Since the beginning of data-based direct marketing, personalization has been a holy grail.
Primitive personalization was limited to “your name here.” Longer names were often truncated, sometimes comically, by the limitations of the day’s printers. Some marketers tried to dazzle prospects with copy like this: “Dear [Howard Schneider], won’t your friends on [144th Avenue] turn green with envy when they see your new [fill in the blank].” This kind of excessive personalization was not only silly; it was the creepy forerunner of privacy issues we still face today.
Early travel loyalty programs quickly learned not to thank a customer for, say, their recent visit to Las Vegas. Especially when a spouse opening the statement thought their partner was at a sales meeting in Detroit. And there’s the cautionary tale of the retailer who sent a young woman offers on products for new moms – which was seen by her father, who didn’t know she was expecting.
Like any shiny new object, the use of personalization soon calmed down and became more rational and relevant. Over time, as data capabilities grew exponentially, we became, appropriately, concerned about how that data was being used – and by whom. This led to privacy policies, opt-outs, and regulations, and the issue remains far from fully resolved. Consumers want to exercise (or at least, feel like they’re exercising) control over their personal info. Today, that extends to allowing customers varying degrees of power over the content, messaging, and frequency of marketing communication. I’m a huge believer in that empowerment. Over-communication and irrelevant content are big-time buzzkills. Marketers today pride themselves on providing relevant, timely messaging, offers, and experiences.
But – wait for it – there’s a potential pitfall here too. When applied to product selection, if a marketer presents only products the customer has expressed interest in, they limit the customer’s potential value by eliminating the opportunity for impulse purchases. Catalog marketers learned this lesson through careful testing.
We don’t want to be irrelevant, but we want customers to experience the joy of the unexpected discovery – while we enjoy the addition to the basket, the AOV, and the CLTV. For the thoughtful marketer, there are clear strategies that help maintain the balance. Many break their algorithmically selected offers into categories like, “products you love,” and, “products you might like,” so the customer knows we know the difference.
Another great strategy is to offer curated subscription or auto-replenishment models for those goods the customer wants to have on hand without thinking, accompanied by messaging and offers for complementary products. It’s one thing to send a dog owner cat food coupons, or a tea-drinker a special on coffee; but it’s quite another to send the dog parent offers for toys and accessories, and the tea-drinker a deal on macarons. Your thoughts?