Forem: Ninetailed

Composable Architecture: Everything You Need to Know About Composability

Ninetailed — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 09:00:00 +0000

As companies grow, they tend to use more and more apps to manage different areas of their business.

According to recent research, companies are using 130 apps on average, and this number is only going to grow.

It’s no surprise to see that this situation leads to data silos where different parts of the company are not able to share information easily. It can also lead to workflow silos where different parts of the company are not able to work together efficiently.

This is where the composable architecture enters our lives as a solution to these problems.

With composable architecture, companies can create a unified system where all data is accessible across different tools, and all workflows can be executed seamlessly - thanks to APIs.

This not only improves the speed of development, increases efficiency, and saves time and money but also creates a more cohesive user experience.

If you're interested in learning more about composable architecture and how it can help you build better solutions faster, this post is for you.

In this blog post, we'll explain everything you need to know about composable architecture.

What Is Composable Architecture

Composable architecture is a powerful and flexible approach to designing and developing software systems.

In the context of modern cloud-based systems, composable architecture, also known as modular architecture or component-based architecture, allows developers to quickly create complex applications by combining multiple smaller services rather than having to build them from scratch.

At its core, composable architecture is all about breaking large applications down into smaller components that can be reused and combined in different ways to create new functionality.

There are several characteristics that define composable architecture:

Components are independent: Each component is self-contained and performs a specific function, and can be used in multiple configurations without relying on other components.
Components have well-defined interfaces: The interfaces between components are clearly defined, allowing them to communicate and exchange data with each other.
Components can be easily combined and recombined: Components can be easily combined and rearranged to create different configurations, allowing organizations to adapt their systems to changing needs and requirements.
Components can be developed and tested separately: Because components are independent and have well-defined interfaces, they can be developed and tested separately from the rest of the system, improving the efficiency and speed of the development process.

By leveraging composable architecture in your development efforts, you can not only speed up your time to market but also reduce the overall cost and complexity of building software systems. This is because composable architecture allows you to focus on creating reusable components that can be assembled together in different ways rather than having to reinvent the wheel each time.

Building Blocks of Composable Architecture: APIs and Microservices

APIs and microservices are two key building blocks that are often used in composable architecture.

APIs are sets of protocols, routines, and tools for building software applications. They provide a way for different software components to interact with each other, allowing them to exchange data and functionality.

In a composable architecture, APIs are used to define the interfaces between components, allowing them to communicate and exchange data with each other. This helps to ensure that the components are interoperable and can be easily combined and recombined to create different configurations.

Microservices, on the other hand, are small, independent units of functionality that can be developed, deployed, and maintained independently. They are designed to be lightweight and modular, making them easy to reuse and scale.

In a composable architecture, microservices can be used to build the individual components that make up the system. By dividing the system into small, independent microservices, organizations can create a more flexible and adaptable system that can be easily modified and reconfigured to meet changing needs and requirements.

Using APIs and microservices as building blocks in a composable architecture can help organizations create systems that are more flexible, adaptable, and efficient. They can also make the development process faster and easier, as components can be developed and tested separately from the rest of the system.

Why Is Composable Architecture Becoming More Popular and Important

In today's fast-paced, constantly changing business environment, the ability to quickly adapt and respond to new challenges and opportunities is becoming increasingly important.

Composable architecture provides a way for organizations to build systems that are more flexible, adaptable, and efficient, helping them to stay competitive and meet the needs of their customers and stakeholders:

Flexibility and adaptability: Composable architecture allows organizations to build systems that are more flexible and adaptable, as they can easily reuse and repurpose existing components to meet changing needs and requirements.
Improved efficiency and speed of development: By dividing the system into small, independent components that can be developed and tested separately, composable architecture can improve the efficiency and speed of the development process.
Reusability of components: With composable architecture, organizations can reuse and repurpose existing components rather than starting from scratch each time they need to build or modify a system. This can save time and resources and improve the overall efficiency of the organization.
Ease of maintenance: Composable architecture can make it easier to maintain and update systems, as components can be modified and replaced individually rather than having to make changes to the entire system.

Benefits of Composable Architecture

Flexibility and Adaptability

The composable architecture allows organizations to build systems that are more flexible and adaptable, as they can easily reuse and repurpose existing components to meet changing needs and requirements. This can help organizations respond more quickly to new challenges and opportunities and stay competitive in a fast-paced business environment.

Reusability of Components

With composable architecture, organizations can reuse and repurpose existing components rather than starting from scratch each time they need to build or modify a system. This can save time and resources and improve the overall efficiency of the organization.

By building a library of reusable components, organizations can reduce the time and effort required to develop new systems and make it easier to modify and update existing systems.

Improved Efficiency and Speed of Development

By dividing the system into small, independent components that can be developed and tested separately, composable architecture can improve the efficiency and speed of the development process.

It can also make it easier to identify and fix issues, as problems can be isolated to specific components rather than requiring changes to the entire system. By developing components in parallel and using automated testing, organizations can speed up the development process and get new systems and features to market faster.

Ease of Maintenance

Composable architecture can make it easier to maintain and update systems, as components can be modified and replaced individually rather than having to make changes to the entire system. This can save time and resources and reduce the risk of disruptions to the system.

By breaking the system down into smaller, independent components, it becomes easier to identify and fix problems and make updates and improvements without affecting the rest of the system. This can help organizations keep their systems running smoothly and efficiently over time.

How to Implement Composable Architecture

If you're interested in using composable architecture in your organization, there are several steps you can take to get started:

When Should You Start Using Composable Architecture

The right time to start using composable architecture will depend on your organization's specific needs and goals. There are a few situations in which it may be particularly beneficial to consider using composable architecture:

If you are building a new system from scratch: If you are starting from scratch and building a new system, composable architecture can be a useful approach. By breaking the system down into small, independent components, you can create a flexible and adaptable system that can be easily modified and updated over time.
If you are planning to significantly modify an existing system: If you are planning to make significant changes to an existing system, composable architecture can help you to make those changes more efficiently and effectively. By breaking the system down into smaller, independent components, you can make changes to individual components without affecting the rest of the system.
If you need to integrate multiple systems: If you are integrating multiple systems and need to exchange data and functionality between them, composable architecture can be a useful approach. By using APIs and other tools to define the interfaces between the systems, you can create a more seamless and efficient integration.

On the other hand, if you are simply making small updates or improvements to an existing system, it may not be necessary to switch to a composable architecture. In some cases, the cost and complexity of implementing a composable architecture may not be justified by the benefits. In these situations, it may be more appropriate to stick with the existing architecture and make the necessary changes.

Identify the Components That Make Up Your System

The first step in implementing composable architecture is to identify the components that make up your system. These components should be small, independent units of functionality that can be developed and tested separately. They should also be reusable, so that they can be easily combined and recombined to create different configurations.

To identify the components that make up your system, you should start by examining the functions and features of your system. Consider breaking the system down into smaller, independent units of functionality that can be developed and tested separately. You should also consider the reuse potential of each component - how likely it is that the component will be needed in multiple configurations or systems.

It may be helpful to create a diagram or model of the components and their relationships to help you visualize the system. This can help you to identify any dependencies or connections between the components and ensure that you have a clear understanding of how they fit together.

Once you have identified the components that make up your system, you should document them in detail. This should include a description of the component's functionality, any dependencies or connections to other components, and any specific requirements or constraints. This documentation will be useful as you move on to the next steps in the implementation process.

Determine the Relationships Between Those Components

When determining the relationships between the components of a system, you are essentially trying to understand how the different parts of the system interact with and depend on each other. This can involve identifying the dependencies between the components, which means understanding which components rely on others to function properly.

For example, if component A relies on component B to provide certain information or perform certain tasks, then component A is dependent on component B.

Defining the interfaces between the components is also an important part of this process. An interface is essentially a way for two components to communicate with each other and exchange information. This can be done through various means, such as APIs, which allow different software components to talk to each other.

By understanding the dependencies and interfaces between the components of a system, you can better understand how the system as a whole functions and identify potential areas for improvement or optimization.

Implement the Components and Test Their Integration

Once you have defined the interfaces between the components, you can begin implementing the components themselves.

It is important to test the components individually and as part of the overall system to ensure that they are working correctly and that they are interoperable. This will involve writing automated tests to ensure that the components are functioning as intended.

Challenges and Considerations with Composable Architecture

Complexity of Implementation

One of the challenges with composable architecture is that it can be complex to implement, particularly for large, complex systems. This is because it requires careful planning and coordination to ensure that the various components of the system work together effectively and can be easily combined to form the desired functionality.

Ensuring Interoperability Between Components

Another challenge with composable architecture is ensuring that the various components of the system are interoperable, meaning that they can work together seamlessly and without requiring significant additional effort. This can be particularly challenging when integrating components from different vendors or that were developed using different technologies.

Maintaining and Updating the System Over Time

Maintaining and updating a composable architecture over time can also be a challenge, as it requires careful coordination and planning to ensure that changes to individual components do not have unintended consequences on the overall system. This can be especially difficult for systems that have a large number of components and that are heavily reliant on integration between those components.

The Bottom Line: Is Composable Architecture the Future of Enterprise Software Architecture

It is possible that composable architecture will play a significant role in the future of enterprise software architecture.

One of the main benefits of composable architecture is that it allows developers to quickly create complex applications by combining multiple smaller services rather than having to build them from scratch. This can greatly speed up the development process and allow organizations to more quickly develop and deploy new applications and features.

In addition, composable architecture can also help to reduce the overall cost of development by allowing organizations to reuse pre-existing components rather than having to build everything from scratch. This can also help to improve the maintainability and scalability of enterprise systems by allowing components to be updated or replaced individually rather than requiring changes to be made to the entire system.

Overall, the use of composable architecture is likely to continue to grow as organizations seek to more quickly and efficiently develop and deploy complex systems, and as the use of microservices and other component-based approaches becomes more widespread.

Composable A/B Testing with Ninetailed and Contentful

Ninetailed — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:05:28 +0000

A/B testing is a powerful tool for businesses to optimize their website and boost their conversion rates. By randomly displaying different versions of a web page to two groups of visitors and tracking the results, businesses can determine which version is more effective at achieving their goals.

