You have heard of personalization in marketing and how it can help build a business. You may even have put it into practice, but did you go far enough?

Most marketers have learned to segment your email list and even add individual names to the email. Those tasks are great but marketers need to be willing to go beyond that to stay ahead of their competition. Sending out an email with a customer’s name in it will do no good if the subject of the email is not relevant to them.

The level of personalization that needs to be adopted goes beyond that of an acquaintance. Many customers now expect it to go all the way to near the level of a close friend.

Why Personalize?

Without personalization, potential and current customers often feel like nothing more than a number. Personalization makes people feel important.

For example, let’s say you are a professional organizer that was hired to set up and organize a client’s office for maximum efficiency. Your client tells you what they need, what tools and supplies they need close at hand, that their paperwork needs a better system than the inbox/outbox at the edge of their desk, and other personal requests. You get to work organizing but do not consider anything the client told you. Instead, you organize like you do every office. When your client sees it, they realize that you did not listen to them at all because nothing is personalized to their needs. The result will most likely be that they do not call you for your help again and will not recommend you to others.

On the other hand, if you took into account everything they told you and strategized the best way to make it work for them, the result would be quite different. When the client walked into their newly organized office, they would see that you kept the stapler, hole puncher, calculator, and cup of pens within arms reach because that is what they need most. They would notice the very neat and easy-to-use filing system that you had set up for them in the corner. Perhaps they would even find an inspirational quote on their desk that deals with a struggle they mentioned to you. In this case, they would be pleased and would probably recommend you to everyone they know.

When marketers merely send out cookie cutter emails with a name attached, personalization really is not there. The segmentation of your email groups needs to be segmented even more- down to the tiniest segmentation you can manage. If, for instance, you have your list segmented to men and women, you need to break them down farther. You may break the ladies down into career women, students, and homemakers. You may then break those groups down into mothers and those with no children. The smaller the segment, the more personal you can get.

How Personalization Can Improve Customer Relations

• Personalized emails have a better chance of being opened and read. Most people do not want to open emails that have nothing to do with them, so they will generally scroll right by them or delete them without opening.
• It helps you target audiences more specifically for greater results. You can word the emails to specifically get action out of your customer as well as put the right product or service in front of them.
• It helps you create relevant content. Besides sales, you probably want your audience to visit your website, hopefully on a regular basis. To do this, you need content that is relevant to your audience.
• Personalization helps build a relationship and trust between you and your audience. When you personalize your marketing, the customer feels valued.
• It can make multiple departments work more effectively together. Imagine you are a customer who just bought an item or service, and suddenly you get an email trying from the same company trying to sell you the same item. How valued would you feel knowing that you spent money with a company who was not even paying attention? Personalization and automation can help move potential customers to a current customer segment so that the emails they receive treats them as a valued customer. When sales and marketing or other departments do not collaborate, costly mistakes can be made. AI can be trained to move customers to the right segment for you.

Getting This Kind of Data

• Collect it. Opt-in forms, surveys, and such can help collect data that you do not normally receive.
• Analyze it. Once you have the data, you have to analyze and organize it. AI can be tremendously helpful in this area as it can be trained to do this step for you.

Personalization can push your business far ahead of the competition and improve your marketing performance. Gather your team and develop a strategy to make next level personalization happen. The results could be more satisfying than you think.

Want to know if Bython Media can help? Contact us today.