Personalized marketing.

Though the name is pretty much self-explanatory, we would still like to define it because it is a significant aspect of modern marketing and deserves a definition. Simply put, personalized marketing is the breaking down of the mass marketing process to directly address the needs and interests of individual prospects.

Why is personalized marketing so important?

In the past, it was probably acceptable to a certain extent for marketers to send out generic communications. You would remember that personalized messages weren’t as common some years ago, as they are today. Generic communication to the entire audience suited everyone whether customers or marketing departments for no one knew or even could do any better.

As consumers and technology changed, there was a need for marketing to become a lot more focused and cost-effective. Consumers began asking for their individual needs to be addressed and marketers had to measure up to the changing expectations.

Increase in the amount of content

This situation escalated with the onslaught of online content. The internet is an ocean of content and an average person receives more content today and from more sources than compared to a few years ago.

Sifting through the entire content one receives, looking for information that is relevant, is not something that anyone looks forward to. In the midst of all this generic (and mostly irrelevant) content, people are on the lookout for communications that talks to them directly and offers to address their needs.

Marketing is getting more personal

According to research conducted in 2013, 74% of online customers said that they get frustrated when they encounter content irrelevant to their interests on websites.

This goes to show that after being literally (or, should we say virtually) bombarded with generic content, consumers don’t want to be bundled with a crowd. They want personalized brand messages that are in line with their interests.

But if you think that this mindset is restricted to brand messages, you’re wrong. Consumers want the entire marketing process to be personalized, sometimes including personalized products too. And while this is tough, marketers are figuring how to do this because it stands to deliver greater loyalty and higher sales.

Benefits of Personalized Marketing

Personalized marketing is also helpful in nurturing leads and retargeting campaigns. Talking to a lead about something that interests them about your brand will naturally capture their attention and result in better lead nurturing.

With retargeting campaigns, targeting prospects with products/services they have already shown an interest in buying may prod them into actually making the purchase.

But, but, but…how personal can you get? Doesn’t this personalization need to stop?

Introducing personalization as early as possible and increasing it as far as possible is a great way to improve loyalty and effectiveness.

What’s important, however, is that it should be done right.

Do it right.

Adopting an overly familiar tone with prospects just because you know their name or presuming that you know their requirements too early in the relationship can put them off. You definitely don’t want to get off the wrong foot like this. Nobody likes a smug presumptuous associate!

However, as you gain more knowledge about the prospect, using this well to personalize your information, suggestion of products, etc. will help further the relationship. You can even use a marketing automation system to manage this if the volume of prospects is high. Mass personalized marketing as a concept is here to stay.

We would love to know what your opinion is about personalized marketing. Drop your comments in the box below…