A great way to incorporate composable A/B testing into your workflow is with Ninetailed and Contentful. With Ninetailed’s powerful capabilities integrated into the Contentful® Composable Content Platform, digital teams can easily create A/B tests and deliver personalized content experiences at scale, using a flexible, composable architecture that doesn’t sacrifice performance. Teams can now see how changes in copy or design impact customer engagement and conversion rates.

In this post, we’ll explore four benefits of using Ninetailed and Contentful together for composable A/B testing.

Benefit #1: Create Better Experiences for Your Customers and Users

There are several steps involved in conducting an effective A/B test. First, you must identify the key metrics that you want to measure, such as conversion rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, etc.

Next, you need to choose a suitable sample size based on statistical significance and confidence intervals. Once you have calculated this value, you can set up the experiment by creating multiple variations of your website, content, or product and then measuring the performance of each variation against the baseline version.

If you want to get the most out of your A/B testing efforts, it’s important to optimize and refine your tests continuously. This can involve making small tweaks to existing variations or creating completely new versions based on user feedback.

Overall, A/B testing is an extremely powerful tool for businesses looking to create better experiences for their customers. By using this technique effectively, you can gain valuable insights into what works well and what doesn’t, which will help you improve your offers and messages and increase conversions over time.

Let’s take a closer look at how this works in practice with two examples from one of our customers, quality eyewear designers Ace & Tate.

A/B Test for the Main Navigation

The first test Ace & Tate rolled out was for the primary navigation to improve engagement with topline categories and the underlying content to help them buy glasses.

They ran an A/B test where they showed either help or services as an entry point in the main navigation and measured CTR to the navigation and singular entry points.

The test resulted in an uplift of 54% on the desktop; however, the real win was on mobile, with an 87% increase in click rate. The streamlined content under the services item also saw improvements, with ~50% more users engaging with the links.

The result? New navigation was rolled out to all retail countries following the test.

A/B/C Test for Product Pricing

The second example of the test they ran was a bit more complicated than the first one, as there was one more variable.

Once Ninetailed was enabled, Ace & Tate ran an A/B/C test to validate a hypothesis that showing clearer pricing earlier in the funnel will give users more confidence to proceed with a purchase. The test ran with a variant for a from price and another with a fixed price.

Although they expected higher CTR to product pages there actually was a decline in users moving forward in the funnel. However, when Ace & Tate dug deeper into the full funnel, they saw that in both variants, the users that moved forward had a higher propensity to complete their product configuration.

Moreover, and in the case of the fixed price variant, they were also 8% more likely to convert to a sale, leading to higher purchases than the control group despite the decline earlier in the funnel – a great example that sometimes it pays to look past your initial success metrics to get the full picture.

Benefit #2: Reduce Complexity

BetterCloud recently released the 2023 State of SaaSOps report, which gives us new information about the average size of tech stacks at mid-market and enterprise companies.

There are thousands of SaaS solutions, so it’s not unusual to find that your organization is using multiple similar tools for the same purpose. This year, 40% of IT professionals said they merged redundant SaaS apps. Even so, the net growth of SaaS apps used was 18% higher than the year before. On average, organizations now use 130 apps!

Using more tools and tech stack doesn’t just create data and organizational silos but also creates workflow silos.

While the situation is like this, it’s more important than ever to keep workflows simple and cut down on complexity — in the end, the simplest tech stack is the best stack.

With Ninetailed integrated with Contentful, you’ll have everything related to experimentation and A/B testing within the Contentful workflow. Therefore:

no need to learn a new tool
no need to switch to another tab
no need to create a new workflow
no need to create new data or organizational silos

Another benefit of reducing complexity is that it allows you to focus your efforts more effectively, create a better testing rhythm, and have higher testing velocity.

This is critical for maintaining a good testing rhythm, as it ensures that your team has enough time and energy to dedicate to each test scenario.

When Ninetailed was integrated into Contentful for one of our customers, we saw that teams could increase the testing velocity up to 200% compared to other solutions like Google Optimize — which ultimately yields better digital experiences and higher conversion rates.

Benefit #3: Enjoy the Flexibility of Adding New Data Sources and Destinations

Ninetailed is composable — just like Contentful — which means that it’s easy to integrate with other tools and modern tech stacks. This is important for website optimization because it allows you to quickly add new features and functionality to your site without having to rebuild it from scratch.

With this composable approach, you can add any data source and destination without any performance trade-offs.

For example, Ninetailed makes it easy to connect with your customer data sources and analytics tools to get insights into your A/B testing results. With Ninetailed’s composable MACH architecture and native customer data and analytics connections, you can get started with your data in minutes and see how your tests are performing.

Our connections with data sources and analytics solutions are designed to give you the most insights into your results. You can see how your tests are performing, what variations are winning, and what changes you need to make to improve your results.

Benefit #4: Run Your A/B Testing Experiments without Sacrificing Performance

One of the most important aspects of running an A/B testing campaign is ensuring that your site or app remains fast and responsive for all visitors during the experiment process. Without this speed and responsiveness, you risk skewing your results by driving away potential customers who are frustrated with slow load times.

At Ninetailed, we understand the importance of performance in A/B testing campaigns, which is why we’ve built the new version of our tool that makes it easy to run, manage, and measure these types of tests at scale without sacrificing speed or functionality. With our edge-side delivery capabilities, you can be confident that your visitors will have a smooth, fast experience even while you’re testing and tweaking different variables in your campaigns.

What’s edge-side delivery, you might be asking? It’s a method to serve content and data from locations that are closer to the end user rather than from a central location. This improves performance because it reduces the distance that the data must travel, which can reduce latency and improve the speed at which content is delivered to the user. Overall, the use of edge-side delivery has a significant impact on performance by reducing latency, improving speed, and increasing scalability.

Ultimately, this means you can confidently make changes that could improve your conversion rate or user engagement without having to worry about potential negative impacts on your site’s speed, lighthouse score, or stability.

Easily Create Experiments and Target Your Audience within Contentful

The process of targeting and defining your audience has never been easier than with our newest capabilities for Contentful.

With the help of Ninetailed Experiences, you can now utilize A/B testing (also A/A and A/B/n tests) to fine-tune your message and ensure it reaches the people who matter most.

We make it easy to set up and manage your A/B tests:

all the workflow happening inside Contentful
no dependency on developers
create and publish experiments in minutes, not days or weeks

With our intuitive interface, you can create multiple versions of your content and track how each one performs. You’ll be able to see which version got the most views, the most engagement, and the highest conversion rate. With this valuable data, you can make sure that your next piece of content is even better than your last.

In addition to A/B testing, we also offer a number of other features that will help you fine-tune your content strategy. With our analytics connections, you can see how your content and experiments are performing across all channels.

With the newest version of Ninetailed Experiences, you have everything you need to create amazing experiences that resonate with your audience.

Ability to Test More Than one Component at the Same Time

You can now test more than one component at the same time with Ninetailed for Contentful. This capability provides many benefits, including:

the ability to test different combinations of components to see which ones work best together
faster testing cycles, since you can test multiple components at once
more comprehensive results showing how each component affects the others

Get More Leads from the Same Traffic by Adding Ninetailed to Your Composable Content Platform

If you’re looking for a way to get more leads, more revenue, and higher engagement from the same traffic, Ninetailed with Contentful is your solution.

With our new A/B testing capabilities, you can split your traffic between different versions of your content to see which performs better.

Plus, our personalization capabilities let you tailor your content for each individual visitor, ensuring that they see the information that’s most relevant to them.

Want to learn more about how Ninetailed can provide value to your business? Read how Pets Deli, a market leaders in the European D2C (direct-to-consumer) pet food market, supercharged their conversion rates by 51% using personalization.

A Comprehensive Guide to MACH Architecture in 2023

Ninetailed — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 16:10:13 +0000

In the tech world, change is constant.

Technologies come and go, and what was once cutting-edge is replaced by the new and improved. It's no secret that the technology landscape is constantly evolving, so it's important for organizations to plan ahead and stay ahead of the curve.

Then the question is, how do you stay ahead of the curve when new technologies are introduced daily?

This is where the MACH Architecture comes into the picture. MACH architecture is

agile
flexible
future-proof
scalable

For all these reasons, it's no secret that MACH architecture is on the rise. With its growing popularity, many people are curious about MACH architecture and how it works.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll look at MACH architecture, how it works, and what benefits it can offer your business in 2023.

Whether you're just starting out with MACH architecture or you're looking to expand your knowledge base, this guide has everything you need to get up to speed.

What Is MACH Technology?

If you’re not familiar with composable digital experience space, you might ask yourself, ‘what does MACH mean?’ MACH is an acronym that stands for:

Microservices-Based
API-First
Cloud-Native
Headless

The MACH technology is a powerful approach to software development that focuses on developing microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native applications that are headless. This innovative approach allows developers to create highly scalable, efficient, and flexible applications that can easily adapt to changing business needs.

The MACH technology stems from the principles of agile development, which emphasizes rapid delivery and continuous improvement. By breaking down large applications into smaller modular units called microservices, MACH enables teams to iterate quickly and respond effectively to new requirements or changes in the market.

Microservices-Based

Microservices is an approach to software development whereby an application is decomposed into a number of small, independently developed, and deployable services.

This approach has a number of benefits over traditional, monolithic development techniques.

Firstly, it enables much greater flexibility in terms of deployment and scalability. Secondly, it allows for greater reuse of code and easier maintenance. Finally, it facilitates a more rapid development cycle as features can be developed and deployed independently of one another.

As a result, microservices-based applications are becoming increasingly popular, particularly in the cloud computing domain.

API-First

An API-First approach is a strategy for designing and developing software applications in which the application’s programming interface (API) is given priority over other components.

The advantage of this approach is that it allows developers to create an API that can be easily integrated into other software applications, making it easier to share data and functionality between different systems.

In addition, using an API-first approach can also help to ensure that the application’s UI is consistent with the underlying API, making it easier for users to understand and use the application.

Cloud-Native

The term "Cloud-Native" is used to describe applications that are designed specifically for deployment in the cloud.

Cloud-Native apps are typically built using microservices, which are small, self-contained components that can be deployed and scaled independently. This approach differs from traditional monolithic applications, which are large and complex, with tightly coupled dependencies.

Cloud-native apps are also designed to be highly resilient, with each microservice being independently scalable and replaceable. This approach enables organizations to quickly adapt to changing conditions and ensure that their apps remain available even in the event of an outage.

