Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog, “How Deep Is Your Personalization?”

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "How Deep Is Your Personalization?" uncovers an in-depth analysis of personal attributes that provide insight for better customer experiences. After all, the personalization dictate that brands and marketers are struggling with requires that we not only know our customers but that we understand how to use today's tools like AI (Artificial Intelligence), machine learning, real-time data capture, data analysis, marketing automation and a host of others, to deliver a truly relevant personal experience.

To put a laser point on the object lesson of personalization, and to the chagrin of many marketers, personalization fails to be the end all for a marketing campaign. No doubt that statement may invoke a debate about the aspects of personalization and the apparent successes marketers attribute to personalization usage.

The agenda behind most personalized communications is brand focused and in many cases fails to consider what consumers need or want. The notion that personalized experiences are sublime amounts to subjective assessments coupled with a false sense of reality. For one, transparency is often forgotten and instead fails to deliver on how and where the data originated.

In many cases, personalization marketing techniques tend to hide the origin of data that is supporting the marketing initiative. Questions arise with data capture and particularly with polling data. Always ask yourself, who stands to benefit from the polling data? Polling data tends to be a binary choice; for example, which group or product receives the short end of the stick and which group or product is the beneficiary of the polling data outcome. We have to ask ourselves, "Is that a truly comprehensive data analysis, or is there an ulterior motive behind that data presentation that may be more brand-centric than consumer-centric.

Jane Ruffino recently states in a tweet: "If a service brags about "personalization" it's our job to be clear where the data originated. If it's "gamification" (ugh) are we letting people in on where our agenda is? Are we limiting choices to reduce "cognitive load" but making it seem like we're comprehensive?" Ruffino continues to tweet; "I see a lot of focus on cute copy in the #uxwriter community, and as @scottkubie pointed out the other day, it's a problem. Our job needs to include privacy and transparency as core values, which means copy, 'cute or otherwise' is the result of pushing for fairness for users at every step."

Personalization and Automation

You just purchased a product online from a vendor that you deem is trustworthy. The next day, or even sooner, you receive an automated email instructing you to buy the same product that you just purchased. Really? Alternatively, you receive a 'thank you for your purchase' email that offers a product upgrade, when you have yet to understand or even use the product that you just purchased.

How about parents that discover that their sibling is interested in joining the military through posts sent to them by recruitment branches of the military. Taking it a step further, what about folks that are re-targeted for a new mortgage rate when they just closed on a home last week?

Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify are gargantuan participants in the up-sell game. Regardless of the item you choose, your selection will automatically generate a teaser recommendation such as, "people also purchased xxx," on any one of these sites. Inevitably, most consumers will click the bait, with "yes, I'll add that additional item to my shopping cart." The marketing community tells us that consumers anticipate personalization given those types of retail examples; however, other business organizations that cannot compete or compare with the millions of products sold on Amazon or Apple's streaming service of 30 million+ tunes that are ready for download, must have comparable levels of service.

Although, small to mid-size businesses don't need personalization on the scale of Apple Music or Spotify. Nevertheless, they will have to enhance their offerings. For now, the selection of a reliable CRM tool, realistic data segmentation, and an automated email marketing provider will suffice for most consumers who don't mind personalized marketing.

The 6 Stages of Sophistication

Personalization does work on a variety of levels. Econsultancy's 2018 Optimization Report in partnership with RedEye Optimization discovered that 4 out of 5 client-side respondents reported a boost after putting personalization into practice. Personalization is typically a name in an email marketing campaign, previous engagement reference, and often includes content recommendations based on product behavioral purchasing habits or the cookies that you have amassed when visiting a site that offers a product, a service, or more.

There are several types of personalization, and according to an Experian article, these types fall into six stages of sophistication. The six stages of personalized sophistication are as follows: static (no personalization); identity (eg name, gender, age); insight driven (eg engagement status, propensity to purchase); enriched insight (using more variables and possibly partner data); single customer view (real-time identity usage, circumstances and behavior); and lastly, predictive optimized (ie next best actions, machine learning empowered).

Personalization represents a wide array of stages and requires applying levels of sophistication best suited for the marketing task at hand. However, what is vitally important in the personalization marketing scheme is to ensure that the overall design reflects what the consumer wants, versus what the brand needs to achieve.

The Net-Net

Keep in mind that the consumer's notion of personalized messaging is more aligned with receiving excellent customer service. It's not about getting an automated email post-purchase offer, or a reason to upgrade the original purchase or matching purchase choices of like-minded consumers. Thanks for reading "How Deep Is Your Personalization?"

Let's have a conversation about personalization, content marketing, PUR binding, direct mail marketing strategies, printing, transactional documents, variable digital printing, brand equity and unified marketing collateral during our next Open House. We invite you to join us on Thursday, May 30, 2019, for an hour or two, anytime between 10:30 am to 3:30 pm. Let us show you how to improve your document processes to optimize your workflow, reduce your costs, and maximize your organization's printing, letter shop, and mailing capabilities. Dove Direct has an official USPS certified bureau located within our offices that will save you time and money. Moreover, if you bring us your files, we will create a demo file for you. For more information, call Carla Eubanks at 404-629-0122 or email Carla at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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