EMBiz: Time to Get Personal

Laurel Mintz, CEO & Founder

Time To Get Personal

Hi guys, Laurel Mintz here from Elevate My Brand. Today’s conversation is all around personalization so let’s get personal. The first thing to note is that 90% of people expect to get personalized messages from email marketing and advertising, and those are really the two pieces that we’re gonna talk about today.

So first let’s talk about personalized email marketing. I know that we’ve all gotten those terrible emails where they frankly mess it up and they say “Hey [Title] or “Hey [Wrong Name]” and there’s really no excuse anymore to fail in terms of personalized email marketing. Every platform out there, even the most simple of Mailchimp will allow you to do that. So making sure that you have all of the right data points within your list that you’re uploading to your mail system to make sure that you are able to personalize appropriately is kind of step number one and I really feel at this stage in the game, it’s table stakes and not negotiable at this point. It is a necessary approach to personalization through email marketing.

The other way that you can personalize through email marketing is by segmenting your list. Now this could be about the customer journey and what phase they’re at or this could be about different products that you have. Again, it’s really important for you to understand what conversations you need to be having with your customer or potential customer based on where they are in that journey with you as a brand. There’s even follow up segments after a purchase. There’s a number of different ways to develop that customer journey through your email marketing system. 

The other piece that’s really important to talk about is personalization via advertising. This is critical if you’re on the brand side because if you’re doing it the right way you’re talking to the exact right audience at the right time in the right market for what is it you’re trying to sell and that’s like marketing gold. The problem lies in when we get targeting that is not appropriate for us, and that’s just a waste of money if you’re on the brand side. So make sure that you are focused and targeting down your copy by age, gender, marital status, and maybe kids or no kids. There’s really no one size fits all approach; it just doesn’t work anymore. So make sure that you’re not only just targeting through your social advertising, but you’re really focusing the message to that right audience is super critical. 

And then the most simple of approaches here across-the-board is something as simple as a birthday greeting. I’m sure that you get those emails from your workout studios, your flower shop - wherever you spend money. If they’re doing segmented marketing and personalized marketing the right way, you’re going to get some sort of discount code or at least a birthday greeting to make you feel like you’re an important customer and ultimately that’s the big takeaway. Feeling like your customer gets you, like you get them and that there’s a relationship there. 

It’s a really social experiment and there’s no excuse for lack of personalization in this day and age. So go forth and get personal! Thanks for tuning in and stay tuned for more coming up next.