As the demand for cloud-based applications continues to grow, the need for cloud-native solutions will become increasingly important.

Headless

Headless architecture is a type of software architecture that decouples the front-end user interface from the back-end logic enabling a framework-agnostic technology structure.

In a headless system, the backend provides an API that delivers content to the frontend. This separation of concerns allows for greater flexibility and scalability.

By decoupling the frontend and backend, developers can more easily make changes to either one without affecting the other. This approach also makes it easier to scale individual components of the system as needed.

MACH Alliance

The MACH Alliance is a global industry consortium of forward-thinking organizations that are committed to driving innovation in the rapidly evolving digital landscape and promoting the development of enterprise technology ecosystems that are open and of the best of the breed.

At its core, MACH Alliance is about educating the industry as a whole on what to watch out for while shifting away from legacy infrastructure and turning composable, and helping businesses stay competitive in an increasingly digital world. By embracing emerging technologies like microservices, MACH members gain a significant edge over their competitors by being able to quickly develop and deliver new products and services to customers at scale.

Overall, MACH Alliance is at the forefront of innovation in the digital space, empowering businesses all around the world to thrive in the age of digital transformation. Whether you're an established enterprise looking for new ways to build competitive advantage or a startup looking for support and guidance as you navigate the rapidly changing digital landscape.

MACH Architecture

What Is MACH Architecture?

The MACH architecture is a software architecture that is composed of independent components, meaning it is built from smaller components that can be combined to form a complete system.

This composability allows software systems to be built from interchangeable parts that can be composed into various configurations. The advantage of this approach is that it allows different parts of the system to be continuously improved and optimized for specific purposes, which can lead to better performance and experience overall.

What Are the Benefits and Advantages of MACH Architecture?

The advantages and benefits of MACH architecture include the following:

Scalability

MACH architecture is a type of software architecture that is designed to be scalable. One of the benefits of this design is that it can easily be adapted to meet the changing needs of an organization.

For example, if an organization needs to grow, the MACH technologies can be scaled up to accommodate the additional load.

Flexibility and Composability (Tailor-Made Architecture)

Additionally, MACH architecture is also designed to be flexible, meaning that it can be easily modified with the best-of-breed solutions to fit an organization's specific requirements.

This flexibility makes MACH solutions ideal for organizations that need to respond to changes in their business environment rapidly.

As a result, the MACH technology stack provides organizations with a high degree of scalable and flexible enterprise technologies, making it a popular choice for many businesses.

Future-Proof

The need for faster and more efficient data and content processing will only grow as the world becomes increasingly digitized.

MACH ecosystem technologies are designed to meet this demand by providing a scalable and flexible architecture that can be easily adapted to changing needs.

Additionally, the MACH technology stack is also highly future-proof, meaning that it can be used for years to come without becoming outdated. This is due to its modular design, which allows new components to be added as needed.

As a result, businesses investing in MACH-first software can be confident that they are making a sound investment that will pay off for years.

Faster Time to Market

MACH architecture is a microservices-based approach that enables organizations to develop and deploy software faster.

By breaking down applications into small, independent services that can be developed and deployed independently, MACH reduces the time it takes to get new features and functionality to market.

In addition, because MACH services are loosely coupled, they are easier to change and update, reducing the risk of errors and making it easier to roll out new features and functionality quickly and efficiently.

As a result, MACH can help organizations to achieve faster time-to-market, increased agility, and better overall software quality.

Challenges About MACH Architecture

The MACH architecture has been widely increasing its adoption in recent years as a future-proof, high-performance alternative to traditional architectures. However, MACH architectures are not without their challenges:

What you see is NOT what you get
Coordination problems between software providers
Lack of collaboration between business and development teams

Traditional (Monolith) Architecture vs. MACH Architecture

Digital experience platforms are powerful tools to create, manage, and organize customer expectations. However, monolith architectures have some serious limitations in meeting evolving business requirements.

The problem is that most monolith architectures don't offer the flexibility or features for the upcoming needs of business functionality. MACH architecture is a perfect solution for businesses looking to get the most out of their digital experience efforts.

Adoption of MACH Architecture and MACH Technologies

The study, published in March 2022, surveyed over 200 senior-level technology decision-makers from companies around the world to gauge awareness and adoption of MACH technology.

The findings of the ‘Enterprise MACHified’ are a strong indication that MACH is gaining momentum in the market and is poised to have a significant impact on the enterprise software landscape.

Decision makers put a high value on offering superior CX quickly in the face of rapidly growing expectations.
The move to MACH is being driven by CX, market developments, and privacy/security concerns.
MACH's motivations are closely connected to those who believe they are ahead of their competitors.

Let's deep dive into this research to explore how top decision-makers for corporate organizations see MACH architecture:

Decision makers see MACH as the future of architecture.

MACH intentions are strongly correlated with perceptions of outpacing competitors.

75% of respondents think that they’re ahead of the competition - one-third believe their organization is significantly ahead of the competition, while two-fifths say they are slightly ahead of their competitors.

Increased customer experience, faster adaptation, and improved privacy/security are driving reasons for the transition to MACH.

The customer experience is the backbone of most businesses. Providing a great customer experience increases your customers' likelihood to interact positively with you. For this reason, it's a leading factor why increasing customer experience is one of the top reasons for switching to a MACH platform, with 60% ranking it as a number one priority.

In today's business world, change is the only constant. Markets shift and evolve at an ever-increasing pace, and businesses must be able to adapt just as quickly to stay competitive. That's why responding to changes in the market faster (59%) and building and implementing new functionality quicker (54%) are other significant reasons for the transition to MACH.

Last but not least, improved privacy (56%) is another major reason for choosing MACH solutions over traditional ones.

Barriers to MACH are more likely to be around implementation.

Two-fifths (39%) of decision-makers said resistance to change from their development team is their main barrier to moving to a MACH-based infrastructure.
35% of companies rely more on their current vendors for business continuity, suggesting that existing B2B relationships impact business function.
A third (33%) are unclear about the trade-off between initial investment and long-term benefits.

How to Evaluate MACH Architecture and MACH Technologies

The MACH architecture provides a number of benefits that make it an attractive option for businesses. Perhaps most importantly, it is designed to be scalable, making it easy to add new applications without needing to reconfigure the entire system. This highly modular architecture allows businesses to customize their deployment to meet their specific needs.

When evaluating the MACH architecture, businesses should consider their specific needs and requirements. Here are a couple of questions you can ask when evaluating a potential MACH tool:

Can you add and replace services gradually over time?
Does it support adding or replacing best-of-breed systems and services independently?
Is it created using APIs from the ground up, or is an API built later?
Can you access technical documentation (demonstrating platform capabilities and resources) easily?
In terms of cloud infrastructure, does it have infinite scalability?
Do updates and upgrades take place through continuous delivery without causing any disruptions?
Can you freely and flexibly design and deploy the user experience?

With MACH architecture, businesses can digitally transform and evolve with the future. This is an essential technology for any company that wants their business in line with new trends as they come about.

Is MACH Architecture the Future of Digital Customer Experience

MACH is a new approach to digital customer experience that is gaining popularity among businesses.

Unlike traditional monolithic architectures, MACH separates each component of the customer experience into its own microservice that enables to use of full capabilities. This allows businesses to update their customer experience more quickly and easily without having to redeploy the entire system.

Additionally, MACH provides greater flexibility, capabilities, and scalability than monolithic architectures, making it well-suited for businesses that are growing quickly.

While MACH is still relatively new, it has already been adopted by some of the world's leading companies and is widely considered to be the future of digital customer experience. As a result, it is not surprising that MACH architecture is quickly becoming the new standard for digital customer experience.

How to Find Engaging Headlines with A/B Testing to Get More Leads

Ninetailed — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 08:33:49 +0000

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” - David Ogilvy

This quote by David Ogilvy, the Father of Advertising, is as true today as it was when he said it over 50 years ago. In the age of content overload, we are constantly bombarded with headlines vying for our attention.

With so many options and so little time, we have become adept at skimming articles to find the ones that are most relevant to us. This is why having a well-crafted headline is more important than ever if you want people actually to read your content.

Think about it – when was the last time you clicked on an article because of an intriguing headline? Chances are, it wasn’t that long ago. But how often do you click on an article with a boring, generic headline? Probably not as often.

The right headline can be the difference between someone taking the time to read your article and moving on to the next one. That’s why it’s so important to spend time crafting headlines that capture attention and persuade people to keep reading.

One way to do this is through A/B testing, which allows you to test different versions of your headline to see which one performs better. This is a valuable tool that can help you fine-tune your headlines and make sure they are as effective as possible.

A/B testing is relatively simple – you create two versions of your headline (version A and version B) and then track how each performs. You can do this by looking at metrics such as click-through rate and time on page.

If you see that version B has a higher click-through rate and/or people are spending more time on the page, you know that it is more effective than version A. You can then use version B as your final headline.

A/B testing is a valuable tool for any business, but it is especially important for those in the content marketing space. Headlines are essential for driving traffic to your articles, so it’s important to make sure they are as effective as possible.

If you’re not already using A/B testing for your headlines, now is the time to start. It’s a simple and effective way to fine-tune your headlines and make sure they are engaging and persuasive.

Headline Testing

What Is Headline Testing

Headline testing is the process of testing different versions of your headline (it can be for an article, landing page, or product description) to see which one performs better. This is usually done by creating two versions of your headline (version A and version B) and then tracking how each performs.

Headline testing is important because it allows you to fine-tune your headlines and make sure they are as effective as possible. The right headline can be the difference between someone taking the time to read your article and moving on to the next one.

How to Test Headlines

1. Brainstorm Headlines

The first step of 'How to Test Headlines' is brainstorming headline ideas. The goal is to come up with as many ideas as possible, so don't worry about whether they're good or not. Just write them down.

If you don't have any idea about how to come up with headline ideas, here are some headline writing tips:

Include Numbers

Numbers can be an effective way to grab attention when brainstorming different headlines. This is because numbers are often associated with certainty and precision, which can make them more persuasive than other types of words.

In addition, numbers can help to add a sense of urgency to a headline, making it more likely to prompt readers to take action.

Of course, not all headlines need to include numbers, but including them can be a helpful way to stand out from the competition.

