1.
Press Pause
Getting Ready for
Content Personalization
The First in a Series from the
Big Content Alliance

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Today’s Presenters
Kathy Baughman
@comblu
Kevin Nichols
@kpnichols
#contentpersonalization

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3
All Talk;
No Action
Just getting started
and need a roadmap
Lots of Bricks;
No Building
Need to be more
cohesive; get to the
next level
Cart Before
the Horse
Invested in
technology…
now what?
Three Reasons to
Press Pause
Which one are you?

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Session Agenda
1. Three reasons to press pause along the
personalization lifecycle
2. Readiness factors and troubleshooting for each
reason or point on the progression
3. Common themes across all three reasons to press
pause
4. Q&A

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Reason One:
All Talk; No Action

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Questions for those just starting down the
personalization path:
Strategy Definition
• Is personalization right for your company?
• What is the most logical starting point for your organization?
• What does your step strategy look like?
Customer-centricity
• Do you really know your customers well enough to provide
contextual experiences?
• Do you capture and share customer insights in an actionable way?
• Do you have the right content to provide experiences that will move
the needle?
Publishing Competency
• Do you have the processes, skills, tools and governance for success?
Reason One to Press Pause:
All Talk; No Action

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ID high-value customers and prospects
Single view of customer/federated profile
Data point definition and source mapping
Person/Account
Persona/Role
Segment ID
Topic modeling/segment
Reason One to Press Pause:
All Talk; No Action
Customer-centricity is the most foundational competency
Segment/Cohort
Buyer center ID
Persona creation
Use case definition
Use case content needs per persona
Each requires specific insights that provide a foundation for next level of personalization.

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Content Requirements: Map Content to User Journey/Segment/Channel, Etc.
User
Journey
1
Pre-requirements/
Education
2
Requirements/
Evaluate options
3
Design/
Build business case
4
Approve/
Buy
5
Post-purchase/
Implement and
cross-sell
User State • Anonymous • Anonymous • Known visitor • Known
prospect
• Customer
Channel
• Website (desktop)
• Mobile search
• Website
• Mobile search
• Website
• Mobile App
• Chat
• Conversation
• Lateral search
• Online store
• Mobile app
• Sales contact
• Customer portal
• Internal search/website
• Online community
• F2F communications
Content
• Emerging technology
• Pricing and promotions
• Thought leadership/POV
• Product/solutions
overview
• Vender comparisons
• Performance benchmarks
• VOC/peer testimonials
• Testing documentation
• Requirements checklists
• Analyst report
• Original research
• Use case performance
• ROI/TCO calculator
• Architectural
documentation
• Contract • Newsletters
• Knowledge base
• UGC
Persona: Technical Decision-maker

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Customer insights drive content roadmap
1. Start with personalization goals and objectives
2. Conduct strategic audit; not a content inventory
3. Identify gaps and sourcing model
4. Create an objectives-driven enterprise roadmap aligned with
personalization strategy
5. Create/streamline the process required and align the tools
and platforms needed to distribute and amplify content
Reason One to Press Pause:
All Talk; No Action

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Putting a publishing
competency into place
Source:
Forbes Publish or Perish
Report
Reason One to Press Pause:
All Talk; No Action

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Reason Two:
Lots of Bricks;
No Building

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Reason Two to Press Pause:
Lots of Bricks; No Building
Questions for those with many one-off
personalization campaigns
Current Personalization Initiatives
• What forays into personalization have been made?
• Is it successful? Are the personalization objectives met?
• How would you categorize each?
• Who was the target: segment, role, person or account?
• Was each a “one-off” or part of an integrated strategy?
• Who owns each campaign or initiative?
Leverage Points
• What were the learnings from each and how were these captured and shared?
• Was there overlap? How can these learnings provide insights for a broader strategy?
• What tools and platforms were used to support these initiatives?
̶ Is there back-end integration of these tools?
Cultural Roadblocks
• Is your culture collaborative and able to support an enterprise content model?
NOW

