Bluespark - December 2021

Bluespark - December 2021

the

December 2021

THE FALSE PROMISE OF PERSONALIZATION Companies that sell personalization products aren’t always upfront

Everything an organization creates is content. But how are you generating your own content? We’re in an attention economy, and engagement is all about attention. Imagine your audience receiving a piece of direct mail from their college or university and thinking, “They must be asking for money, so into the trash it goes.” That’s not the kind of engagement you want. As a better alternative, you have an internal press team with the freedom to write stories that they see as interesting. More importantly, the team knows their audience will find the material engaging (which goes back to give to get — in this case, I’ll give you content of value, and you’ll give me your attention). We want to help you develop an editorial mindset . The false promise of personalization is the claim that you simply obtain the software, install some JavaScript, designate areas for personalization, and you’re done. No, you do not just “set it and forget it.” You also need to have lots of content that can map to the rules you’ve set. It will take time, but eventually, you’ll have an editorial team in charge of your homepage. The team’s focus should be on users and user engagement, and therefore, they must have the authority to work outside of any typical political structures. Building a dedicated editorial team is challenging. Setting aside the hard dollar investment, it’s a hard sell to ask for complete independence from an institution’s political landscape. But it’s a critical step to take. Once you’ve made the commitment to adopt this editorial mindset, the real work of personalization begins. Warning: It’s not simply a technical solution. You’ll need buy-in from the gatekeepers of content that’s been siloed throughout your organization. Only then can you begin to really make progress toward actionable and meaningful personalization. That’s a subject for another article. You can become a trusted brand with your constituents. Bluespark has been extremely successful at helping universities reconnect and build lasting relationships. If your alumni organization identifies with these issues and would like to shift to a more effective strategy, contact us online today.

about how much effort it really takes to be successful. It isn’t necessarily because marketing campaigns and advertisements are nefarious, but rather, they exist to get you to make a purchase. It takes a great company to realize the common goal of helping customers actually be successful at using their product. What do you really need for successful personalization? First and foremost is user engagement. People need to have a reason to come to your website and engage with your content. That involves ethically tracking behavior in accordance with the General >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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