There are many reasons why personalization works. Reason #1?
People like to be seen as individuals, not as faceless statistics.
Say a rep walks into an office and doesn’t know the name of the person he/she is meeting with, has no idea what the client’s company does or needs, and proposes products and services that won’t help the client at all. That meeting will likely lead to nowhere.
Now imagine this: A sales person walks in, greets the client by name, asks—by name—about colleagues or recent company projects, and presents the client with relevant products or solutions. Bingo! Things will likely end very well for both parties.
Why?
No one wants to waste their time on something that won’t benefit them. No one wants to be viewed as one of the masses, especially by someone trying to sell them something.
People want to be recognized. People want to be heard. They want to know that someone out there sees that they have particular goals, needs, and problems and that that someone has their best interests in mind.
That’s what personalization in marketing does.
But it’s not just up to the sales reps, doing in-person calls. It’s up to the entire marketing department to communicate interest and develop relationships with clients with every campaign, whether it’s direct mail or electronic. Personalized forms, letters, packages, calls-to-action, emails, landing pages, etc., all show an educated interest in clients and their needs.
But seeing one’s name in print isn’t a vanity thing. It’s a brain thing.
According to a report by Dennis Carmody and Michael Lewis, published in Brain Research, hearing one’s own name—even if it’s said in a nearby conversation that that person is not part of—causes a distinct and unique reaction in the brain. Hearing our names activates our radar and draws our focus somewhere else. It gets our attention and changes our course of action. Someone else’s name doesn’t do it. Just our own.
This is huge news, especially for marketers. Seeing or hearing their own name will catch your clients’ attention, too. It will have them looking at your promotion, even if just for a moment. And in marketing, that “moment” is all we can ask for and need.