Personalization hasn't worked because most people don't have a compelling
reason to personalize. It hasn't worked because the cost of doing
it well usually significantly outweighs the benefits it delivers.
It hasn't worked because managers have seen it as some Holy Grail
of content management.
Many personalization projects are duds according to a new
report by Jupiter Research entitled "Beyond the Personalization Myth."
This is no surprise. What is surprising is that some organizations
still cling to the hope that portal and personalization software will
solve their content problems.
It is easy to understand why people turn to software to solve problems
with content. You specify what you need. You buy and install it. And,
hey presto ... But content doesn't work that way. Publishing quality
content is a difficult, time-consuming task. It's messy. It requires
long-term planning, training, evangelism, promotion.
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Most websites are very basic. The quality of the writing is average
and sometimes awful. Text is presented in a way that makes it difficult
to read. Navigation is confusing and the search process is often appalling.
Many websites simply don't work. I tried nike.com recently and it
was an absolute joke. An infuriating navigation combined with a continuous
stream of error messages to create an experience of total frustration.
"Given flexible, usable navigation and search, Web site visitors will
be more satisfied with their experiences and will find fewer barriers
to the profitable behavior sought by site operators," the Jupiter
report states. "In fact, good navigation can replace personalization
in most cases."
The best definition I have found for a portal is as follows: "A portal
costs four times more to buy and operate than a normal website. It
delivers half the benefits." Yes, that big, cumbersome, complex portal
of your dreams may well make you long for the days when you were running
a simple but effective HTML website.
Not surprisingly, the Jupiter report finds that personalized websites
are four times more expensive to run. It also finds that personalized
websites are twice as likely to attract visitors who will never pay
for anything. Worse still, it finds that 25 percent of consumers actually
avoid personalized websites because they fear that their personal
information will be abused.
Why do so many organizations plan the strategy for their websites
like they were writing a letter to Santa? "Dear Santa, I hope everyone
is well at the North Pole. Please, please, please, can I have personalization
for Christmas? It'll make me look so cool."
Personalization software sales people are trained to sell to the ego,
vanity and emotion of managers, the Jupiter report finds. What's new?
The technology industry excels at the art of hype. But it is not the
only guilty party. Too many managers are only too willing to believe
that software can do the impossible.
When I come to your website I want your view of how you will solve
my problems. I want to get in and out quickly with as little effort
as possible. How do you keep me happy? Simple.
Teach you staff how to write well. Design a layout that allows me
to read easily. Spend time creating a navigation that is simple and
intuitive. Fix your search engine. Get the basics right. Garbage in,
garbage out. Do you want to pay four times more for personalized garbage?
About the Author:
Gerry McGovern is a content management consultant, author and speaker.
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com
When
opening the Un-Zipped Install file, the Open With Program
menu shows. There is no install.exe in the folders. The 2
install files for each download appear to be dat files only.
How do I install these programs to get started? ...
By
Gerry McGovern
When
opening the Un-Zipped Install file, the Open With Program
menu shows. There is no install.exe in the folders. The 2
install files for each download appear to be dat files only.
How do I install these programs to get started? ...