Sometimes podcasts are worth another listen.
With his The Art of Marketing Operations Podcast, Glenn Bottomley is one of the more affable hosts in the marketing podcast game.
At the end of 2022, he and his guest, Lauren Teixeira from Highspot, came together for their episode entitled "Delivering a Customized Customer Experience Backed by Data."
It was a great discussion about mostly marketing personalization.
No question about it, personalization, when done right, is a superpower for marketers.
McKinsey recently "found that companies that excel at personalization generate 40 percent more revenue from those activities than average players" and that "across US industries, shifting to top-quartile performance in personalization would generate over $1 trillion in value."
That's a Trillion. With a 'T.'
No wonder we're all so focused on personalization.
But can marketing personalization be bad?
When Email Personalization Goes Wrong
Glenn and Lauren chatted about a stat related to email personalization - that massive performance gains were made from 0-30% personalization, that 30%-80% was wasted effort, and over 80% personalization went *backward.*
Because it's creepy.
Is that because personalization is inherently creepy or because what we're calling personalization is creepy?
Here's what I mean:
Let's say, for a prospect, we know they:
- use HubSpot
- have a lot of good marketing content
- live in St. Louis
- received a BA in creative writing from Tulane
Here's what creepy looks like at 50%+:
Hi, [FIRSTNAME],
When you were getting your BA in creative writing at Tulane, I bet you didn't think you'd be managing a tool like HubSpot working from home in St. Louis!
But here (there) you are.
Yadda yadda yadda....
___________________________
*That* is creepy.
If you have received an email (or LinkedIn message) like that, you probably have the same reaction as me: yuck! [smashes delete button]
It also just seems like another version of boring merge fields. There are so many culprits in the B2B marketing game. The name of the company we work for. Our name. Maybe the school we went to.
How a Focus On Customer Value Unlocks the Potential of Email Personalization
Using the same info, here is 50%+ personalization that is actually *for* the prospect rather than *about* the prospect:
Hi, [FIRSTNAME],
We've pulled together a guide on getting started with long-form blogging on HubSpot [link] that you might find useful.
If that's worth a chat, I have some upcoming midwest travel, and I'd love to connect for coffee (on me!).
Yadda yadda yadda...
___________________________
All from the same data.
But with one extra step of connecting the dots to value rather than stopping early (which is where creepiness lives). Nowhere does that email tell the recipient something they already know about themselves.
To really bring that point home, current versions of personalization, like the first creepy version, are like writing a thesis paper in school and only handing in the bibliography. Don't tell me what you know about me. Or that you followed me around the internet.
Tell me something useful! Add value!
It all comes back to value to the customer. When personalization is poorly considered, at best, it's a massive work demand on your marketing operations folks. At worst, it's a turn-off for customers.
