Content is the central element that ultimately makes consumers fall in love with brands. But, there is a very important qualifier that content must meet to make that love story happen.
 Emotional content must be personalized.Â
Personalized content is based on individual consumer intent. It is content that is delivered to the best consumer, at the best time, and in the best format for spurring them to take the next step in their buyer journey. What it is not is static or rules-based.
Content Personalization Is Table Stakes
To quote Salesforce’s 2020 State of the Connected Customer reportOpens a new window , personalized messaging during the brand-consumer interaction has become “ubiquitous.†In fact, it is already here.
The same report found that the majority of consumers expect every offer to be personalized (52%), expect businesses to understand their specific expectations and needs (66%), and also expect brands to show empathy for their unique situation (68%).
 If you are not spending marketing dollars on personalization, expect to see more and more customers spending their dollars elsewhere in the coming year.
See More: How Marketers Can Address Inefficiencies Within Content Creation
It Is Time to Squash the Platform That Is Killing Personalization
There is knowing these facts; then there’s doing something about them. And I do see many marketers trying to. The problem is that even the most progressive marketing teams must operate within the limitations of aged monolithic content management systems (CMSs) that rely on rules engines for “personalization.â€
 In the context of content creation, a rules engine relies on complex “if this, then that†configurations to serve content at the right time. These rules are just as inflexible and restrictive as the architecture upon which they are created. Anytime a new content campaign or a new digital experience is launched, these rules have to be completely reconstructed across every single instance in which they are being used.
There is no need for the rules engines that perpetuate an outdated way of managing content. This includes stripping marketers of their skills and autonomy, turning developers into task-taking bottlenecks, and missing goals of being first to market with cutting-edge campaigns.
 But if it s time to do away with the rules engine, what will take its place?
Composable Content Personalization Platforms Create Modern Brand Love Stories
The composable content personalization platform is the next evolution in enterprise-grade content personalization that enables marketers and developers to work together to create brand love stories.
With a composable content personalization platform, rigid rules go out the window in favor of content tags tied to intent. Smart technology understands the intent behind visitor behavior and uses these tags to serve up the perfect content in real-time.
This is achieved because a composable content personalization platform is not a singular platform. It is a suite of a few modern, carefully-chosen tools that work in tandem to deliver cutting-edge content personalization.Â
The front-end framework is what your development team will use to build and host the end-user experience where consumers interact with the content you have created.
A back-end development platform serves as the base for functions that are critical but unseen by end-users, such as data storage, security, scaling, server architecture, and more.Â
Integrations, such as CRMs and analytics platforms, layer demographic and behavioral data into the headless CMS to ensure that the content elements being called and served are highly relevant to the current consumer.
A headless content management system is where marketers work with content models, modules, and tags to create content once and label it in a way that makes it easy for the CMS to find, personalize, and serve over and over again in various digital experiences.
See More: 5 Mistakes Marketers Should Avoid While Creating Content for Sales
The beauty of composing all these different pieces of technology into a content personalization framework is that they maintain their flexibility. If one piece becomes out of date or is harmed in a cyberattack, it can easily be removed and replaced with insignificant downtime or cost. Another groundbreaking feature is how marketers and developers can work autonomously to create personalized content and build amazing end-user experiences for that content at the same time without anyone getting their toes stepped on.
This is a far cry from monolithic CMSs and rules engines with which marketers could hardly update a comma on their own website, much less create entirely personalized experiences on their own.
IÂ believe brand love stories are possible with the help of great content. And I know that today, the tools to create that great content are available. Now the ball is in every brand’s court to pave the way for their marketing and development teams to pick up and use those strategies and tools.
How are you ensuring that your CMS supports today’s personalization needs? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .