Why context is more important than data in personalization | MarTech

Personalization is often treated as a data problem. Do you have enough attributes? Are your segments advanced enough? Can your tech stack support this?

While these questions matter, the secret sauce is understanding the context behind someone’s interaction with your brand at any given moment. A frequent traveler might one day visit an airline’s website to research a family vacation. The next time they see each other, maybe they’ll book a flight for work. Their behavioral profile has not changed, but what their context – and therefore what they want from you – has changed.

The real work of personalization begins when you combine behavioral segments with specific contexts. We call these scenarios and they form the bridge between knowing your customer and actually serving them.

Scenario-based design that enhances personalized experiences

Scenarios connect behavioral segments to specific, real-world contexts and describe a clear situation, what someone is trying to do, and what is likely to happen next. They are deliberately specific and deterministic, mapping decision points and potential pathways.

In a retail example, a company might focus on a customer attempting to return an online purchase in-store, mapping two paths: one before the brand’s return period has technically closed and another after the returns period has closed. Regardless of the segment, the intended outcome is the same because the context is the same.

In either scenario, you’ll want to think about how each of your behavioral segments would respond and what information they need to feel comfortable moving forward. The goal is to design a path to the intended outcome that is as frictionless as possible. The way each moment is delivered – or perhaps even how many moments there are – changes based on the segment.

At an operational level, each scenario branch has the potential to introduce the need for new processes, new content and sometimes new channels or tools. These are mapped and documented. They become part of the holistic design.

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From theory to practice: giving a scenario workshop

How do you actually build these scenarios? In my work, I start with workshops that bring together a cross-functional team that understands your business, your customers and your operational reality. My team creates 5-10 straw man scenarios and brings them to the workshop. Together we go through each one, evaluating accuracy, frequency and impact.

Some scenarios are being refined. Others are cut off completely. The goal is not to cover everything. It’s about focusing on the moments that will have a real impact on your customers and your business. Ultimately you have to set priorities. Select no more than three to start. Then the real work begins.

Here is a simple representation of the process:

• To start mapping: For each scenario, you create a blueprint of the as-is experience, the standard way things work today. You document every step from the customer’s perspective. What do they see? What are they doing? Where do they get stuck and why?
• Identify opportunities within current experience: Where are the holes? Where does the experience end? Where can you add value, remove friction, or anticipate a need before the customer even realizes it?
• Design the to-be experience: Start with the ideal basic experience: the standard. Once you have the default experience, you can start layering your segments. Within any given scenario, different segments will need different things.
• Stress test it: You don’t just design in a vacuum. You create a prototype, interview customers per segment and validate your assumptions based on real behavior. You look for evidence that the experience you’re designing actually resonates.

Don’t let the ocean boil: prioritize the moments that matter

Not every scenario can start at once. Once you have mapped out your future experiences, you need to set priorities. What is immediately achievable internally versus later? What level of effort is required? What is the timeline? And, crucially, what is consumer interest in this change?

You also have to define success. How do you know if this scenario-based personalization is working? If your call center receives 100 calls a day from customers who don’t know how to return something in-store, perhaps the goal is to reduce that number to 50.

You build your success metrics around real results, not vanity metrics. Have they engaged with the return policy message? Did they complete the return without needing support? Did they come back and repurchase? Either of these outcomes can be considered a success depending on the goal.

Customers who engage through active, context-driven personalization are 2.3 times more likely to make critical purchasing decisions with confidence. according to research by Gartner. Those types of improvements translate directly into customer satisfaction and marketing ROI.

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The operational reality of personalization at scale

This is where things can get difficult. When you’re talking about hundreds of scenarios and five or more segments per scenario, you’re building a complex system. That system requires real operational power.

On the content side, you have to adapt the tone, message and imagery to different segments and scenarios, which is no small improvement. It may also require operational changes beyond marketing. Maybe you never allowed returns of online orders in stores, so now you need to change a policy. You must train staff to facilitate this return. You need to update your POS system.

You may discover that to deliver personalized experiences at this level, you need a technical infrastructure that you don’t currently have. Real-time data becomes critical. You may need a customer data platform to unify information between systems. You may need text messaging capabilities or sentiment listening technology for your call center. Some segments or scenarios may reveal needs that are completely specific to them, including new data sources, integrations, or tools.

Personalization is not a marketing exercise. It touches operations, technology, data management, training, policy and more. It requires cross-functional collaboration and a willingness to change the way your company actually works, not just the way it talks to customers.

McKinsey research shows that personalization can reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50%, increase revenue by 5 to 15%, and increase marketing ROI by 10 to 30%. But the most important statistic is this: companies with faster growth rates generate 40% more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts. The difference is not just in personalizing, but in doing it right, at scale, with the operational and technical infrastructure to support it.

Why it’s worth it

I know this sounds like a lot. It is. The good news is that we now have AI and machine learning that can help match, test, iterate, and respond to patterns faster and with greater accuracy. Forrester research shows that travel-focused organizations are now managing trips at scale, using AI tools to assess impact, prioritize scenarios and assist with scenario planning. And of course, AI will play a crucial role in the content supply chain to help create and explore variations in messages and content. These gaps previously hindered even attempting this type of personalization.

But as I’ve said before, you still need intelligent people and a plan. Even with AI, there is real work to be done. The alternative is to continue treating personalization as a surface-level tactic, swapping a name in the subject line of an email and calling it a day. That approach does not create trust. It doesn’t create loyalty. And increasingly it does not lead to results.

When you design for context, when you build experiences around scenarios that reflect the reality of your customers’ lives, you are doing something fundamentally different. You show them that you see them, that you understand the complications, tradeoffs, and messiness of their experience. This creates an emotional bond and provides long-term value.

Behavioral segmentation gets you to the door. Scenarios open it up and invite your customer. Together they transform personalization from a buzzword into a business advantage.

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