Patent Publication Number: US-8996641-B2

Title: Method and system for a personalized content dissemination platform

Description:
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/180,212, filed Jul. 13, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,738,702, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This disclosure generally relates to data processing for automated systems, and in particular it relates to automated business and marketing communications programs. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     Companies or other organizations often have a need to communicate content material (such as marketing promotions, announcements, training documentation, operations methods and procedures, special brochures, and the like) to its current and prospective customers or members. Presently, generalized communications may be readily assembled without variation and sent to a group of intended recipients in an automated fashion. However, and frequently, a single communication may not be universally applicable to each and every intended recipient in the group, or additional information may need to be given to certain of the individual recipients. For example, one may wish to send promotional materials regarding price discounts in such a way that current higher revenue customers receive offers with a larger discount. Similarly, one may wish to send brochures or other material that is different for recipients in different geographical locations. 
     In such instances, it is possible to include personalized content for one or more recipients in a group in today&#39;s mass communication systems, but this involves a good deal of manual work, including separating the content and confirming that the right material goes to the correct recipient. These manual processes can be costly, slow, and limit the overall throughput of communications for an organization. In addition to the issue of personalizing outbound, communications, companies and organizations often have a problem linking any recipient responses to the outgoing information that prompted the response. 
     Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for personalized content dissemination that addresses certain problems of existing technologies. 
     SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     The present disclosure, therefore, introduces a method and apparatus for disseminating content based on stored profile information of recipients of a communication. The communication includes fixed information that is transmitted to all recipients of the communication, as well as variable information that is included in separate versions of the communication based on the profile data of individual recipients. A communication is generated according to customization rules applied to profile data available for each recipient, and then individual versions of the communication having the appropriate fixed and variable data are transmitted to individual recipients. After a response to the communication is received from a recipient, the response is analyzed and a subsequent communication may be generated and transmitted to that recipient based on the response and the profile data of that recipient. 
     The disclosed processes are particularly suited to marketing and promotions materials, including those providing offers for telecommunications products and services, but may be applied and adapted to any of a variety of commercial uses. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Further aspects of the present disclosure will be more readily appreciated upon review of the detailed description of its various embodiments, described below, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which: 
         FIG. 1  is an exemplary computer architecture over which the processes of the present disclosure may be performed; 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram of exemplary software modules that may be used to implement the processes of the present disclosure using the computer architecture of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart of an exemplary personalized content dissemination process that may be performed by the software modules of  FIG. 2  using the computer architecture of  FIG. 1 ; and 
         FIG. 4  is a depiction of an exemplary communication containing fixed and variable data generating by the process of  FIG. 3 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 1-4 , wherein similar components of the present disclosure are referenced in like manner, various embodiments of a method and system for personalized content dissemination are disclosed. 
     As more and more customer information is captured or available electronically, an organization can utilize a computer system as disclosed herein that allows for automatic dissemination of content materials, which may be customized or personalized for individual recipients based on any stored profile data or as otherwise desired by an operator of the computer system. The computer system may include a set of hardware and software components that provide flexibility, scaling, and extensibility with regard to any form of communication media. By automatically profiling recipients and generating content according to customizable rules, a particularly expensive problem that is common to many businesses is readily solved. Moreover, the computer system allows for tracking and capture of responses from recipients, thereby providing an effective way to monitor the effectiveness of a communication or related promotion. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 1 , there is depicted a block diagram of an exemplary computer system architecture  100  for implementing the methods disclosed herein. The computer system architecture  100  may be implemented in software having programmed instructions in a machine-readable language, which are stored in internal or external memory of a computer and are executed by a processor thereof. The computer may be a single computing device, such as an enterprise network server, or a centralized or distributed group of computers, any of which may be of the type commonly manufactured by COMPAQ, HEWLETT-PACKARD, IBM, APPLE and SUN. Such computers may use any one or more of the following operating systems: IBM OS/2 WARP 3 AND 4, LINUX, MAC OS, UNDC, SCO UNIX, SUN SOLARIS, and WINDOWS 3.1/95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. The databases employed by such computers for storing the data required by the processes disclosed herein may include: ORACLE, SAP, INFORMDC, SYBASE, MICROSOFT SQL, MICROSOFT EXCHANGE, DB2 and LOTUS NOTES. Programmed instructions for performing the processes disclosed herein may be authored in any of the following software environments: FLASH, JAVA, and hyper-text mark-up language (HTML). Such programmed instructions may also be provided in any of the wide variety of programming languages commonly used by those of ordinary skill in the art. 
