Context
Personalization is not a one-and-done project; it’s a continuous journey. That’s why it’s essential to approach it with a long-term strategy and roadmap that supports your growth over time - starting small, learning from experience and AB tests, then scaling with confidence. A structured “crawl, walk, run” approach can help organizations build sustainable capabilities and display a meaningful return on investment.
Execution
Implementing personalization using Sitecore CDP and Sitecore Personalize is an exciting step forward for any business looking to deliver more relevant and impactful customer experiences, building loyalty and displaying return on investment. It’s common to start with a focused implementation plan and a handful of low hanging fruit use cases - perhaps targeting first-time visitors or personalizing key landing pages. These early wins are important, but to really unlock the value of personalization, businesses need to think beyond their initial implementation and go live plans.
Crawl - Start small, learn quickly
The “crawl” phase is all about laying the foundation. This is where the business should focus on implementing the core functionality of Sitecore CDP and/or Sitecore Personalize, identifying the first few use cases, and ensuring your teams (and partner if applicable) are equipped to execute. These early experiments should be relatively simple - such as A/B testing a homepage banner, , segment-based call-to-action swap etc
At this stage, idea generation is key. Encourage internal brainstorming sessions with marketing, product, analytics, and customer experience teams to surface use cases based on pain points or growth opportunities. Don’t overcomplicate it; small, targeted changes often display the clearest insights.
Walk - Build momentum and scale up
Once you’ve proven success with initial campaigns and your team is comfortable with the tools, it’s time to move into the “walk” phase. This is where you start to scale your efforts by mapping your customer journeys and identifying personalization opportunities across key touchpoints.
Using journey mapping, you can spot areas where personalization can reduce friction, improve engagement, or drive conversions - whether its re-engaging abandoned carts, serving content based on specific user segments or triggers, or tailoring messaging by customer lifecycle stage.
This phase should also include ongoing review and optimization. Regularly analyse the results of the personalized campaigns and experiments. What worked? What didn’t? What insights can you carry forward? These learnings should be fed back into your marketing playbook, creating a living document that evolves with your personalization maturity.
A successful personalization strategy depends also on data readiness. Ensure your customer data is accessible, accurate, and integrated. Focus on identity resolution, consent management, and real-time behavioral tracking early in your journey - review the Developing an Identity Strategy recipe for further information.
Run - Personalization at scale
The “run” phase is where personalization becomes a core part of your marketing strategy. The business should now move from reactive to proactive—delivering tailored experiences across channels in real time, powered by data and decisioning models. Consider introducing more advanced tactics, such as Next Best Action targeting, product recommendations, or omnichannel orchestration that connects web, email, and app touchpoints.
By now, your team should have a well-defined use case roadmap. This roadmap cannot be static—it’s an evolving strategy informed by your business goals, customer behaviours, and experimentation results. The business should also have established a strategy of continuous improvement, where ideation, journey mapping, testing, and optimization are baked into the overall marketing processes.
This is where personalization stops being a feature and becomes an operating model. Teams work from a shared vision, with defined KPIs like engagement rate lift, conversion improvements, decreased churn and operational efficiency gains (reduced campaign cycles, content reuse)
As your personalization efforts grow, so must your operational maturity - assign clear roles across marketing, analytics, development and establish guardrails for governance, ensuring data privacy, creative consistency, and performance tracking across campaigns.
Insights
Too often, personalization is seen as a tactical exercise — just another tool in the digital marketing toolbox. But to get real competitive advantage, it must be approached strategically. That means planning not just for what you’ll do this quarter, but how you’ll grow your capabilities over the next 12 to 24 months. It means aligning personalization with broader business goals, investing in team development, and maintaining a flexible, test-and-learn mindset.
- Increased conversion rates
- Improved engagement (CTR, time on site, etc.)
- Decrease in churn or bounce
- Operational efficiency (content reuse, campaign velocity)