Brainstorming different headlines with numbers can help you create more persuasive and effective headlines for your business.

Here are some headline templates you can use:

<# Number> Ways to Get More
How to Increase by <# Impressive Number of Desired Outcome>

Talk About the Pain Points and Benefits

Another tip when it comes to brainstorming headlines is to think about the customer's pain points and the potential benefits of the solution. You can persuade the reader to keep reading and learn more about your product or service by talking about these things in the headline.

For example, let's say you're selling a new type of toothbrush that is designed to reduce plaque buildup. A headline such as "The Toothbrush That Can Help Reduce Plaque Buildup" is likely to be more effective than a headline that simply states the name of the product. By talking about the customer's pain point (in this case, plaque buildup) and the potential benefit of the solution (a reduction in plaque buildup), you can increase the likelihood that people will want to learn more about your product.

In short, when brainstorming headlines, remember to focus on the customer's needs and what your product or service can do for them. By doing so, you'll be more likely to create effective and persuasive headlines.

Here are some headline templates you can use:

Want to ? Follow These Steps
Why Every Needs a And How to Get/Build/Grow One

Arouse Curiosity

Arousing curiosity is an important tactic when brainstorming headlines because it can help draw readers in and encourage them to click on an article.

After all, if a headline is boring or uninteresting, there's a good chance that people will simply scroll past it. However, if a headline is intriguing and makes people curious about what the article will say, they're much more likely to click through and read it.

There are a few different ways to arouse curiosity in a headline.

One is to pose a question that the reader will want to know the answer to.
Another is to use surprising or unexpected words.
And finally, you can also try to create a sense of urgency by implying that the article contains time-sensitive information.

By using one or more of these strategies, you can craft headlines that are more likely to catch people's attention and encourage them to read your articles.

Here are some headline templates you can use:

How to without
Revealed: Why Is So Important Today!

Be Simple and Clear. Don’t Use Clickbait

A headline is the first and often only opportunity to make a strong impression on your readers.

In order to maximize its impact, it is important to keep your headline simple and direct. A complicated or convoluted headline will confuse your readers and cause them to move on to something else. Instead, focus on creating a headline that clearly conveys the main point of your article.

If you can capture the essence of your article in a handful of words, you are more likely to entice readers to click through and learn more.

So when you sit down to brainstorm headlines, remember: simplicity is key.

Here are some headline templates you can use:

Experts on Why Is So Important
Want to ? Follow These Steps

2. Decide Headline Variations

The second step of headline testing is deciding on different headline variations to test.

For example, if you wanted to test whether a shorter or longer headline is more effective, you would create two versions of the same article with headlines of different lengths.

Once you have created your headlines, it's time to decide which variations to test. This is where you come up with a variety of headlines that you think will be effective and then narrow them down to the most promising candidates. To do this, you'll need to take into account factors such as your audience, your goals, and your resources.

For instance, if you're trying to reach a wide audience, you'll want to test headlines that are likely to appeal to different segments of that audience. On the other hand, if you're trying to increase click-through rates, you may want to focus on testing headlines that are more likely to pique curiosity.

Whichever factors you prioritize, the important thing is to select headlines that give you the best chance of achieving your desired outcome.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your headline testing is both effective and efficient.

3. Test the Headlines

Once you've selected the headlines you want to test, it's time to create the tests.

There are a few different ways to test headlines, but the most common method is A/B testing. With A/B testing, you create two versions of your headline and then send each version to a different group of people. Another way to test headlines is to post both versions on social media and see which one gets more engagement.

Whichever method you choose, headline testing is a great way to ensure that your headlines are as effective as possible.

Run A/B Tests to Find the Best Performing Headlines

The most effective way of testing headlines is using A/B testing.

With A/B testing, you create two versions of your headline and then send each version to a different group of people. Afterward, you can analyze the results to see which headlines performed better.

To set up an A/B test, all you need is a tool like Ninetailed. Once you have such a tool in place, you can create two versions of your headline and then use the tool to show each version to different visitors randomly:

After enough people have seen both versions of your headline, you can compare the results to see which one performed better.

Once you've collected enough data, it's time to analyze the results and see which headlines performed better.

There are a few different metrics you can use to measure the effectiveness of headlines, but the most important one is conversion rate. Conversion rate measures how many people who saw your headline went on to read your article or take your desired action.

Other metrics you can use to evaluate headlines include click-through rate, time on page, and social shares. However, the conversion rate is the most important metric to focus on because it tells you how effectively your headline achieves your desired goal.

Once you've analyzed the results of your headline test and found a winner, it's time to implement that headline on your website or blog.

To do this, simply replace the old headline with the new one and save your changes.

Once you've successfully implemented the new headline, all that's left to do is sit back and watch as your conversions increase. Thanks to headline testing, you can be confident that your headlines are as effective as possible.

Next Steps: Take Your Conversion Rates to the Next Level with A/B Testing

Headline testing is a great way to improve your conversion rates. But it's not the only way.

If you really want to take your conversion rates to the next level, you need to start A/B testing other content models as well. This includes things like calls-to-action, images, and even video.

By testing different content models, you can further optimize your website or blog to convert even more visitors into leads and customers. So if you're serious about increasing your conversion rates, be sure to A/B test other elements of your site in addition to headlines.

Profitable Growth: 4 Ways Personalization Can Accelerate Profitability During a Downturn

Ninetailed — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 08:25:33 +0000

It's no secret that the days of free-flowing VC cash are over.

With the recent economic downturn, investors are carefully scrutinizing companies' financials and growth potential. As a result, profitability has become more important than ever before.

And European tech funding data supports this statement:

When we do a quick recap of the graph, we can easily see that:

The investment amount in the third quarter of 2022 declined by 52% compared to the first quarter of the year
When it comes to comparing with the previous year's Q3, the decline is 49%

For the past decade, the tech industry has been driven by a "growth at all costs" mentality. This has led to a situation where many startups focus on raising capital and achieving rapid growth rather than generating profits.

However, this approach is not sustainable in the long run.

With the recent downturn in the tech industry, there is a renewed focus on businesses that have profitable growth. These businesses are focused on generating revenue and achieving positive cash flow. They are also able to scale their operations without incurring excessive costs.

As a result, they are better positioned to weather the current economic conditions.

According to Sifted, investors say they are deploying cash more carefully, and so will be putting even more scrutiny on key metrics like traction and product-market fit, as well as team dynamics.

This leads to one main question 'how to accelerate profitable growth during an economic downturn?'

One way to accelerate profitable growth during a downturn is to focus on personalization. In today's hyper-competitive market, providing a personalized digital experience is essential for winning and retaining customers. Businesses can create a strong competitive advantage by tailoring their products and services to meet the specific needs of individual customers.

But before diving deeper into personalization, first, let's take a step back and define what profitability, growth, and profitable growth mean…

What Is Profitable Growth

Profitability

Profitability is a key indicator of a company's financial health. It is a measure of how much revenue a company generates compared to its expenses. A company that is profitable is able to generate more revenue than it spends, which means it can reinvest in its business and grow over time.

There are several different ways to measure profitability. The most common metric is net income, which is calculated by subtracting a company's expenses from its revenue. Net income can be further divided into operating profit and non-operating profit. Operating profit measures the amount of money a company makes from its core business activities, while non-operating profit includes income from other sources such as investments.

Profitability is an important metric for investors to consider when evaluating a company. A company that is profitable and growing will be able to generate more value for shareholders over time. If a company is not profitable, it may have to rely on financing from other sources, which can dilute shareholder value.

Growth

Business growth is the increase in the size, revenues, or market share of a company.

It can be measured in terms of the number of employees, the number of sales, or the market share a company has.

Business growth can be organic or inorganic. Organic growth is the result of a company's internal expansion, such as new products or new markets. Inorganic growth is the result of mergers, acquisitions, or partnerships.

Business growth can be slow and steady, or it can be exponential. Slow and steady growth is often the result of organic expansion. Exponential growth is often the result of inorganic expansion or new capital injection for faster user acquisition and more sales - for greater overall profitability in the long term.

Profitable Growth

Profitable growth is the increase in a company's profits year over year. This can be measured in terms of net income.

There are many ways to achieve profitable growth. A company may focus on expanding its customer base, penetrating new markets, or developing new products and services.

Profitable growth is an important metric for assessing a company's financial health - especially when the VC money becomes more expensive.

Despite its importance, profitable growth is not always easy to achieve. In fact, many companies find it difficult to maintain consistent growth over the long term. This is why investors monitor a company's profit growth closely and are aware of the challenges that it faces.

The Role of Personalization to Enable Profitable Growth

While it's true that the current economic climate is challenging, there are still opportunities for businesses to grow and prosper.

Companies can position themselves for success in the months and years by focusing on personalization and profitability.

By definition, personalization is the process of tailoring content and experiences to meet the specific needs and preferences of an individual.

In today's hyper-competitive marketplace, businesses must go beyond simply providing generic products and services - they must provide individualized, tailored experiences that are relevant to each individual customer.

4 Ways Personalization Can Accelerate Profitability During a Downturn

Personalization can be a powerful tool for driving profitability during an economic downturn. By tailoring messages and offers to individual customers, businesses can tap into new revenue streams and boost growth.

Here are four ways personalization can help your business succeed during tough times:

Create Better Customer Segments with First-Party Data

Data is the fuel. And first-party data is the more valuable fuel that can help you create better customer segments. By using first-party data to define how your customers should be grouped, you can ensure that each segment is well-defined and contains only the customers that you want to target.

Creating customer segments with rules based on first-party data also allows you to be very specific about the criteria that each segment must meet. This ensures that your segments are as targeted and effective as possible.

When creating customer segments, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Identify Buying Behaviour Patterns

First, you'll need to identify buying behavior patterns among your customer base. This information can be gleaned from data gathered through past sales, surveys, and customer interactions. Look for commonalities among your best customers and use this information to create new customer segments.

2. Start Running Personalization Campaigns

Once you have defined your customer segments, you can begin to use personalization to cater your marketing messages and offerings to each group. This type of personalization can be used to segment customers based on their location, demographics, past purchase history, and other criteria.

3. Test, Measure, and Adjust

As with any marketing strategy, it's important to test, measure, and adjust your efforts as needed. Personalization is no different. Try different messages and offers for each customer segment and track the results. Adjust your strategy based on what works best for each group.