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Reason Two to Press Pause:
Lots of Bricks; No Building
Reverse Engineer a Strategy
• Validate/define personalization objectives
• Map the personalization ecosystem
• Use the personalization maturity progression to
determine where you are and where you’re headed
• Match the learnings from personalization experiences
across the enterprise to future state
Identify Points of Leverage
• Determine how assets can be leveraged: customer
insights, journeys, personas, roadmaps, tools, and so on

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Build a
Personalization
Roadmap
• Identify what else you need
to get to the next level
• Processes
• Content
• Systems
• Skills
• Tools
• Governance
Current State Mapping Future State Mapping
GovernanceToolsSkillsProcess
Personalization
Strategy
Content

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Reason Two to Press Pause:
Lots of Bricks; No Building
Do a culture gut check
• Determine how ownership issues
are facilitated
• Define change levers needed
̶ Leadership buy-in
̶ Organization definition
̶ Customer-centricity
̶ Publishing model (self-publish vs.
centralized control)
• Establish strong governance and
ongoing engagement
̶ Workshops
̶ Training
̶ Skills
̶ Continuous learning and collaboration
̶ Performance measures

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Reason Three:
Put the Cart
Before the Horse

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Reason Three: Put the Cart Before the Horse
Questions to ask about
personalization performance
Strategy
• Do you have a strategy and personalization objectives?
• How are those objectives performing?
Platform
• Did the business requirements for platform purchase align with the strategy?
• Did you implement the platform to scale?
• Is your problem the platform or the strategy?
Content
• Do you have a content architecture that allows you to plan, source, target, distribute, and
repurpose content across programs, sales channels, and devices?
• How is the content performing?
• Do you have enough content and the mechanisms to support ongoing content creation?
Integration
• Do your legacy systems “play nice” with the new tools you need for your content approach?
• Is all of the tech stack centrally owned?

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Reason Three: Put the Cart Before the Horse
Platforms are meaningless in the absence of an
enterprise content strategy
Get all the stakeholders in
a room and don’t let them
out until you agree upon an
enterprise approach to
content.
Map content experience
along the full customer
lifecycle…from pre-to post-
sales.
Agree upon step strategy
to move along content
personalization maturity
progression.
Agree upon best way to
collaborate to deliver
collectively against the
strategy.
Source content from across
stakeholders and then
organize its components in
a way that allows reuse
and dynamic delivery.
1
2
3
4 5

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Reason Three:
Put the Cart Before the Horse
It’s about the
content, content, content…
Ensure You Have a Content Plan and
Editorial Strategy
• Define which content is necessary for initial
and ongoing personalization
• Put in place the necessary resources to create
the content, source the content, and publish it
• Remember that personalization requires
promotional content and more refined stories
directed to specific interests and targets
Content
sourcing for
personalization
Syndicated
Curated
Outsourced
content
Created
in-house

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Reason Three: Put the Cart Before the Horse
Content Architecture is the
‘design phase’ for content
management
Create a Blueprint for Content
Optimization
• Plan the data structures required to deliver content
across programs, channels and devices
• Architect content so that it can be assembled and
used for multiple purposes and devices
• Consider the context in which content will be
delivered
• Remember to build performance into the model

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Reason Three: Put the
Cart Before the Horse
Look at the tech stack contextually
Wrapping the journey around the tech stack
allows the marketer to:
• See technology needs more contextually
• Visualize and develop a user-centric publishing
model
• Illustrate why it’s important to understand the
journey(s) before buying technology
• Demonstrate what is required to distribute
content experiences in a relevant way along the
journey
• Eliminate or turn-off unnecessary functionality
Inspired by Hawkeye Graphic

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What Did
We Learn?

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Common Reasons You Press Pause
Deficient enterprise
strategy
Need for new or
streamlined processes
Absence of right skill sets Lack of organizational
alignment
Require governance that
(almost) everyone agrees
upon

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Reason One: All Talk; No Action
• Know your customer before you create any content
• Define where you are and where you’re going before starting
• Understand that this is a team sport and collaboration across functions is
mission critical
Reason Two: Lots of Bricks; No Building
• Find everything that is already being done
• Get all the owners together to evolve or define enterprise strategy
• Determine building blocks from across initiatives
• Fill-in the blanks
• Assure executive leadership to guide and manage publishing strategy
• Anticipate ownership issues—take a user-centric approach to drive cross-
silo collaboration
• Socialize across business units to assure success
Reason Three: Put the Cart Before the Horse
• Use content strategy to drive technology investments
• Optimize technical investments with the right architecture to support
personalization
• Adopt centralized ownership to align technology and prevent out-of-
context one-off purchases
1
2
3

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Thank You
Questions?????

