In the online world, personalization is the most effective way to create competitive advantage. By influencing behavior on your web site so that your users become frequent visitors, register their personal preferences, tell you which communities they identify with, and grow to rely on your site's content and services, you will create a loyal customer base at a lower cost.

In order to develop and implement an effective personalization strategy that meets your organization's business objectives, however, you must understand the advantages and disadvantages of push and pull strategies and then learn how to match the appropriate techniques (qualifier matching, rules-based matching, notifications, and targeted email) with the right strategy. You must strike a balance between what you hope to achieve and the additional resources you're willing to invest. Although personalization requires planning and some investment, the benefits are compelling: greater customer loyalty, higher conversion rates, reduced costs, a boost in productivity and operational efficiency, and a more agile and profitable organization.