     In one exemplary embodiment provided herein, the programmed instructions may be generated as a group of co-operative software modules, each having its dedicated functions. The descriptions of such modules will allow one of ordinary skill in the art to readily appreciate the programming instructions required for implementing the disclosed processes herein. However, the programmed instructions themselves can be implemented in wide array of ways, depending, for example, on the operating system and software applications/environments selected, as well as on designer preference. 
     The various databases and software modules of the computer system architecture  100  may be linked together as shown in  FIG. 1 . The databases may include: a target list and profile data repository  104 , a raw target list  106  and a content repository  110 . The raw target list  106  may be a database of all customers and potential customers, and may include some basic level of information such as customer name, location and contact information. 
     The target list and profile data repository  104  may contain more detailed information for one or more of the customers and potential customers in the raw target list  104 . The detailed information may include characteristics of each target customer, such as: an annual income, a purchase r transaction history, prior products and services purchased, a credit rating and a response history to prior communications. Further detailed information may likewise be used. 
     The content repository  110  may include content for communications to be sent to target recipients by the automated computer system architecture  100 . Such content may include text, graphics, audio, visual and audio-visual content and formatting instructions for communications, all of which may be provided in any of a variety of useful electronic formats. In certain embodiments, the content may include a network address of or a hyperlink to an electronic file containing desired content. In certain further embodiments, the content may include an identification of a paper brochure or the like. 
     The data repositories  104 ,  106  and  110  above are operated upon by the software modules of the computer system architecture  100 , which may include: a communication target list generation module  102 , a communication content creation module  108 , a personalization rules and interface module  118 , a communication material creation module  120 , and a rules adapter module  126 , all of which are described immediately below. A target list creation rules and interface module  112 , content creation rules and interface module  114 , personalization engine  116 , communication delivery channel interface  122 , and communication response tracking interface  124  will be described in more detail later below with respect to  FIG. 2 . 
     The communication target list generation module  102  includes programming instructions for creating a target list for a particular communication by identifying a group of recipients having desired characteristics from the target list and profile data repository  104 . The module  112  also includes an analytical engine for scoring and segmenting recipients according to their characteristics. For example, a recipient having a high annual income will receive a higher score than a recipient with a lower annual income. The scoring may be based on any other stored characteristics as well as on any history of previous responses received from the recipient for previous communications, as reported by the communication response tracking module  124 . The manner for scoring may be accomplished in any of a variety of useful manners that will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, and scores and manners of scoring may be continuously adjusted over time based on new information. The functions of the communication target list generation module  102  are accessed by a user through the target list creation rules and interface module  112 , described later below. 
     The communication content creation module  108  includes programming instructions for allowing a user to create content for one or more communications, and for storing such content or identifications of content within the content repository  110 . A user may access the communication content creation features through the content creation rules and interface module  114 , described later below. The communication content creation module  108  allows for the creation of communications having fixed data that is common to all recipients of a communication, and variable data that may vary with each recipient based on stored in the target list and profile data repository  104 . For example, the fixed data may include formatting instructions and common text for an e-mail message to be distributed to a group of users. The variable data may be the name of a recipient, which will be placed in a designated field of the communication, and will be retrieved from a recipient name field or the like in the target list and profile data repository  104 . 
