Personalization and FADS

We’ve all heard of stories about creepy attempts by brands to achieve personalization, and maybe you have even recoiled in horror after getting an ad that was just a little too close to home. On occasion though, you have to admit, it’s sometimes nice to get a deal, or a reminder to buy something you were looking at or doing searches for recently.

Where it seems to cross the mark is when it’s too soon in the funnel, when the brands are ahead of us or seem to just know too much.

Will marketers still target us with privacy regulations in place?

Of course they will, even with GDPR, and other industry regulations being put in place to limit the amount of data they have access to. They’re being pushed towards a middle path, whether they like it or not but there’s no going back all the way to the days of vague personas. They’ll start looking for the added context to pull back from the extreme when it comes to personalization and they may start asking for our consent to personalize content but they will use every bit of data they can.

The Future of Marketing

The powers that be will always be looking to their marketing departments to help shape our preferences, and now that they know just how helpful data is, they’ll continue to hone in on their targets with more precision. As that data is limited though, the marketers that have a deep understanding of their audiences beyond data points, and take the time to really understand the customer journey are going to have a bit of a head start.

If you are reading this blog as a marketer, a bit of old school thinking is going to be helpful. Consider the strength of your brand and how customers experience it, look for areas of improvement across all channels, and don’t overlook in person experiences. Providing that personal touch – what we used to think of as great customer service – every time your customers and prospective customers come in contact with your brand is going to be the key to the future.

Marketers will find the middle path on messaging.

And that’s the future for marketers in every industry. Finding that middle path where they can drive consumer behavior, where they are just a few steps ahead, but not so many they seem to be in our heads, creeping us out. Because we know personalization and providing great customer service works. It can offer a seamless user experience across the web, helping users find just what they were looking for, and even delight us, but only if it doesn’t cross that line.

But they’re not going to do it because we asked nicely.