While most of the 14 million websites using AddThis aren’t likely to invest in expensive enterprise-level tools like data-management platforms, they would probably like the personalization capabilities those tools can offer.
AddThis’ self-service content engagement platform, announced Wednesday, is designed to provide this personalization cheaply and efficiently.
“We want to let website owners quickly segment and target users,” said Charlie Reverte, the company’s general manager of website tools. “We’re focusing on easy activation, because data is useless until it’s activated.”
The content engagement platform lets site owners set up rules. For instance, ecommerce sites can create interest-based welcome messages for returning users or publishers could surface most popular articles to new users. AddThis has widgets in place that display the right customized messages based on these segments.
“If you can personalize that first visit, it changes the game,” Reverte said. “It can drive a much higher yield on user acquisition. If you’re spending [$100,000] on marketing and have an 80% bounce rate, and we can increase that by 20-25%, that’s meaningful value.”
A shoe website could offer a different welcome for someone who has shown an interest in sports and another one with an interest in fashion. Or a content site could surface its best-performing pieces for a new user. If someone visits from a social channel, the user could be prompted to “like” the site or share an article.
Reverte predicts AddThis users who already A/B test heavily and who focus on conversions will be the early adopters of the product.
Larger publishers might find value with AddThis’ offering. “A lot of customers with enterprise-level technology don’t need it and aren’t getting the return,” Reverte said.
AddThis did some beta testing, but plans to turn the product loose and see what value users get as they install it. Right now, it’s available for $12 per month via AddThis Pro.
That will likely increase in the spring, when the company plans to re-evaluate pricing. The model will likely have tiered pricing based on site traffic, but stay relatively low, “in the tens to hundreds of dollars” per month, Reverte said.
AddThis expects to release more personalization products in 2015, including personalization products tied to advertising. “We see the next wave of the web being personal,” Reverte said. “We want to democratize this personalization technology, that’s really only available to Google, Amazon and Netflix.”