     The personalization rules and interface module  118  includes programming instructions for allowing a user to establish rules for personalizing content to be distributed to an individual recipient or subset of target recipients. Such rules may include, for example, allowing a user to enter a personal message, perhaps of limited length, to a recipient with which the user has had prior dealings. This may be accomplished by presenting a dialog box in which the user is asked to confirm conformance to this rule before the personal message is entered. Any of a variety of additional rules may also be employed. The personalization rules and interface module informs the personalization engine  116 , described later below, to generate personalized messages within a communication to be distributed to a group of recipients. 
     The communication material creation module  120  contains programming instructions for combining information from the communication target list generation module  102 , the communication content creation module  108  and the personalization engine  116  to generate a communication having fixed data, variable data and personalized information to be distributed to the group of recipients. 
     The rules adapter module  126  contains programming instructions for modifying the target list creation rules based on responses tracked by the communication response tracking module  124 , described later below. For example, if the response to a widely distributed communication does not meet a set threshold response rate, then the rule adapter module  126  may change one or more variables in the target list creation rules in order to attempt to achieve a larger response with a future communication. This may be accomplished in an automated fashion or by prompting a user to enter new rules and values therefor. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 2 , therein is depicted a detailed implementation  200  of the following software modules of the computer system architecture  100 . The target list creation rules and interface module  112  contains programming instructions allowing a user to enter objectives for a communication, such as assigning a communication to be distributed to recipients having certain desired characteristics. Historical profile and characteristics may be obtained from existing enterprise systems (i.e., from information stored by marketing, customer relationship, billing, customer care, human resource, and or other departments of an organization. The characteristics data may also be obtained from third party information sources, such as credit bureaus and the like. The module  112  also may apply data mining techniques for scoring and segmentation of recipients to identify quality prospective targets for the communication. 
     The communication content creation module  114  provides a customized user interface to authoring applications (i.e., MICROSOFT OFFICE applications) to enable generation and storage of fixed and variable data for one or more communications. The module  114  allows for the creation of dynamic content templates that, for example, merge static marketing messages and the like with dynamic target profile and characteristic data. The content is stored in content repository  110  to facilitate collaboration, integration and management. The module  110  may utilize a rule-based work flow for content review, approval and rejection prior to storing content in the repository  110 . 
     The communication personalization engine  116  contains programming instructions and a user interface for allowing a user to personalize content based on target profile, historical response, third party intelligence, and the like. Personalized content may include changing the “look and feel” of a communication based on gender, title, historical response, or other characteristic data. Communications may be further personalized according to a preferred delivery channel based of the recipient, as determined by the recipient&#39;s preference or historical response. Various rule-based methodologies may also be applied to automate and optimize personalization of communications. 
     The content delivery channel interface  122  contains programming instructions and a user interface for allowing communications to be published according tot a preferred delivery channel. Communication may be transmitted using the Internet, in order to minimize budget and automate response capture. In such embodiments, the communications may take the form of an electronic mail or instant message. Alternatively, or in addition thereto, the communications may take the form of paper collateral or outbound calls via an IVRU or call center to improve response rates. 
     The adaptive communication fulfillment module  202  may be optionally provided to generate sample target list for limited trial to preview potential results of a communication and analyze trial responses to provide critical information for communication strategy adjustment, as necessary. The module  202  utilizes a rule-based methodology to automate adaptive fulfillment process, adjust content and delivery channel as necessary. 
     The communication response tracking module  124  contains programming instructions for identifying and tracking responses from recipients and generating any desired reports relating thereto. For each communication, the module  124  may track the number of communications sent, the number of responses received, the number of positive/negative responses received, the number of follow-up messages sent, the number of responses to follow-up messages, and any sales or the like resulting from the communications. The module  124  may calculate any of a variety of useful statistics regarding the response, which may be used by an organization to evaluate the effectiveness of a message and make any required adjustments thereto. The module  124  may classify un-structured response (such as free form email) via text mining and parsing techniques. Responses may also be entered by users within the organization who have received responses directly from any recipient. Real time statistics may be provided by the module  124  upon request by a user. 
