Is Your Marketing Strategy Personal Enough?

According to an article on dmnews.com, a 2013 study revealed that 80% of consumers are receiving more marketing messages that include their first and last name than they did five years ago. The study also revealed that 70% of these consumers agree with the following statement: “Many of the personalized messages I receive are annoying because the attempts at personalization are superficial” Before reading this, maybe you were still patting yourself on the back for ditching your saturated lists and switching over to targeted lists that contain the first and last name of every consumer you’re mailing to.  Now your pat on the back has turned into a scratch on the head and you’re wondering if you missed the memo. According to Amanda Elam, marketing director at EarthIntegrate: “Rather than focusing on the person we're sending to, we are too focused on ourselves with only the appearance of caring about the recipient's name. The reality is, that person couldn't care less if you know his name—that's the easy part. What he really wants to know is that you are considerate of his buying habits, communication preferences, hobbies, and, more important, what he needs most from your brand. So in a word, the difference is relevance.” Notice that Ms. Elam is not saying it is ineffective to use a person’s first and last name on marketing material. Rather, she seems to be saying that this is the first “baby step” when it comes to personalization. I couldn’t agree more. Have consumer expectations reached an unreasonable level? As consumers, we want what we want, when we want it – I guess you could say that we’ve become more spoiled than ever. And it seems that web behemoths like Google and Facebook are always coming up with clever new ideas in order to provide relevant advertising info to us in an instant. For some, this is a blaring reminder that we are losing traction when it comes to maintaining online privacy. But, if our personal data is being used solely for marketing efforts, is this necessarily a bad thing? It’s like Louis C.K.’s bit: Of Course, But Maybe (if you haven’t watched this yet, you have to see it - but I must warn you, Louis C.K. is known for his graphic humor) Of course, as consumers, most of us want to maintain a high level of privacy. But maybe, if we are willing to share our every activity and mood on public social channels like Twitter and Facebook, we are putting giant targets on our backs for personalized advertising. In other words, we’re all asking for it at a certain level.  If you really want to keep things private, write your 728 Facebook friends a letter telling them your status, religious beliefs, occupation, and musical interests in your own handwriting. Though I do have a Facebook account, I don’t use it often.  The few times I do,  I always see an ad pop up on my news feed that shows a product that is exactly what I want to buy at that very moment.  Rather than being annoyed or feeling like my privacy has been violated, I’m surprisingly pleased that someone went through the effort to figure out what products I actually like, even if they had to use some of my personal information to do so. It’s all about your customers It’s important to remember that no matter what opinion you have about your business, the only one that matters most is the opinion your customers and prospects have about you.  Though you can’t control how they react when they receive one of your ads, you can at least try to manipulate their response as best you can by presenting them with something that you know they want or are, at the very least, qualified to buy. You have a picture of what your “perfect” customer looks like, right?  Well, At ListGIANT.com, we have a team of data professionals who have the ability and insight to help you take a more personalized approach when it comes to reaching your “perfect” prospects. Here are three different factors we use to do so:

1. Demographics – income, age, gender, marital status, net worth, etc.
2. Geography – the locations your business needs to market to
3. Psychographic Behaviors – interests, hobbies, purchasing history, etc.

Whether you’re performing a direct mail, telemarketing, and/or email campaign, you’ll need to take extra steps to personalize not only your message, but who you are sending your message to.  The good news is that ListGIANT.com is more than capable of helping you achieve an in-depth, personalized marketing strategy.  Contact us today for more info!