Hey, I'm Austin Distel. Welcome to the Personalization Academy. In this lesson, we're going to dive into how to position yourself for success in the new era, the personalization economy.

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So imagine this, that your website is a mold trying to sell to the perfect square persona, but everybody visiting is of all different shapes and sizes. Sure, there's going to be a tiny percentage of visitors that will fit this mold perfectly, but for everyone else who doesn't fit your single customer persona, they're leaving your store feeling like your product just isn't for them, or that you don't like them very much.

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However, there are a few select companies that have figured out how to break the mold and speak uniquely to each visitor, no matter their shape or size. The data technology and the strategies that were once their unfair advantage have recently become accessible to companies like yours. And that advantage is website personalization.

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Look at how ads have evolved over the past 10 years. See when I turned on my TV, I see ads that were created for the masses hoping that their message would resonate with somebody, but when that person's not me, I tend to pull out my phone and scroll down to Facebook and what a coincidence, there's an ad for that baby Yoda pillow I put in my cart yesterday.

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The personalization of ads has revolutionized the way that we do marketing, but email is no better. Most of email is spam and I'm not talking about the delicious TV dinner spam. I'm talking about that 14.5 billion emails that are sent everyday to the masses that never get opened. Yet when you personalize an email, you get a response within hours.

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Personalization has become the best practice in advertising, in email marketing, and the next step is to personalize our websites. To do it well, you need three things to happen. One, the right data because you don't want to mess up calling your biggest customer by the wrong name. That would be embarrassing. Second, is the right strategy. You want to build experiences that are both delightful and helpful for the customer while also having a positive impact on the business. And third, is the right person to manage these personalization campaigns. Hopefully that person's you.

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We call this role the director of personalization. This role is incredibly valuable to businesses because when it's done well, the ROI is huge. In this academy, we're going to cover the most essential steps to getting your data set up right so you can build hyper-targeted audiences. Then knowing the strategies that are going to personalize your site with the most effectiveness and knowing how well your campaigns are doing so you can make decisions with confidence.

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Are you ready for the next lesson? I'm going to share the North Star Principles that guide the most successful campaigns and website personalization. See you there.