Scattered within the do’s of Marketing Personalization are some don’ts…
Whether you’re the owner of a small business or a lucrative company, there’s a need to get personal with your customers. Personalization is rendered when information is gathered through various social streams, email, mobile, CRM, transactions, etc. This melting pot creates a 360 customer profile so you can deliver personalized, up to date and accurate relevant content to your customers.
There’s an abundance of “how to’s” in the world of marketing personalization. You’ll find tips and advice on just about everything from the varying levels of personalization & segmentation to the challenges of improving relevancy through data. What about the don’ts? Are there practices you should avoid when diving into marketing personalization?
Yes.
1. Don’t get too personal unless you’ve got the data to back it up. Getting to know someone personally takes time. The same holds true with your customers. You’re not going to establish a 360 profile in 15 minutes. Collecting valuable data is crucial when incorporating personalization into your marketing strategy. When there’s not enough data to back it up, you risk delivering information, featured deals, products of interest, promotional offers, etc that are vague and generic.
2. Don’t be creepy about it. Suggesting products to your customers based on their browsing and shopping history has a world of benefits. A 360 view of your customer goes a long way however, you don’t want to cross the “getting too personal” line. For example, your data tells you that Mrs. Jones is expecting and she has recently browsed baby items and made several purchases. Recommending additional items in a “based on your previous purchases, may we suggest” tone is perfectly acceptable. Sending a quip mentioning the amount of time Mrs. Jones spent browsing nursing bras and commenting on her baby bump “selfie” profile picture…creepy.
3. Don’t suffer from mediocrity. On average, about 70% of marketing emails lack personalization on a multitude of levels. Names are misspelled, the content is inconsequential, and the offers hold very little, if any, interest to your customer. If you’re going to embark on marketing personalization, do it right. Make an impact. You’ve got the data so leverage it. Give your customers a reason to open and read the email. Let them know you’re paying attention to them.
4. Don’t drag it out. If your customer base is online shoppers looking to score a great deal, grab their attention with the subject line. Once you have their attention, get to the point. You’ll lure your customers with personalized sales, deals and coupons. Add a few time sensitive “80% off today only” highlights. Don’t dilute the relevancy with bloat and useless fillers. More than likely, your customers care very little about ribbed cuffs and double stitching. Their eyes are feasting on the 80% off discount.
5. Don’t lose sight of important details. You can have the most up to date personalized data on each and every customer however, it’s often the small details that can make or break the deployment and customer response. Avoid these mishaps by safeguarding your form fields, running reports to ensure your data isn’t blighted with errors and checking to see if defaults are set accurately.
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