Personalization is a key tool in Marketer’s toolkit and as with many other capabilities, there are multiple places to house your personalization “engine”. Of course, there is no single right answer and you could mix and match different strategies for different scenarios. Each alternative has its pros and cons.
- With the end system or channel that users interact with. This would mean as part of website, mobile app or marketing automation system. This offers tightest integration with functionality but you would need different personalization systems for different end-user channels (mobile, web etc)
- Part of an omni-channel data platform, such as Customer Data Platform (CDP) or a Journey Orchestration System (JOE). This will allow you to apply consistent personalization strategies across different channels but weaker integration with channels could lead to issues (such as duplication of personalized content blocks between your WCM and this system)
- On its own, as a dedicated personalization engine. Allows a cleaner architecture with “Separation of concerns” but could be relatively light in terms of integrations with channels.
- Somewhere else?
Where do you prefer Personalization to reside? (The graphic is just a WIP. Thinking of several other dimensions such as ease of implementation, cost, better functionality etc …)