Why the time is right to introduce personalisation

Have you introduced personalisation on your website? A surprisingly high proportion of sites – particular in the B2B world – still have little to no personalisation, despite the marketing team’s long-term intention to introduce it. For some digital marketing teams, personalisation has remained a slightly vague objective that always seems to be just a little bit over the horizon. Are they missing out on an opportunity to create better customer experiences that lead to an increased number of conversions?

Over the years we’ve advocated for introducing personalisation and the value of getting started. In many respects nothing has really changed – however AI and the evolution of content management system (CMS) and digital experience platform (DXP) capabilities are further lowering the barriers to introducing personalisation, so arguably now’s a good as time as any to get started.

In this post we revisit the topic of personalisation and why in 2025 you should consider introducing it on your site.

What are the benefits of personalisation?

When we covered personalisation on this blog back in 2023 we explored the benefits. These have changed little since and include:

• Creating more relevant experiences to drive brand engagement and return visits.
• Meeting the expectations of visitors who now expect a personalised experience.
• Allowing teams to engage more with their priority audience segments and lead to greater conversions.
• Encouraging the more sophisticated use of analytics to really understand your audience in greater depth.
• Setting you on a path and mindset for greater optimisation and experimentation with your CMS or DXP.

So, why don’t more teams get started with personalisation?

Similarly, the reasons that prevent or deter some teams from introducing personalisation have changed little in three years:

• There is a lack of confidence and knowledge in the team about introducing personalisation.
• It is not regarded as an area of value or a priority, particularly for B2B marketing teams.
• Many teams simply do not have the time to commit to personalisation or getting started with personalisation, particularly if they are already resource strapped.
• There is a perception of it both involving a learning curve and also being very time consuming.
• Personalisation comes with potential baggage around data privacy and GDPR, so some teams simply do not want to go there.
• There may be not have the marketing tech or platform to support personalisation, although many teams may not realise they do actually have the capability.

Why should you get started with personalisation in 2025?

Here are just some of the reasons why you should consider dipping your toe into the personalisation pool.

1. Customers expect sites to be personalised 

As far back as 2021, McKinsey research suggested that 71% of customers expect personalisation from brands and businesses, and 76% get frustrated when personalisation does not happen. Additional surveys also suggest that 62% of business leaders believe that personalisation has improved customer retention.

While it might be that these figures are more applicable to B2C and the world of e-commerce, there is still likely to be a significant proportion of visitors expecting some level of personalisation around digital B2B experiences too.

2. The solutions are lowering the barriers to personalisation

The major DXPs and CMSs personalisation modules in current DXPs and CMSs continue to improve and usually cover personalisation, analytics, profiling, A/B testing and more. These include:

Umbraco Engage (formerly Umbaco MarketingSuite)

Sitecore Personalize

Optimizely Personalization

Each solution is lowering barriers to personalisation through a more integrated and holistic approach that combines different elements such as robust analytics, out-of-the-box insights, automation and or course, introducing generative AI. These solutions are only going to continue to improve, and lower the barriers further, especially as AI and automation are more deeply embedded into the products.

3. Generative AI is thrown into the mix

Generative AI is gradually changing the CMS and DXP landscape, and it has the potential to ensure personalisation is standard practice for every site, in different ways:

• Using natural language prompts to set up personalisation rules, making set-up significantly easier.
• Delivering deeper and sharper insights from the data, even in real time.
• Automatically generating content in response to personalisation rules at scale and with much greater accuracy, so personalisation is more effective.
• Further evolving CMS and DXP products to support personalisation.
• Introducing AI agents which facilitate and deliver personalisation.

Platforms like Sitecore and Optimizely are going all in with AI, and already involve some degree of AI within personalisation and optimisation capabilities. Umbraco meanwhile recently announced the launch of the Umbraco MCP server which will allow brands to plug in LLMs and AI services into the platform.

As AI capabilities ramp up considerably – particularly in the new wave of agentic AI – getting your head around personalisation now, even if it is basic, will help your team to take advantage of new intriguing possibilities in the near future.

4. It’s competitive out there

The current business climate remains highly competitive and digital experiences are still one of the areas where business can effectively compete. With AI tools now opening up personalisation to more businesses as an easy option, personalisation can help maintain a competitive edge.

Suggestions for getting started

When we looked at ways to get started with personalisation back in 2023, we made a number of suggestions, including:

• Commit to experimentation with personalisation.
• Identify a use case with obvious value.
• Get comfortable with personalisation in your DXP.
• Implement personalisation, learning as you go.
• Try something a little more advanced and keep on going.

All these approaches are still relevant and taking “baby steps” is certainly the way to go. Focusing on implementing an obvious use case is also a good starting point, for example relating to country-level information and who is displayed as a contact or the currency shown.

Additionally, here are some more ideas for getting started in 2025 or in 2026.

1. Get a product demo to experience the power of personalisation

If you’re wavering about the value of personalisation, then it is certainly worth arranging a demo of the capabilities within your Content Management System (CMS) or Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to get an idea of what it can do in action. Better still, arrange to speak to a peer from another organisation who has implemented personalisation successfulyl and get them to show it you in action.

2. Run the analytics first

Successful personalisation is underpinned by having solid analytics which help you to understand your visitors and their behaviour. If you are looking at phasing in personalisation and you have not run advanced analytics before, consider running the numbers first for a few months to gain that understanding as a precursor to introducing meaningful personalisation. This approach is possible within Umbraco Engage, for example.

3. Make personalisation one of your development objectives

Introducing personalisation can extend the skills and learning of the team. Consider making introducing personalisation as a specific development or learning goal for 2026. This can increase motivation and make it happen.

4. Undergo training

If there are opportunities to train around personalisation provided by your CMS or DXP provider, then take them. There can also be some useful material such as step-by-step guides which can walk you through what you need to do. For example, Umbraco published a good four-step guide to personalisation which has some useful points for anybody starting out.

Ready to get started?

Now is as good as time as any to get started with personalisation and take the leap. Ready?

If you’d like to discuss personalisation or how to implement it in your current CMS or DXP, then get in touch!