By following these steps, you can create better customer segments that are more likely to convert into sales. Creating better customer segments with first-party data for personalization is a powerful tool that can help you accelerate profitability during a downturn.

Power Up Your Account-Based Marketing with Personalization

If you're looking to take your account-based marketing (ABM) efforts to the next level, website personalization is a powerful tool that can help.

By tailoring the content and messages on your site to specific accounts, you can deliver a more relevant and targeted experience that can improve engagement and conversions. These could be messages related to your latest offer, an upcoming event, or anything else that would be relevant to that particular account.

There are a few simple ways to get started with account-based marketing personalization:

Have the right data strategy
Choose the right tech stack
Align the sales and marketing teams
Segment your target accounts
Uncover the customer journeys and intent
Create use cases and hypothesis
Develop personalized content
Measure your results

Boost Your Account-Based Marketing Strategy with Ninetailed and Albacross

As the account-based marketing movement continues to grow, B2B marketers are under pressure to deliver more personalized and targeted content to their target accounts. However, only a few are able to achieve account-based marketing personalization at scale.

To truly personalize your ABM communications, you need a tool that can give you a detailed insight into each account and another tool that creates personalized experiences.

This is where Ninetailed and Albacross come into play:

Albacross is a B2B intent data source that helps you to understand your audience and uncover hidden prospects
Ninetailed is an experience optimization tool that turns customer data and content into personalized experiences

If you're looking to take your ABM strategy to the next level, consider using Ninetailed with Albacross. With our powerful combination of intent data and personalization, you'll be able to create a truly personalized experience for each of your accounts.

Sharpen and Personalize Your CTAs on Your Website

Your website's call-to-actions (CTAs) are critical in driving conversions. Whether you're looking to get visitors to sign up for your newsletter, download a white paper, or make a purchase, your CTAs need to be sharp and personalized.

Here are two CTA personalization tactics that you can start using immediately:

Hero CTA Personalization

The main purpose of hero CTAs are to get people's attention and entice them into taking specific actions such as signing up for a newsletter list, downloading an e-book, watching a video tutorial, or filling out a contact form.

CTAs are the perfect way to personalize your website and provide people with a clear path based on who is viewing your content.

You can create various CTAs based on different firmographic, behavioral, and psychographic data. Here are some examples of CTA personalization:

Hero CTA personalization for customers and non-customers
Hero CTA personalization based on customer funnel stage
Hero CTA personalization based on customer’s location

In-Line CTA Personalization

In order to be successful in today's digital world, it's more important than ever to target your customers with relevant pieces of content. And one of the best ways to do this is through in-line CTAs.

In-line CTAs are links that are placed within the body of your content, rather than in a separate area such as the sidebar or footer. This ensures that they are seen by readers who are actually engaged with your content, and not just skimming over it.

What's more, in-line CTAs are usually highly relevant to the topic at hand. This means that they are more likely to catch the reader's attention and encourage them to take action.

Convert Interested Prospects Into Leads Faster with the Right Content at the Right Time

Website personalization helps you convert interested prospects into leads faster by showing them the right content and offers at the right time.

With website personalization, you can segment your audience and show them relevant content based on their interests and needs. This way, you can make sure that they see the information that is most likely to convert them into leads.

In addition, website personalization allows you to show different offers to different segments of your audience. This way, you can make sure that each group sees the offer that is most relevant to them.

By showing the right content and offers to the right people at the right time, website personalization helps you convert more prospects into leads. Faster.

Successful Growth Strategy: Is Profitability or Growth More Important for a Business

Personalization can be a powerful tool for driving growth. After all, when you're able to address your customer's needs and preferences directly, you're more likely to win their business.

But personalization isn't just about driving growth; it can also be a key driver of profitability. In fact, businesses that personalize their offerings are often able to charge premium prices for their products and services.

So which is more important for a business: profitability or growth?

There's no question that growth is important for businesses. After all, companies that don't grow eventually die. But is growth more important than profitability? The answer to this question is not so clear-cut.

On the one hand, businesses need to be profitable in order to survive in the long term. Without profits, businesses will eventually run out of money and be forced to close their doors. So in this sense, profitability is more important than growth.

On the other hand, growth is what allows businesses to generate profits in the first place. Without growth, businesses will eventually stagnate and their profits will start to decline. So in this sense, growth is more important than profitability.

So which is more important?

Ultimately, the best course of action for any business is to focus on both growth and profitability, in other terms, profitable growth. By growing their revenues and expanding their customer base, businesses can generate more profits. At the same time, by tightly controlling their expenses and maximizing their efficiency, businesses can ensure that those profits are as high as possible.

By taking a balanced approach to growth and profitability, businesses can put themselves in the best position for long-term success.

So personalization can be a powerful tool for both driving growth and increasing profitability.

Using Website Personalization for Effective Account-Based Marketing

Ninetailed — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 08:44:44 +0000

As B2B businesses strive to create better customer experiences, account-based marketing (ABM) has become one of the most efficient and effective ways to target specific accounts and customers.

ABM is a strategic approach that focuses on specific organizations and individuals rather than treating entire markets as a single entity.

And when it comes to ABM, relevance is key. In order to make the most of your time and resources, it's important to focus on leads that are most likely to convert.

Personalization can help you do just that.

And with technology that allows for a more personalized engagement at scale, there’s no reason your business can’t implement a personalized ABM strategy of its own. By tailoring your content and messaging specifically for each account, you can ensure that your efforts are as effective as possible.

Not sure where to start?

In this blog post, we’ll explore the basics of account-based marketing personalization and discuss some of the benefits you can expect from using it. We’ll also provide tips for getting started with your own account-based marketing personalization strategy.

What Is Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing is a strategic approach to B2B marketing that focuses on key accounts rather than mass targeting. In an ABM, each account is treated as a market in its own right, with its own unique needs and objectives. This approach allows businesses to tailor their marketing efforts to specific accounts, increasing the likelihood of success.

ABM typically involves three key elements: account selection, account insights, and account activation.

To select the right accounts, businesses need to identify their ideal customer profile and then use data analysis to identify which companies match this profile. Once the right accounts have been selected, businesses need to generate insights about each account in order to create customized messages and content. Finally, businesses need to activate their contacts within each account by nurturing leads and driving conversions.

While ABM requires a more customized approach than traditional marketing techniques, it can be an extremely effective way to grow your business. By taking the time to understand the specific needs of your target customers, you can create a highly targeted marketing campaign that is more likely to result in success.

How Personalization Can Impact Account-Based Marketing

In account-based marketing, personalization is key.

By tailoring your messages and content to fit your target accounts' specific needs and interests, you can significantly increase the likelihood of conversion.

There are a number of ways to personalize your account-based marketing efforts, but some of the most effective include segmenting your audience, tailoring your content, and using dynamic content.

Segmenting your audience allows you to target specific accounts with highly relevant messages. This approach can be especially effective if you have a large number of target accounts. By segmenting your audience, you can ensure that each account receives content that is specifically tailored to their needs and interests.

Tailoring your content is another great way to personalize your account-based marketing efforts. This involves creating personalized content for each target account. This can be anything from tailored collateral to personalized email campaigns. The goal is to create content that resonates with each account and helps them see the value in doing business with you.

Finally, dynamic content is an excellent way to ensure that your account-based marketing efforts are always relevant and up-to-date. Dynamic content is simply content that changes based on certain conditions or triggers.

Getting Started with Account-Based Marketing Personalization

In order to maximize the impact of your account-based marketing efforts, it's important to personalize your approach. This means tailoring your marketing messages and strategies to your target accounts' specific needs and interests.

What works for one account may not work for another, so it's important to tailor your approach accordingly.

Luckily, there are a few simple ways to get started with account-based marketing personalization.

1. Have the Right Data Strategy

Any successful marketing technique is only as good as the data it’s based on. This is especially true when it comes to account-based marketing.

In order to create a personalized ABM strategy that will effectively engage your target accounts, you need to have the right intent data in place.

This data should include information about the specific companies you’re targeting and detailed data about the individuals within those companies.

2. Choose the Right Tech Stack

Technology plays a critical role in account-based marketing personalization strategies. The right technology stack can help you segment and target your accounts, track engagement, and measure success.

There are a few different factors to consider when making this decision, including your budget, the size of your target market, time to market, scalability, the level of personalization you need, etc.

Regardless of all these factors, you need two marketing technology tools for sure:

a tool that uncovers the B2B intent data and
personalization as a service that delivers the right content for the right person.

3. Align the Sales and Marketing Teams

Aligning the sales and marketing teams is the third step of an effective account-based marketing personalization strategy. This step is essential because it ensures that both teams are working together towards the common goal of acquiring and retaining customers.

By aligning the marketing and sales teams, businesses can develop a more holistic approach to customer engagement, which can lead to improved customer loyalty and higher levels of customer lifetime value.

In addition, this alignment can help businesses to avoid silos within the organization, which can lead to inefficiencies and a lack of coordination.

4. Segment Your Target Accounts

To personalize your account-based marketing approach, you need to segment your target accounts into different groups. This will allow you to tailor your messaging and outreach to each group's specific needs and interests.

This not only makes your marketing more effective but it can also help you to identify high-value accounts.

5. Uncover the Customer Journeys and Intent

The fifth step of the effective account-based marketing personalization strategy is uncovering the customer journeys and intent. This allows you to identify the best content and message for each customer journey stage.

To do this, you need to understand how your customers interact with your brand online. This includes understanding what they search for, what content they consume, and what actions they take.

Once you have this information, you can map out the customer journey and create targeted content that meets their needs at each stage.

6. Create Use Cases and Hypothesis

Use cases and hypotheses are essential for any account-based marketing effort. By creating use cases, you can identify what success looks like for your target accounts. This will help you create personalized campaigns that are more likely to resonate with your target contacts.

Hypotheses can also be helpful in testing different approaches to see what works best for your specific situation.

By taking the time to create use cases and hypotheses, you can increase the chances of success for your ABM strategy.

7. Develop Personalized Content

Once you've segmented your target accounts, you can develop targeted content that speaks directly to each group's pain points. This could include sections on the website, blog posts, e-books, whitepapers, and more.