     The response channel interface  204  contains an interface to any call centers, IVRU servers, e-mail servers, or a user for receiving data on responses that have been received by these entities from any of the recipients of a communication. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 3 , there is depicted the steps of an exemplary personalized content dissemination process  300  as may be performed by the computer system architecture  100 . The process  300  begins when a user generates a target list of recipients for a particular communication using the target list creation rules and interface  112  (step  302 ). 
     The fixed information for the communication is then retrieved from the content repository  110  (step  304 ). The fixed data may include formatting instructions or a template for the communication, and text or other content that is common to all versions of the communications to be sent. 
     Next, the variable information for individual versions of the communication are retrieved from the target list and profile data repository  104  (step  306 ). The variable information may be inserted into designated fields of the communication, and may include a name of the recipient, an address of the recipient, and the like. The variable data may also include individualized information, such as an offer that is provided only to certain recipients having desired characteristics. The variable data may also include personalized messages for one or more intended recipients, as may be generated through the personalization engine  116  described above. 
     Next, at step  308 , the communication with fixed and variable data is transmitted to the recipients through the appropriate communication channel (such as e-mail, interactive voice response unit (IVRU) telephone call, instant message, paper mailing, and the like). The computer system architecture  100  may interface with other systems, such as existing e-mail servers, automated mass mailing assembly systems, IVRU servers and the like to accomplish the distribution of communications. 
     At step  310 , the communication response tracking module  124  tracks any responses received for the communication sent to the group of recipients. The module  124  may include interfaces for users to enter any incidences of responses received from a recipient, or may be programmed to track any incoming e-mail messages or electronic or telephonic communications from an address or telephone number of a recipient of a communication. 
     Next, at step  312 , the communication response tracking, module updates profile data in repository  104  and may generate reports periodically or on demand based on communications sent and the number and types of responses received from recipients. Response types may be determined based on entries of users within the organization who review the response, or may, in the case of electronic communications, be determined using any of a variety of known text parsing algorithms and the like to determine if the response is positive or negative. 
     Finally, at step  314 , a follow-up (e.g., a second or subsequent) message may be automatically generated or established by a user in reply to the response from the recipient Multiple communications can be delivered to targeted audience based on the response from the initial marketing message in this manner. For instance, if a potential customer is interested in product. A based on a received response to an initial marketing communication, then subsequent messages can be targeted to the same potential customers, and may be delivered at any future time. Such follow-up messages may include an invitation to a future trade show, seminar or product demonstration that is geographically convenient for the potential customer. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 4 , therein is depicted exemplary content material  400  generated using the computer system architecture  100 . The content material  400  may include any include fixed and variable text data and may take the form of an e-mail communication, an instant message or paper mailing. The content material  400  can be static in presentation or may contain multi-media images and sounds. The content material  400  may be provided in any of a variety of useful electronic formats. 
     Prior technologies have failed to provide a content dissemination system that automatically profiles recipients from a target list subject to definable rules (which can be specified in a user-friendly manner), develop communication materials with fixed and variable data based on stored profile data, and provide closed-loop tracking of responses to marketing communications and follow-up messages thereto. The commercial benefit of the content dissemination system is both (i) reduced costs for sending personalized content material to groups of recipients and (ii) potentially increased revenues from more effective marketing communications using the disclosed system. 
     It is readily contemplated that there will exist many other ways to implement the processes introduced herein, for example by using a variety of equivalent hardware and software components to accomplish substantially the same functionality. Although the best methodologies have been particularly described in the foregoing disclosure, it is to be understood that such descriptions have been provided for purposes of illustration only, and that other variations both in form and in detail can be made thereupon by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, which is defined first and foremost by the appended claims.