As tailoring experiences to the individual has become strategic to every brand, we’re witnessing a host of technology vendors crop up promising to deliver on this approach to the customer journey. However, in a race to meet the demands of website personalization, many solutions not built from the ground up with its unique applications in mind either end up getting cobbled together through a series of acquisitions or address only a handful of pain points.

A select few incorporate the capabilities to serve highly-targeted interactions – the kind that actually increases a company’s bottom line. So whether considering personalization for the first time or moving beyond basic implementations into more sophisticated deployments, employing the right personalization provider is incredibly important to a program’s success. Not only to ensuring those initial marketing dollars are well spent, but also that results are generated in a sustainable, scalable fashion.

This guide is meant to remove any uncertainty in the vetting process, arming teams with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions with regards to the personalization technology market.

Why is it so complicated?

Enterprise-grade personalization involves several moving parts, requiring brands to connect, consolidate, analyze, and activate their data in real time. Because of this, certain technological components must be present at the core – and unfortunately, businesses not privy to this knowledge can end up unknowingly making sacrifices at the expense of their efforts.

Additionally, vendor selection means knowing what to look for and how it’s going to deliver results. And with so many possible implementations, as well as a great deal of variation between the capabilities each can provide, understanding which questions to ask and the merits of an adequate response for each is absolutely critical to moving forward in conversations with a personalization provider.

That’s why we’ve identified all 56 of them, from eleven distinct areas of inquiry, including:

Segmentation: data collection, consolidation, and management
Targeting: granularity, reach, and control
Testing: statistical engine, robustness, and parameters
Automation: algorithms, machine learning, and AI
Stack: server-side, API gateway, and developer tools
Omnichannel: audiences, touchpoints, and orchestration
Recommendations: merchandising, strategies, and logic
Messaging: types, channels, triggers
Reporting: metrics, filters, and insights
Implementation: onboarding, integrations, and support
Ease of use: marketer control, flexibility, and workflows

Once the full extent of their capabilities is known, a proper evaluation can be conducted with all relevant stakeholders involved, including marketing, engineering, product, and analytics. After which, suitable options should be strongly considered and weaker ones eliminated.

Bonus:  Use our personalization and experience optimization RFP template, to easily reference the right questions and track answers during the evaluation process.

Remember, a brand’s CX is only as good as the personalization partner it keeps. Download the guide and select the right one, with confidence.