Mr. Marketing: It should be all about me
By Rob Weinberg
What’s the value of personalized marketing?
— Cory Finch
There’s an old joke where I come from. The first guy says “Have you noticed some people answer a question with a question?” and the second guy says, “Do they?”So let me answer your question with a question. Would you rather I speak with you as an individual and answer your specific question? Or would you prefer I provide generic information in hopes I’ll address your concerns?
I’m going to take a leap here and assume you’d rather have the personalized approach. This way you know I’m speaking with you directly, and we may even leverage the conversation to establish a relationship.
This is the value of personalizing your marketing materials — the ability to establish a relationship with prospective customers.
Dale Carnegie once observed that the sweetest sound to anyone’s ears is his own name. It applies when speaking and with selling.
Successful politicians have used this strategy for years, learning your name at the outset of a meeting, then peppering it into their conversation with you.
It also works in marketing, because no consumer wants to feel like a number — unless it’s number one.
To make consumers feel they’re getting one-on-one attention, many firms now utilize technology to apply dynamic, personalized content to establish a relationship via email, websites, mobile devices, call centers, point-of-sale, electronic billboards and social channel marketing.
Applying personalized marketing materials has the potential to increase campaign effectiveness; sales targeting; and customer experience, satisfaction and retention. Failure to do so means you risk being left behind by the competition.
Interestingly, despite interest in real-time, personalized approaches to marketing across channels, few marketers so far are using it.
A Direct Marketing Association study shows 77 percent of marketers find real-time personalization across channels to be highly important. Only 29 percent actually have it in place.
The rest seem held back by issues with technology, database access, privacy issues and training.
Which means businesses able to overcome these challenges have an opportunity to get a huge jump on the competition.
Also read: Personalization can potentially lead to big profits. Or as they say at the NY State Lottery – “Ya gotta be in it to win it.”
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
Mr. Marketing has spent 30 years providing personalized communications to a wide range of clientele. Reach him at
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