This evening event covered the subject of personalisation. Our speakers covered various aspects of personalising websites and apps for improved user experience. They discussed different approaches and how new technology has enabled true one to one personalisation leading to truely personalised experiences.
Full details of the talks can be see below.
Ramp Up – Harry Brignull
Most products have a ladder of engagement - a series of actions or stages that a user will progress through in their journey from novice to expert. If your product has a reasonable amount of depth to it, it’s very hard to know when to talk to your users about the more complex end of your feature set, to help them move up the ladder of engagement and get more value. Too soon and you’ll overwhelm them; too late and they’ve already gone somewhere else. Email marketing systems can do a lot of clever stuff involving automated segmentation and targeting, but the problem with email is that it’s email - it doesn’t happen inside your app where you’ve got the user’s undivided attention. Surely there’s some way of taking these principles and applying them inside your app’s UI? This talk investigates this premise and looks at the design challenges involved in helping users “ramp up” and climb the ladder of engagement.
Harry is an Independent User Experience Consultant. Recent clients include HMRC, Lloyds Pharmacy, Crunch.co.uk and The Telegraph. Harry’s personal websites include Brignull.com and 90percentofeverything.com
Why Personalisation is like Detective Work – Joe Doveton
UX is planning the perfect murder. An abandoned basket is a crime scene. Ryanair checkouts were built by the Krays. Yes, the more you look at it, the more site optimisation is like detective work. In this session, DCI Joe “Dovers” Doveton takes you on a journey of deduction and discovery into the specific discipline of personalisation. From the initial forensic examination of analytics, to the creation of a suspect list to draw up segments, to the interpretation of user motivations and prediction of behaviour, this session is a step by step guide to building a personalisation protocol and the tools you can use to give your users the experience they want, when they want it. Guv.
Joe Doveton is a highly experienced digital marketer with 18 years on the clock working for major PLCs and start ups. He is a respected commentator on cultural approaches to conversion and contributor to media like The Drum, Smart Insights and eConsultancy.
Personalisation as a Platform – Steve Cathcart
Steve has recently joined The Student Room Group to define and lead a new data and personalisation strategy and he will be talking about about his approach to tackling a personalisation strategy, how to get started, what to expect and more.
The Student Room Group have invested in some exciting new data and personalisation technologies, and it is up to Steve to ensure these are used effectively to give their students the best possible experience. Steve’s end goal is to build a single view of the customer to deliver true one to one personalisation across all touchpoints including web, email and mobile apps.
He drew on his own real world examples, including his time with TUI UK&I, where he was responsible for growing eCRM revenue from £100m to well over half a billion. During his time working for the Thomson and First Choice holidays head office, Steve was responsible for cutting edge behavioural targeting programs that were rolled out across Europe, and looks to continue his success at TSR.
This presentation focussed on personalisation as a platform to drive a joined up customer experience across platforms such as website, CRM etc. to drive customer engagement and satisfaction.
Steve is the Winner of multiple data marketing awards, including the Grand Prix at the Marketing Week Data Strategy awards. He is currently Data Marketing Manager at The Student Room Group.