Personalization in marketing messages assumes that you know something about the people you’re marketing to. It can be an effective way to keep clients coming back, but be careful how you use it.
Here is a simple and safe strategy. A greater amount of personalization is best suited for house lists or with clients who have purchased from you before. After all, you talk with them, and they talk to you. Naturally, they expect that you know many things about them and their buying habits. When you become familiar or even chummy with them, it is because they opened the door first.
Conversely, use less personalization when you haven’t previously done business with a prospect. If you use too much personalization with people you don’t know, your prospects may see this as an invasion of privacy. It’s similar to assuming you can be on a first-name basis with the president and CEO of your biggest client before you’ve been formally introduced.
Sometimes, in a sales letter or other direct marketing materials, less personalization is actually more convincing than too much. The key is to write the letter as if you were writing to someone you know. Typically, in this case, you don’t use the person’s name in every paragraph. Nor do you make frequent references to specific personal data, unless it is relevant.
At the right point in your correspondence, you might say, “Thanks, John. As always, we sincerely appreciate your interest and support.”
Some new prospects may not care about personalization. They may simply want you to get right to the point. They only want to know about your product, service, or offer. If they’re not going to care whether or not you address them by name, why invest in the extra money?
When you use personalization wisely, it’s powerful and it works well. It attracts attention. It increases readership.
