Personalized Marketing

Personalized marketing has become one of the most critical marketing agendas of the recent times.

Personalized marketing is not only valuable as a service approach but also as a message content. 

Therefore brands do not only invest in personal marketing, in the mean time, they show great effort to spread its message among the general mass.

One of the most successful examples to this is the 2012 ad campaign for Domino’s pizza chain. 

Domino’s has built a campaign out of the astonishing effort made to win back three lost clients and has spread it successfully across the general audience. 

In spite of the fact that in Turkey, personalized marketing dates back to the very old times, Facebook’s “like” icon is now far more discussed within the world of marketing...

Facebook’s icon is far beyond just a simple “I like it”.

It is a messenger that tells the brands who have an agreement with Facebook, about the consumer’s identity, hobbies, favorite topics, activities, what he/she likes, which religion and political party he/she is a member of.

In a world where a daily average of 70 million Facebook users “like” things, 70 million personalized marketing routes open up before the marketer.  

In today’s world of marketing, where personalized marketing is a revolution, what makes this revolution possible is the willingness of the consumer to share information.

Here is the first question a marketer who believes in personalized marketing must ask.

Who are these willing volunteers and in which strategic direction must we proceed following their footprints?

Before, it was easy to define the consumer (profession, income, life style...). Therefore offering a personalized service was a more didactic process.

Today these people who have smart phones within their reach every minute and whose lives are surrounded with technology, social networks, computer games, Twitter, and Facebook, have one identity in real life and another in the digital one.

There are even cases where the created identity is more dominant than the real one. 

That question that needs to be answered is – are we going to conduct personalized marketing targeting the real identities or the created ones? This question will find its place among the main marketing topics of the next ten years.

If the footprints reflect real identities, the brands are going to focus on real identities and demographics.

However, if the footprints reflect the desired character, then the marketer will face much bigger challenges.

Personalized marketers will decide for themselves to whom they will be talking in the light of their targets and data. However, personalized marketing has its absolute musts.

1. Beng Original in Personalized Marketing Effort is Critical

Personalization is not possible by only developing a tailor-made approach. The idea and originality are still the most critical elements.

Applying commonly used methods (a letter to the name, hand writing...) cause the brand to be perceived far from originality and creativity.

No consumer likes a cold and characterless work tailored for him. 

Personalize a characterless content as much as you like. 

It will remain characterless.

2. Let the Person Speak, Not the Institution 

The personalized effort coming from a large and cold institution diminishes its effect gravely.

While consumers can relate to persons, they have difficulty establishing a warm connection with institutions.

As the brand grows, this effort becomes more and more impossible.

The consumer would like to know that the personalization effort is coming from a real person.

The most correct approach is establishing a communication where the person representing the institution stands affront.

3. Do Not Create Awareness, Expose

The struggle to increase the awareness on the personalized marketing efforts (Domino’s example) plays an important role in increasing the brand value. However, to not just tell about the effort and to expose the consumer to the message is much more critical. 

Successfully personalized marketing brands build their strategies on the cumulative experiences of the consumer and invest in the exposure activations at every touch point.

4. Be Irrationally Helpful

The most efficient way to personalization is to just find ways to help your clients.

It is critical to develop a product or service that will be helpful to them in one way or the other.

There is a very simple question that the brand must ask: What are the products and services that I can start applying immediately in order to simplify my client’s life?

It is then mandatory to position these products to address the needs of the individual and not the community.

5. Get in Touch With The Close Circle of Your Client

Do not make contact only with your client but also with the people close to him. It is a must for personalized marketing that the groups, which the consumer identifies himself with, are exposed to something to do with your brand. A brand, which would like to execute personalized marketing, must absolutely consider the close circle for exposure. For this brand, consideration of family products means the creation of products for friends. 

6. Do Not Let Yourself Be Forgotten

Stay unforgettable. There is nothing more personal than creating positive memories. Help your clients form a memory in their lives. Inspire them, help them learn, make them laugh. Do something splendiferous.

Do not just do work. Remember that personalization is personal.