8. Measure Your Results

Finally, don't forget to measure your results so you can see how effective your personalized ABM approach is. This will help you fine-tune your efforts and continue to improve your results over time.

3 Account-Based Marketing Personalization Tactics

1. Headline Personalization

Landing pages are the first impression your customers have of your website, and as such, every element in the landing page needs to be perfect.

However, it's not the case for most of the landing pages.

Although the needs and wants are different from one visitor to another, every visitor sees the same headline and message on the landing page.

Personalization is a powerful tool that gives the landing page a competitive advantage by dynamically adapting the headline.

The more personal the connection between your headline message and your target accounts, the more likely it is to convert.

You can tailor the headline messages for the different target accounts. Using different firmographic variables such as industry, location, revenue, company size, etc., would be highly beneficial for creating different variations to target your accounts.

2. Social Proof Personalization

Social proofs on your website add instant credibility to your promising value. Companies are using different types of social proof across their website:

customer testimonials
product reviews
customer logos

As competition for customer attention increases, companies are looking for new ways to stand out from the crowd. Businesses can achieve this by personalizing social proofs on their websites.

You can personalize the social proofs for each target account by using relevant logos, reviews, and testimonials to match not only their wants and needs but also their industry, company size, location, etc.

Therefore, for instance, visitors from the gaming industry can see company logos and testimonials from gaming companies, while visitors from other industries see social proofs related to their industry and specific use cases.

3. Case Study/Success Story Personalization

With the wide range of content on the internet, it’s important to make your website personalize as best as possible. Personalizing featured success stories is a great way to make sure you provide the right content for your audience.

When you personalize featured case studies and success stories, you are making it clear that you care about their interests and needs. This will help build trust with your audience and make it more likely for people to return again and again to learn more from you.

You can personalize the featured blog posts for every visitor based on specific attributes, including previous browsing behavior, location, buying intent, or firmographic data, such as the industry, company size, etc.

Boost Your Account-Based Marketing Strategy with Ninetailed and Albacross

To truly personalize your ABM communications, you need a tool that can give you a detailed insight into each account and another tool that creates personalized experiences.

This is where Ninetailed and Albacross come into play:

Albacross is a B2B intent data source that helps you to understand your audience and uncover hidden prospects

Ninetailed is an experience optimization tool that turns customer data and content into personalized experiences

6 Effective Behavioral Segmentation Tactics You Can Start Using on Your Business

Ninetailed — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 12:25:45 +0000

Customers are complex.

They have different wants, needs, habits, and behaviors.

Whether they like to accept or not, their wants, emotions, needs, backgrounds, and habits play a massive role in their purchasing behavior.

Most of the customers have habits that they do every day without thinking. Some of them might start their day with a cup of espresso, some might start the day checking game results, or others finish their day with quick jogging.

Businesses want to understand different customer groups based on their behaviors and patterns. That's why they use behavioral segmentation.

However, behavioral segmentation is NOT only about understanding people's patterns and motives behind their actions. It's also about optimizing and tailoring their messages for each specific group to match these patterns.

This article covers the basics of behavioral segmentation and how businesses can use these strategies to reach their business goals.

What Is Behavioral Segmentation?

Behavioral segmentation is the process of dividing customers into categories with similar behavior. These behaviors are customers' attitudes towards a product or service, their usage rate of it, whether they like or dislike it, and many other behavioral patterns.

These behaviors are then used to target specific audiences with appropriate messages and offers.

The idea behind behavioral segmentation is to take advantage of what companies know about consumers by targeting them with the right message at the right place at the right time, which leads to more persuasive messaging and higher conversions.

6 Tactics to Boost Businesses With Behavioral Segmentation

Here are six ways companies can use behavioral segmentation to build better, more cost-effective business strategies:

1. Increase Sales Amount With Upselling and Cross-Selling

Perhaps the most basic usage form of behavioral segmentation is targeting the customers who had completed a purchase.

Based on customers' previous purchase behavior, companies can segment them and offer related or complementary products after the purchase.

For example, suppose a customer purchased a holiday package with a safari last year and wants to purchase a holiday package this year as well. In that case, the company can offer these customers a safari or similar leisure activities during their checkout process or after they complete their purchase.

This upselling and cross-selling strategy allows companies to capitalize on consumers' previous behavior in their online or offline stores.

2. Retarget Customers Based on Where They Left

E-commerce companies know that not every customer who adds products to their cart completes the purchase. Some customers leave the website:

after adding a product to the cart
after visiting their cart
on the customer information page
during shipping page
before/after entering the payment information
during the order review page
and so on.

For e-commerce companies, identifying all these (and many more) behaviors is very crucial.

By knowing where the customer is left, companies can apply better targeted retargeting campaigns and tailored messages for each one of their customer's behaviors.

Alternatively, companies can use retargeting campaigns based on visitors' page visit behavior to show visitors what content or product they viewed on the website or related popular products other customers also purchased.

3. Make Better Product Recommendations

Behavioral segmentation helps develop recommendation engines that can accurately forecast which items or features each customer would be interested in their next session.

Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, or any other company that comes to your mind uses past behavior (pages visited, links clicked, liked/disliked, etc.) to segment its customers with similar behaviors. So that these companies can recommend similar products based on these behaviors.

These companies are using this type of data to build more accurate recommendation engines that provide individuals with what they crave when it's most convenient!

For the very same reason, according to research by McKinsey, 35% of Amazon's sales come from such recommendations.

4. Create Better Timing for the Messages

Everyone has a different schedule. Some people have a tighter schedule while others have more flexible. For this reason, it's very important for companies to understand when their customers are engaging with their products.

Understanding their usage preferences and segmenting customers based on this data may help companies send timely and better-tailored emails, push notifications, or any other messages.

Imagine the following scenario. A company has localized an app for Brazil and realizes that many users use the app during midnight. Instead of sending notifications right after people wake up to get their attention, this company could send one push notification just before midnight, right before most people engage with the app.

5. Find the Most Loyal Customers

Another tactic of using behavioral segmentation is finding the most loyal customers.

To define their customers' loyalty, companies can use a combination of two:

Brand Love: How likely customers are to recommend the brand to family and friends. Or, how likely are they to switch the brand given the price difference?
Purchase Behavior: the total number of items they bought and the total amount they spent

Once companies combine these two data, they can create customer segments based on loyalty.

Understanding customer loyalty level is very important because most loyal customers usually have a higher lifetime value, and it's more profitable to retain them than to acquire a new customer.

6. Find Where the Customers Are Coming From

Where are the customers coming from? What is the traffic source?

It's important to know where the customers are coming from. It can help companies decide how much marketing should be focused on the different sources.

It also helps companies understand what types of products or content resonate best with those audiences. It can give them ideas for new products and content that might not yet exist in their product catalog, blog, or social media channels.

Segmenting this type of customer behavior enables companies to understand:

Do visitors from certain websites convert more than visitors from other websites?
Do visitors from certain websites spend more money than visitors from other websites?
Do visitors from certain websites spend more time than visitors from other websites?

All of these insights can help companies optimize their user experiences to meet their business and marketing objectives.

The Bottom Line

Behavioral segmentation is a powerful marketing tool that can help companies reach their business goals. It can increase sales, retarget customers who left and make better product recommendations resulting in higher-value conversions for companies.

With these six ways, marketers have the tactics to create better, more cost-effective strategies for their company:

Upselling and cross-selling with the right offers
Retargeting campaigns based on past user behavior
Product recommendations based on similar activities and past behavior
Better timing for the messages, emails, and notifications
Targeting higher lifetime value customers by understanding more about customers' loyalty levels and previous purchasing behavior
Identifying the most valuable traffic sources

Best 13 Podcast Episodes About Personalization

Ninetailed — Tue, 03 May 2022 05:46:32 +0000

Podcasting is a great way to learn while you're on the go.

And with personalization being one of the biggest trends in business today, there are a lot of great podcasts out there that can help teach you different aspects of this important topic.

Whether you're a marketer looking to improve your targeting or personalize your customer experiences, or you're just curious about the latest trends in the digital experience space, these podcast episodes about personalization will give you insights and ideas that you can apply to your own business.

These podcasts will feature interviews with experts from various companies and industries and help you understand how personalization works and what benefits it can bring to your business.

There are tons of great podcasts out there about personalization, and we've rounded up the best 13 episodes for you.

So whether you're just starting out or looking for some new ideas, be sure to check out these top podcast episodes:

1. On Page Personalization Takes Technology and Know-How

Andy‌ ‌sees‌ ‌two‌ ‌things‌ ‌that‌ ‌marketers‌ ‌need‌ ‌to‌ ‌really‌ ‌get‌ ‌personalization‌ ‌dialed‌ ‌in‌ ‌for‌ ‌their‌ ‌users‌ and‌ ‌their‌ ‌brands.‌ ‌The‌ ‌first‌ ‌is‌ ‌the technology and‌ the‌ ‌second‌ ‌is‌ ‌knowledge.‌ ‌

In this episode, Andy Kaiser, CEO and Co-Founder of Ninetailed joins Alex Belding, the host of The Headless Marketing Show.

Throughout the podcast, you’ll listen to the challenges of attempting to personalize legacy tools and outdated technology, as well as the advantages of embracing modern technologies such as headless CMS.

Last but not least, in the podcast, you’ll hear the need of respecting the end-user and personalization in a manner that improves the user’s or customer’s experience - as Andy mentioned, and I'm quoting here, "no one wants to be creepy." ‌

Link to episode

2. Personalization

In this episode of the Customer First podcast, participants

Amanda Hicks, Partner, Customer Brand and Marketing Advisory, KPMG Australia
Tom Lurtz, Partner, KPMG in Germany
Paul Henninger, Partner and Head of Lighthouse, KPMG in the UK

discuss personalization and how businesses may create proactive, one-on-one interactions with their users that meet their expectations without jeopardizing their trust and confidence in the brand.

They also highlight how, in the future, brands must be careful and methodical in their data usage, constantly presenting the obvious advantage to the customer.

Link to episode

3. Hyper-Personalization, Transformation, and CX Innovation

In this episode, Dr. Julian Raabe, an expert partner at McKinsey & Co, joins Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan, hosts of the CX Files show.

In the podcast, Julian talks about recent McKinsey research in:

hyper-personalization,
omnichannel,
CX innovation, and
digital transformation.

