• by Sean Hargrave , Staff Writer, April 10, 2017

"If you don't know me by now, you will never, ever, never know me," is how the song went in the early '70s before being resurrected by Simply Red in the late '80s.

It seems poignant as we consider that after two decades of the rise and crowning of digital marketing, we should still be in a place where nearly nine in ten marketers admit they cannot personalise a Web site experience. The nine in ten in question are not ignoring the need for personalisation and they certainly don't think it isn't a desired goal -- it's just that they're telling Acquia, the company behind the research, that they aren't able to offer it.

Nearly one in two said that this is because they are not adept at recognising people coming back to their site and so don't have a hook on their preferences. Nearly as many mentioned that budget was an issue, as was access to the required tools. One in three claim to not have the content available to serve up a personalised experience, and again, one in three claim this is due to a lack of buy-in from the board.

Now riddle me this, marketers. When I or anyone else visits your site, I can bet that I will be recognised -- only not by you but by remarketing tech, which will doubtless be reminding me of stuff I was looking at a couple of days ago. Often it's something I have already bought -- often from the very same advertiser who is following me around trying to convince me to buy it again. The point is that there is personalisation happening on your Web page -- only it's in the ads, not the content part.

It begs the question, then, if advertisers can do it, why can't Web publishers?

It can surely only be a question of improving systems to read first-party cookies to identify a person and learn a little more about their history. I'm always amazed at how virtually no stores do more here to offer customers a dynamic shopfront that orients itself around what the customer is most likely to be interested in. The mindset of days of old, where store layouts are permanent and fixed, has followed retailers in to the digital world.

If I'm going to a clothes store online, why wouldn't the men's attire be the first thing I see, rather than the women's? If I'm visiting a flower delivery service, and I've told them before that I have a birthday coming up at the end of the month, why wouldn't they prioritise birthday flowers over 'Get Well Soon' or 'Enjoy the new job' offers?

The more you think about it, the more you come to the conclusion that publishers and retailers are in a very odd position. Their view of us consumers is restricted to their own properties, unlike advertisers working on third-party cookies, but there is a whole heap of valuable first-party data that we give our favourite retailers and publishers. The problem is thatthey just don't act on it. The research in Netimperative shows that publishers are revealing they simply don't have the tools -- there's not enough budget and there's not enough buy-in from the board.

This has to be an opportunity to at least ask people how they want the shop front to appear. Log on to BBC Sports or Sky Sports' apps and they'll ask you who you support so results can be shaped around that team, or teams, games. If you're not going to get too fancy with interpreting cookies, there could be a lesson in this for all publishers. Tell us what's important to you and tell us when you might be shopping for someone else -- birthdays and anniversaries -- and we'll highlight gifts suitable for that person.

It's not rocket science, surely, just to ask the question whether people want to personalise how they receive information from you. It's a win-win, because they get a better experience and you get an amazing insight in to a customer that can only deepen loyalty and sales.