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“So good marketing is actually awful; excellent marketing you might get your toes in the water. The name of the game is to be remarkable and get attention,” he expounds.
Here, Regan and Ed Ickowski, director of business development and sales for variable data printing and cross-media marketing software provider DirectSmile, share insights on how to make personalization remarkable.
1. Have a good database. First and foremost, you need to have a good, clean database, says Ickowski, and it’s important to have a strategy behind what you want to do with that database. “”If you’re working on a campaign for a vacation request but don’t have in the database that some people like skiing and some people like the beach, and you only send people a personalized image with their name spelled in snow blocks, well, you’ve alienated the other half of your database,” he illustrates.
2. Personalize it. No, really personalize it. Sometimes, all you know is a person’s name and address, but when you have the data to truly personalize, do it. “For customer retention especially, it is sinful to have something go out that says, ‘Dear Customer,’” says Regan. “You have the tools now that aren’t very expensive to not only call them by name, but to use other bits of the data. You know, ‘Thank you for your patronage for the last 10 years.’ ‘Thank you for being a season ticket holder for the last five years.’ ‘All the other fans in section 232 look forward to seeing you this season.’ Believe in that one-to-one communication."
Ickowski agrees: “Personalization doesn’t just mean creating a great, beautiful image on the front and the back, but it’s also putting their name in different areas and making sure the campaign matches the imagery.”
3. Do something different. DirectSmile leverages its technology to create personalized images that go back to the Godin school of thought. For example, DirectSmile can take a customer’s alma mater and create an image of that school’s band spelling out the recipient’s name on the school’s football field (see image below). “Somebody gets that personalized postcard form the university with their name spelled out on the football field, the inclination is not to throw that piece out. They’re like, ‘Wow, there’s my name!’ and they’ll turn it over to see the offer,” describes Ickowski.
4. Be multichannel. Integrate your campaign, with the personalization following suit, across all channels—print, e-mail and online. There are instances where single-channel personalization still works, but it’s becoming more and more vital to hit consumers from all angles.
5. Track it. “We will not let a program out of here unless we can track it because even if it fails, that’s the only way we’re going to learn,” says Regan. “… We actually insist with our clients, 'If you’re not going to track this, we don’t want to do business.' That sounds like a harsh statement, but we’re in this to develop a relationship. And unless you track, you’re not going to have basis to go forward. That’s important.”
To witness a campaign that incorporates all these personalization keys and then some, check out the Miami Dolphins’ recent season ticket campaign, a client of DME, that uses DirectSmile technology. The campaign was three-pronged, reaching Dolphins fans through direct mail (see image below), e-mail and an online viral video at www.mydolphinslive.com, for which each recipient had his or her own personalized URL and video.
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