Link to episode

4. A Conversation about Personalization for a Headless CMS

In this lively conversation between Marcelo Lewin and Andy Kaiser, founder of Ninetailed, chat all about personalization, how it works, what tools you should be aware of, and how to incorporate it into a headless CMS.

Moreover, in this episode, Marcelo and Andy talk about:

drawbacks of personalization
the balance between personalization and privacy
required tech stack for meaningful personalization
headless CMS personalization
importance of a structured and scalable content model in headless CMS for personalization to work properly

Link to episode

5. Don't Just Personalize, Get Personal

In this episode, Kristina Jaramillo joins the host of The Customer Experience podcast, Ethan Beute to talk about the difference between personalized and personal ABM — and why the key is customer experience.

Kristina and Ethan talk about:

what putting the customer first really means
personalized vs. personal account-based marketing
the relationship between account-based marketing and customer experience

When marketing speaks to one-to-many, we’re addressing industries. When we speak to one-to-few, we’re addressing personas. But personal relevance in one-to-one messaging means that we speak to how unconsidered gaps will affect that individual specifically.

Link to episode

6. Personalizing the Customer Experience by Providing Choice

This episode covers an interview with Holly O'Neill, Bank of America's Chief Client Care Executive and Head of Consumer Client Services.

She discusses how to capitalize on customer feedback, how to increase communication during times of change, and how to personalize the customer experience at scale.

The key takeaway from her discussion is that personalization at scale can be done by providing options for how customers interact with your business.

Customer experience means first and foremost we’re making sure that no matter what the customer wants, we’re delivering it. It’s making sure we’re making it as easy for them as possible. So delivering an exceptional experience, really being there for them around delivering for their priorities. What’s their agenda? What are their life priorities? And how do we enable them to meet and exceed their goals?

Link to episode

7. The Hyper-Personalized Experience

Hyper-personalization is one of the newer buzz words out in the business world today – a practice that utilizes artificial intelligence to deliver highly personalized content and experiences in real-time at an individual level.

It’s another way for brands to connect with their customers and a potential "tool in the box" for customer experience professionals.

In this episode, host Steve Walker brings guest Melissa Drew, an associate partner at IBM, to explore how artificial intelligence might take personalization to the next level.

Link to episode

8. How to Leverage Data to Improve Personalization

Customers now want businesses to remember their likes and dislikes, which means personalization is essential, particularly in e-commerce. Delivering a strong personalized experience begins with effectively utilizing customer data to understand their needs and demands and then adjusting the experience in real-time.

Julie Penzotti, a principal data scientist at Zulily, joins Blake Morgan to talk about data and personalization on The Modern Customer Podcast.

Personalization has never been more important to customers. However, marketers have never had as much access to data as they have now. Brands can provide extraordinary experiences that meet and exceed consumer expectations utilizing data and new technologies.

Penzotti says all companies can and should leverage data regardless of industry or size. Brands don’t have to jump into collecting billions of pieces of data every day. Penzotti recommends starting small with simple analytics. A deep exploratory data analysis can provide insights into customers' preferences and buying patterns and highlight simple solutions that can impact customer experience.

Link to episode

9. Personalizing the Experience with Journey Analytics

In this episode, Mike and Paul, the podcast's hosts, are joined by Dan Magestro from West Monroe's Analytics.

The trio discusses "journey analytics," which includes the value of using data to help personalize customers' experiences with organizations by measuring and understanding the current experience, as well as predicting and prescribing "next best actions" within experiences to deliver a more effortless experience.

Link to episode

10. How Real Is Real-Time Personalization?

We hear the phrase "real-time personalization" a lot, but what exactly does it mean? And how might technology assist marketers in creating moments that actually connect with customers?

This episode of The Marketing Cloudcast is trying to answer these questions with expert marketers:

Jose Cebrian - Senior Vice President Marketing Strategy, Merkle
Lisa Tan - Chief Marketing Officer, Reverie
Deena Gardner Reverie - Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Reverie

Link to episode

11. Data Driven Customer Experiences

Here is another episode from The Modern Customer Podcast.

In this episode, Blake Morgan welcomes Lisa Arthur, CMO of Teradata Applications to look at personalized customer experiences from a different angle.

Fragmented customer experiences have made it challenging for customer experience professionals looking to leverage big data. Have you ever bought a pair of shoes online and then it follows you for a few months? This is the challenge with personalization today. Personalization hasn’t delivered relevance and hasn’t given us a different approach. What’s supposed to be personalized is still mass marketing and with that mass customer experiences. Companies today need to tear down siloes and untangle that data hairball—for the sake of customer experience.

Link to episode

12. The Personalized Experience

In this episode, host Steve Walker welcomes Shane Murphy Reuter from Intercom to discuss the importance of personalizing the customer experience.

The customer experience professionals have many tools at their disposal, but few are as effective as the ability to instantly adjust to a customer's demands and offer a great experience.

The importance of personalization cannot be overstated.

However, the question is:

How do you develop the relationships required to help deliver a personalized experience that differentiates your company from the rest?

The duo, in this episode of The CX Leader Podcast, is trying to find an answer to this question.

Link to episode

13. How To Use Data To Create Personalized And Scalable Experiences

Companies now have more potential than ever before to provide individualized consumer experiences, thanks to a plethora of customer data. However, developing a one-of-a-kind experience for each individual might take a significant amount of time and money.

Bryan Flores, Group Vice President of Marketing & Strategy at Frontier Communications, joins Blake Morgan for this episode.

Bryan says modern companies don’t have to choose between individualized experiences and scaled experiences. By leveraging data, they can have both. Taking advantage of data makes employees’ and customers’ lives easier and helps everyone get a customized experience, no matter how many customers there are.

Link to episode

The Bottom Line

You may know that personalization is key to an effective customer experience.

But what are the best ways and recent trends to personalize your content for each individual recipient?

Check out these thirteen must-listen podcast episodes for some great ideas! From using data to create targeted content, these podcasters have tons of tips for you.

So whether you're just getting started with personalization or you're looking to take your efforts to the next level, whether you're a podcast newbie or a seasoned listener, be sure to give these episodes a listen. You won't regret it!

7 Exciting Customer Experience (CX) Trends to Watch for in 2022

Ninetailed — Mon, 02 May 2022 14:50:20 +0000

In the business world, it's often said that customer experience (CX) is everything. And with good reason – if customers aren't happy, they won't stick around for long. Luckily, businesses are starting to focus more on CX, and as a result, we're seeing some really exciting trends emerge, such as:

personalized experiences
connected customer journeys across all touchpoints
transparency, privacy, and the importance of customer data

In order to stay ahead of the competition, it's important to be aware of the latest trends in CX.

In this blog post, we'll take a look at some of the most promising CX trends for 2022. We'll also discuss how you can prepare your business to take advantage of these trends.

So without further ado, let's get started.

What Is Customer Experience

The customer experience is the customer's perceptions and feelings during and after interacting with a company. It includes every touchpoint a customer has with the company, from their initial awareness of the company to their post-purchase follow-up.

There are many factors that contribute to customer experiences, such as:

advertising,
customer service,
price,
convenience,
product quality,
product design, and packaging,
and everything in between.

However, the overall goal is to create an enjoyable and seamless customer journey that leaves the customer feeling satisfied with their purchase. To do this, businesses must focus on creating integrated customer experiences that take into account all touchpoints along the customer journey.

What Are the 3 Essential Pillars of Customer Experience

We all understand that customer experience is the customer's journey from beginning to end. There are three essential pillars of customer experience: satisfaction, consistency and convenience, and personalized communication and connection.

1. Satisfaction

One of the most important aspects of customer experience is satisfaction.

All three pillars are important for customer experience, but satisfaction is the foundation on which customer experience is built.

Without satisfaction, customer experience cannot exist. Satisfaction is the customer's emotional state after they interact with a company. It is the customer's feelings of pleasure or displeasure after they use a product or service.

By meeting or exceeding customer expectations at every touchpoint, businesses can create a loyal customer base that will continue to support them for years to come.

2. Consistency and Convenience

Convenience and consistency are all about making things easy for the customer.

It's about providing a streamlined, hassle-free experience that meets their needs and expectations every single time customers interact with a brand, regardless of the channel, time, and anything in between.

3. Personalized Communication and Connection

Personalized communication and connection are about making each customer feel valued and understood.

This means personalizing communications, offering personalized products and recommendations, and giving customers the ability to tailor their own experiences to create a personalized connection between the customer and the brand.

Why Is Customer Experience So Important

In today's competitive landscape, customer experience is more important than ever. In fact, it can be the deciding factor when customers are choosing between similar products or services.

Delivering a positive customer experience requires businesses to understand their customer base and what they are looking for. It also necessitates a customer-centric approach to every aspect of the business, from product development to marketing to customer service.

When businesses get the customer experience right, they create loyal, lifelong customers. And that loyalty can lead to increased sales and brand awareness.

Simply put, customer experience is essential for any business that wants to succeed in today's marketplace.

What Is the Future of Customer Experience

The customer experience is constantly evolving. Technology is changing the way customers interact with businesses, and as a result, the customer experience is changing too. What will the future of customer experience look like? And how can businesses prepare for it? Here are the trends to watch out for in the year ahead.

Trend #1: Personalized Experiences

According to Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognize, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations.

Customers are no longer willing to settle for a one-size-fits-all approach; they want businesses to provide them with personalized experiences that are tailored to their specific needs and preferences.

They want companies to know who they are, what they need, and how to provide them with the best possible service.

In order to meet these expectations, businesses must adopt a customer-centric approach that puts the customer at the center of everything they do. This means leveraging customer data and using it to create tailored solutions that improve the customer experience.

By delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time, businesses can create loyal, lifelong fans.

Trend #2: Connected, Omnichannel Customer Journeys

Today's customer expects a seamless, connected experience regardless of how they interact with your brand.

According to recent research, more and more customers (69 percent) want a consistent customer experience across multiple channels, both physical and digital. However, few organizations are following through on it.

They want to be able to move effortlessly from one channel to another without having to repeat themselves or start from scratch.

Creating a connected, omnichannel customer journey requires a deep understanding of customer behavior and needs. It also necessitates a commitment to customer experience across all touchpoints. Delivering on this promise can be difficult, but the rewards are significant.

