Does personalisation add value?  Yes it does.  The evidence is strong.

The chart below from the Carson group clearly shows the improved response rates achieved when direct mail is personalised.   However, they are the first to point out that personalisation is far more than adding a name to a greeting line, yet that is where so many of us stop.  response_rate

Here are a few of the common errors we have seen when it comes to personalisation and a few things you could be doing differently:

  1. Only send the material using the medium you prefer.   Have you thought about giving clients the option to receive information the way they prefer?  This can be via mobile, a responsive micro-site on a tablet, via email or a hard copy document.
  2. Provide material when it suits you. QR codes, automated drip programs based on web page views or email opens are among the ways organisations are getting the timing right on the delivery of material.  This also extends to the use of email preference centers that allow a client to determine the frequency of communication rather than just subscribing or unsubscribing.
  3. Just personalising the greeting. It is great to be greeted by name, but if the content is not relevant then you are wasting your time. Leverage the data you have around pages visited, interests and more to serve up relevant content in the body of your communication.  Online and print technology make this far easier to achieve than ever before.
  4. Providing just one way to respond. Does your call to action allow your customers to respond using multiple options therefore allowing them to select a method that they are most comfortable with?
  5. A generic sign off and ‘reply to’ email address.   Nothing undoes all of the effort you have just gone to more than ending your email with “Regards – The Marketing Team”.  Put a real persons name in there!  The second error is the classic ‘donotreply@yourcompany.com’ email address.  Again this sends a really strong message around how genuine you are about communicating with your customer.

One of the key barriers to executing well on these ideas is the data you hold.  Getting this right is crucial.

Leveraging Pardot’s progressive profiling functionality is just one thing you can be doing to build up the data that you do hold to enable more effective personalisation and multichannel communication.

The following graphic gives a bit more insight into how you can leverage automation to achieve this.

Personalization � Through Automation [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=

Thanks Pardot

If you are not already leveraging marketing automation, you can read more about it here. If you are interested in finding out more about the effective personalisation of print and integrating it with both mobile and email and how we have been helping clients communicate across multiple channels please give us a call.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]