26.
Call the Big Content Alliance
when you need to Press Pause
• Enterprise Strategy Development and Enhancement
• Organizational Readiness
• Content Performance
Kevin Lynch
Klynch@comblu.com
312-343-1849
ComBlu.com
Kevin Nichols
knichols@avenuecx.com
781-859-3014 Ext.701
AvenueCX.com

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APPENDIX

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Roadmap for Short-, Mid- and Long-Term Content Strategy
Launch
[Foundation]
Evolution
[9-12 months post-launch]
Enrichment
[18+ months post-launch]
1. Identify initial personas and segments
to target per channel.
2. Establish the content needed to
support each group (what do you
want to serve up to each segment and
persona and to what degree?).
3. Establish the rules for serving up
content (if User X indicated he or she
is Y in user profile then serve up this
content . . .) per channel per user task.
4. Account for taxonomy and controlled
vocabularies to enable the experience.
1. Test existing content by running
ongoing metrics and audits to see how
consumers interact with the content
experience.
2. Identify additional content areas, such
as enhanced cross-sell, up-sell.
3. Test assumed customer journeys
across channels to verify accuracy and
optimize content performance.
4. Rollout enhanced personalization per
channel.
1. Integrate approach across
all channels.
2. Continue to create immersive
content.
3. Leverage new or emerging
technologies and techniques.
4. Optimize per business needs, analytics
and consumer trends.
1
2
3
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
4

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Discovery
Review/define the following
audience inputs:
• User segmentation models
• User research
• Personas
• Cross-channel user journeys
Conduct content assessment:
• Content inventory and audit
• Survey for personalization
readiness
Review metrics:
• SEO and analytics data
Review technology constraints
Review operational and staff
readiness to support
personalization
Review business goals and
objectives
Define
Update and refine all user inputs
From business goals and
objectives, define the
personalization goals and
objectives: answer who, what,
where, when, why and how?
Define user needs based on
journeys and tie each journey to
personalization objective
Create roadmap for short-, mid-
and long-term goals
Craft personalization strategy to
capture all the above
Define missing roles within the
organization; create plan and
business case to hire for
appropriate roles, including
necessary investment/budget
Design
Create detailed set of tasks for
cross-channel user journeys
Based on cross-channel journeys,
determine which content is
necessary
Work with UX and Visual Design
team to define content priorities for
each personalized template/page
Create content model
Create personalization content
matrix, which incorporates
personalization rules, content and
tags
Create metadata and tagging
approach, including metrics
Design taxonomy
Implementation
Create authoring guidance for
personalization
Create new content required
for personalization
Tag content as necessary or
work within a CMS or
personalization engine to
define users, rules, scoring,
metrics, etc.
Ensure system is properly
tested for each personalization
rule and expected outcome
Evolution
Use governance for
quarterly and monthly
reviews to determine
effectiveness of
personalization
Measure the efficacy of
personalization goals and
objectives with overall
performance data
Rollout additional
personalization
functionality and features
per direction from
roadmap
Personalization Plan

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Performance-based Planning Approach
Inputs Meeting Outputs
Business needs
• New products
• New company
• Marketing campaigns
Content calendar
Industry insights and competitive trends
Analytics and metrics reports
• Web analytics
• Internal/operational
• Sales data
New ideas generated from content teams
or other teams
User inputs as changes in user behavior,
research or consumer data
Quarterly or monthly content
meeting with governance and
content strategy
Participants:
• Executive sponsor
• Governance members
• Content strategist
Prioritized content areas of
focus, such as new content
creation or archival of content;
ideally with strategic intent;
goals and high-level objectives
Content owners, sponsor and
stakeholders identified
Planning teams alerted of new
focus area
Source: Rebecca Schneider and Kevin Nichols, “The Next
Generation of Content Strategy: A Performance-Driven Model “
on OmnichannelContentStrategy.com