Adobe found that companies with the best omnichannel customer engagement strategies see 10% year-on-year growth, a 10% increase in average order value, and a 25% increase in close rates.

Businesses that provide connected, omnichannel customer journeys are more likely to retain customers and earn their loyalty.

Trend #3: Data Transparency and Privacy

Although customers are willing to share their data with companies, they are increasingly interested in how companies handle their personal information - especially with the recent emphasis on data privacy and transparency.

According to 55% of customers, the most crucial characteristics of a brand are trustworthiness and transparency. Moreover, the vast majority of respondents (87%) stated they would not do business with an organization if they were concerned about its security policies.

As such, it's important for businesses to ensure that their data practices are transparent and customer-friendly.

This means being clear about what data is being collected and how it's being used. It also means providing customers with easy-to-understand options for controlling their data.

By taking these steps, businesses can show their customers that they're serious about protecting their data and respecting their privacy.

Trend #4: Immersive Experiences

As anyone in the customer experience industry knows, first impressions are essential. Extended reality (XR) technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are changing the way brands interact with their customers.

These technologies allow brands to create immersive, engaging experiences that customers will remember.

Additionally, XR technologies can be used to provide customers with educational experiences or product demonstrations. For example, a customer standing in a store can Use AR to see how a piece of furniture would look in their home before making a purchase.

These experiences are not only memorable, but they can also help customers make better-informed buying decisions.

As a result, XR is quickly becoming an essential tool for brands looking to create customer experiences that stand out from the rest.

Trend #5: Omnichannel Personalization

According to Google, an average person switches between an average of three devices to complete a task. And they use over 10 channels to communicate with businesses.

Although consumers are using about 3 devices and more than ten channels, only a handful of brands are ready to deliver an optimized, personalized omnichannel customer experience. Recent research found that less than 1 in 4 businesses say they are investing successfully in omnichannel personalization.

We must admit that online and offline worlds are coming together in an effort to serve customers better.

The idea of personalization is not new, but the way companies interact with their customers has changed. With more than two-thirds of consumers saying they want personalized experiences, it's clear that businesses need to adapt or risk being left behind.

The future of customer experience is more connected and personalized than ever.

Technology has made it possible for organizations to connect user data across every possible touchpoint.

Mobile or web is no longer enough to connect with consumers; brands need a presence across many touchpoints so they can craft exceptional omnichannel experiences that will revolutionize the customer experience.

Trend #6: An Increasing Presence of AI and Bots

As customer experience becomes increasingly important, businesses are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and bots to take their customer service to the next level.

AI can help businesses to automate customer service tasks, such as responding to customer queries and providing an efficient experience that is tailored to their individual needs and product recommendations.

Bots can also be used to provide 24/7 customer support in real-time, automate simple tasks such as scheduling appointments or providing account updates, and free up customer service representatives to handle more complex inquiries, meaning that customers can always get the help they need.

As AI and bots become more sophisticated, they will play an increasingly important role in delivering an excellent customer experience.

As a result, businesses that use AI and bots will be able to offer a superior customer experience that will keep their customers coming back for more.

Trend #7: Harmony of Human and Automation

As businesses increasingly turn to automation to improve efficiency and reduce costs, the customer experience is also evolving. In the future, the customer experience will be a harmony of human and automation, with each complementing the other.

When customer service is fully automated, it can often feel impersonal and cold. This is why businesses need to focus on creating a balance between the two.

Automation will handle routine tasks and processes, freeing up humans to provide more personalized attention and assistance. At the same time, human customer service representatives will be equipped with artificial intelligence tools to help them handle inquiries more effectively.

This convergence of humans and machines will result in a customer experience that is more efficient, seamless, and satisfying.

The Bottom Line

The customer experience is always evolving, and businesses need to be prepared for new trends that will emerge.

These seven CX trends are important to watch for as they could have a major impact on the way customers interact with your brand. The best way to stay ahead of the curve is to constantly experiment and see what works best for your customers.

Keep an eye on these trends and start preparing now so that you can stay ahead of the competition.

PaaS: Everything You Need to Know About Personalization as a Service

Ninetailed — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 09:37:01 +0000

After a personalized shopping experience with a brand, 60% of shoppers think they will become repeat buyers.

Therefore,

Offering a personalized experience for your customers is the best way to ensure that they feel valued and appreciated - and will come back for more.

As a business, you know that personalization is key to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Moreover,

According to Google, 90% of multiple device owners switch between screens to complete tasks, using an average of three different combinations every day.

It’s easy to say that customers want to be able to move effortlessly from one channel to another without having to repeat themselves or start from scratch.

To sum up, customers want:

personalized experiences
connected, omnichannel journeys

If you don’t have enough resources to build omnichannel personalization experiences in-house, one of the best ways to achieve this is by using personalization as a service. Personalization as a service (PaaS) is very similar to the SaaS model that allows businesses to tailor their interactions with customers by collecting and incorporating data about them into their marketing and sales efforts regardless of the channel.

But, more specifically, what is personalization as a service, and how can you make sure that you're using it to its full potential, what are the benefits?

In this blog post, we'll discuss everything you need to know about personalization as a service. We'll outline what it is, how it works, and why it's so important for today's businesses.

What Is Personalization as a Service

Since customers are switching between an average of three different channels and demanding tailored experiences from brands, the solution to deliver high-level continuous and consistent customer experiences is straightforward: personalized omnichannel experiences.

As a business, you need to make sure your customers are getting personalized messages, recommendations, and offerings on every channel. The customers should be able to see what they're looking for and expect it from any source, whether that's a website, an email, or a mobile app.

This is where personalization as a service comes into play:

Personalization as a service is a cloud-based software architecture model that integrates content and customer data from multiple sources and provides personalization across all channels.

In other words, personalization as a service is a software licensing model which allows access to software on a subscription basis using external servers that enable a way to provide personalized content and experiences to customers without the need for them to manually input their preferences. It relies on the use of customer data to algorithmically personalize content in real-time. This can be used to personalize everything from product recommendations to dynamically generated web pages.

Although personalization as a service has been around for several years, it has only recently gained traction due to advances in DXP space, MACH architecture, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

The Benefits of Personalization as a Service

Since personalization as a service tools are cloud-based (and usually API-first), they can be integrated with existing systems and technologies, making them an ideal choice for businesses looking for a comprehensive personalization solution.

- Personalization as a service allows you to benefit from composable architecture.

Let’s recall the definition:

“Personalization as a service is a cloud-based software architecture model that integrates content and customer data from multiple sources and provides personalization across all channels.”

In a composable architecture, the different parts of the system are connected in such a way that new functions can be created by combining existing ones.

This allows for more flexibility and faster reaction to changing business needs.

Since personalization as a service leverages cloud-based, composable software architecture, it allows businesses to fully benefit from composable architecture.

- Personalization as a service supports omnichannel personalization.

Omnichannel strategies are becoming increasingly popular among businesses as they look to provide a consistent customer experience, regardless of the device or platform being used.

But delivering an effective omnichannel strategy can be tricky, especially if your personalization solution isn't equipped for it.

That's where personalization as a service comes in.

Since personalization as a service is a composable software architecture model that integrates content and customer data from multiple sources, it makes it easier to manage and deliver content across different channels.

Personalization as a Service vs. Personalized (Customer) Service

Although personalization as a service and personalized service are two different concepts, there is still confusion about the two. So, let’s take a look at what personalized service is.

What Is Personalized Service

Personalized service is a type of customer service tailored to the customer's individual needs. This can include everything from customizing a product to fit the customer's personal preferences to provide them with unique, one-on-one assistance that is based on their specific situation.

By personalizing the service experience, businesses are able to create a more memorable and enjoyable experience for the customer, which can lead to repeat business and loyal customers.

Personalized service can be contrasted with mass production and mass marketing, which provide standardized products and services that are identical for all customers. While mass production and mass marketing can be efficient and cost-effective, they do not provide the same level of customization and personalization as personalized service.

As a result, personalized service can be seen as a way to differentiate oneself from one's competitors.

Why Is Personalized Service Is Important

By definition, personalization is the process of tailoring products, services, and experiences to fit the individual needs and preferences of a customer.

Personalization has become even more important in today's competitive landscape as companies strive to create unique and differentiated experiences for their customers.

Whether it’s a personal thank-you note for a recent purchase or a birthday discount sent via email, personalization can make all the difference when it comes to customer service.

There are many benefits of personalized services. First and foremost, personalization creates a more positive customer experience, which can lead to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, personalization can help to increase sales and conversion rates by making the customer feel valued and appreciated - more likely to continue doing business with the company.

In a world where businesses are striving to stand out from the competition, personalization is a powerful tool that can give businesses the edge they need to succeed.

How Do You Personalize a Service

Delivering personalized service has become increasingly important in recent years, as customers have come to expect a more tailored and individualized experience.

In short, personalized service means giving each customer the attention they deserve and meeting their unique needs.

There are a number of ways to personalize service, depending on the business and the customer base. For example, some businesses may choose to make use of customer data to personalize communication and service delivery. Other businesses may focus on creating a more personal relationship with each customer, such as by building a rapport and getting to know customers on a personal level.

Personalized service involves creating a system where the customer feels valued and heard.

The key is to find the right mix of personalization techniques that work for the business and the customers.

You can read ‘7 Effective Ways of Website Content Personalization to Create Compelling Customer Experiences’ to see personalization examples to level up your digital customer experience.

The Bottom Line

In today's hypercompetitive business environment, it's more important than ever to give customers a personalized experience.

In fact, personalization has become one of the most important differentiators for businesses across industries.

Personalization can take many forms, but at its core, it is about understanding the individual needs of each customer and providing them with a tailored experience that meets those needs.

By personalizing the customer experience, businesses are able to create a stronger connection with their customers. This personal connection helps to build trust and loyalty, both of which are essential for long-term success.

Studies have shown that personalization can lower acquisition costs by up to 50%, improve revenues by 5 to 15%, and enhance marketing spend efficiency by 10 to 30%. And customers who have a personalized experience are also more likely to recommend a company to others.

Given the clear advantages of personalization as a service, it's no wonder that businesses are increasingly investing in ways to deliver it.

In short, personalization is a key ingredient in delivering an outstanding customer experience. Without it, businesses will struggle to thrive in today's competitive environment.