Getting up close and personal – and getting results

What’s in a name? The keys to the marketing kingdom, that’s what.

One minute, I was walking down to the post office. The next, I was stopped in my tracks. For there, on the side of the bus shelter, was my name – together with lots of others, but mine was in pride of place, right at the front of the line of bottles. Coke became my new best friend. And I don’t even like Coke. But still – I was glad they made the effort. I even tweeted about it. How’d they do that? I mused jokingly. With a little bit of Coke magic, replied the folks at Coke UK marketing. The ad made me smile, and the campaign pulled me in. I was even tempted, for a very brief moment, to rush to my local store and see if I could find a real bottle with my name on it.

Me, you and them

There’s no denying it – personalised marketing works. And it doesn’t take very much. Once you’ve got somebody’s first name, you’ve got the keys to the marketing kingdom. But it’s not just the name that does it; it’s the style too. If you’re on first-name terms with somebody, you have to carry that through with writing that’s engaging and friendly, balancing informality and professionalism. And that’s not always easy. If you cross the line into over-familiarity, you very soon reach the point of diminishing returns. The trick is to appear to be somebody’s friend – everybody’s friend, ideally – while maintaining a certain detachment. It’s a delicate balance to achieve, but the rewards are tremendous. So why does personalised marketing work?

It’s more memorable. Already, I’m talking about Coke and I’m not their biggest fan. I’ve shared the photo with friends, and (sadly) it was one of the highlights of last week.
It increases customer engagement. People up and down the country, and right around the world, are rushing out to find a bottle with their name on it. When I sent the photo to a French friend, he told me the campaign is running there too, but he’s yet to find a bouteille with Pierre on it. The whole thing has the feeling of a treasure hunt, which is always exciting.
It pushes up conversions. When you get personalised recommendations from Amazon, or personalised vouchers from Tesco, you’re much more likely to sit up and take notice. And to take action.
It keeps people coming back. In the same way as you avoid shops where you’re made to feel like just another footfall statistic, you’re attracted to ones where they know your name, remember your usual order, and always greet you with a smile. The exact same rule applies in the virtual world.
It’s more fun for you, which means you put more into it, and it becomes a virtuous circle. We may all be marketers, but we’re also ordinary people, just like our customers. Personalised marketing feels like a casual conversation, which is more relaxed and enjoyable. And it’s a karma thing: you get back what you put in, so if you let your guard down and appear a bit more friendly, your customers and prospects will too.

With the advent of Big Data (with its ominous capital letters) the era of personalised marketing is truly upon us. Everybody’s doing it, from Tesco, who’ve just acquired Sociomantic, to Ovo Energy, whose funky, chatty letters and emails I’ve been getting since I switched from one of the bigger, more impersonal energy companies. In a world were virtual is the norm, it pays to get personal. And the good news is that it’s never been easier. We have all the technical tools, and exhaustive data, to get up close and personal. So your marketing isn’t just a message in a bottle, it’s a message on a bottle. A bottle with somebody’s name on it. And we can all drink to that.

Kevin Marketing.