The race for better, more effective personalization is on. Brands that invest heavily in personalized experiences have a strong head start: 71 percent are more likely to report improved customer loyalty compared to peers that do not.

VyStar, the second-largest credit union and a top mortgage lender in Florida, recognized that building a robust personalization strategy would help them match their level of in-branch service in the digital realm and deliver relevant, time-sensitive content to members. 

Recently, we sat down with VyStar’s digital team to discuss the success behind their personalization efforts, including how small but nimble teams can gain stakeholder buy-in and drive revenue using composable tools. Here are some key takeaways from the conversation.

Before executing your digital transformation strategy, embracing an agile mindset that prioritizes constant iteration and improvement is critical. 

For VyStar, implementing a flexible, scalable solution like Uniform that could seamlessly integrate personalization into their headless content management system–all aligned with the organization’s “crawl walk run” approach. Moreover, Uniform’s built-in A/B testing would enable the digital team to ramp up and optimize capabilities based on their unique requirements and timeline. 

“As we started to run a little bit in digital, we also wanted to look at what features we could start with that could iteratively build our conversion rates,” said Stephanie Holbrook, senior digital product manager at VyStar. With Uniform’s composable digital experience platform, product team members can add new personalization sections and data integrations while marketers launch personalization scenarios and set up campaigns within one visual workspace. 

Additionally, Uniform helped VyStar roll out features like location-based targeting—for example, 82 percent of VyStar visitors viewed personalized content unique to their market—and adjust content in real time. 

Having the technology to quickly test, modify, and publish personalized content without friction can be the difference between an experience that falls flat with users and one that provides real customer value. VyStar understood this intuitively and aimed to deliver fast, curated content to members based on real-time data.

VyStar credits Uniform for simplifying and accelerating the personalization development and publishing process. This reduced dependency on developers and allowed VyStar’s scrum team to build features that served users relevant, timely information—functionality that helped boost conversion rates on the credit union’s digital channels.

"Visitors were four times more likely to apply for a product after seeing a personalized ad versus a non-personalized ad, which is crazy," stated Olivia Genito, digital marketing specialist at VyStar. Such early successes have attracted interest from other internal teams and laid plans for data integration projects that further customize offers and promotions for online visitors.

Whether in the middle of your digital transformation or starting one, leaving stakeholders out of meaningful conversations and decision-making during the evaluation process can lead to miscommunication, frustration, and unmet requirements. VyStar avoided these mistakes by involving stakeholders early in the RFP process and keeping communication channels open so that all parties had “a seat at the table.” 

Holbrook also noted that requesting references and a roadmap from the vendor can give an insider’s view of their track record and whether their strategic future aligns with your company’s vision. “If they're going down a different path that doesn't align with where you're going, does it really make sense to have a partnership with them?”   

But alignment shouldn’t just happen during the evaluation phase. Composable solutions such as Uniform streamline digital experience production between departments and teams, speeding up your time to market. By combining your technology, data, and content with your preferred design system, marketers create pages faster, and developers can focus on integrations that impact your business. 

Watch the full replay of How VyStar Increased Conversions With Personalization for more insights on how the credit union’s personalized experience accelerated its online performance and success.

Want to discover how the right tools can transform your personalization efforts? Request a demo with Uniform to supercharge your digital experience.