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Personalised marketing puts the story at the heart of the message. In a new video, we explain what personalised marketing is, identify ‘heroes and zeros’ and show how your business can benefit.
Personalised marketing is a powerful way to reach consumers through a personal story – one that creates ‘heart space’.
But because this form of marketing covers personal issues that matter, it can be easy for even the most prominent brands to overstep, miss the mark and offend customers, rather than win them over.
To achieve a successful personalised marketing campaign, businesses need to realise that the message is the story, rather than the brand. This is one of the main takeaways from an engaging new video about personalised marketing from a leading thought leadership agency, iResearch Services.
The two-and-a-half minute-long video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADwF7F1Cpk0 explains what personalised marketing is, the benefits your business can gain and why you need to stand out for the right reasons.
What is personalised marketing?
The name says it all – it is a method of marketing that carries personal relevance and is usually individually targeted. This is often achieved through marketing automation. It is predicted to become the leading way of reaching customers through various marketing touchpoints over the next few years.
The video highlights the goal of uniting people through human stories that allow us to see ourselves and others in a new and more relatable way and encourage us to share the experience.
Of course, businesses may be reluctant to link their brands to sensitive topics if they offend customers, who have opposing views. But when personalised marketing is done well, it creates ‘heart space’ – that is, it engages with customers in an emotional and personal way. They relate to the content personalisation so much that they want to share it, recognising that the message is central to a meaningful conversation.
Some companies can’t resist focusing on sales messages and overplaying their branding, but personalised marketing at its best is not opportunistic. Instead, it brings people together.
What makes a successful personalised marketing campaign?
The core message of a successful personalised marketing campaign must be personal – of course – relevant, specific and timely to your audience. If the campaign is a long one, then you might want to plan several versions, so the message is adapted to any changes in attitudes and real-life situations and for different marketing touchpoints. The theme, message and content personalisation should be as intuitive and straightforward as possible, without making it trite.
To support the personalised marketing campaign, you should provide, or point to, help and support about the issues covered, along with clear signposting and calls to action, plus complementary content and tools. Nowadays, companies are conducting research and thought leadership studies to understand the complete lifestyle of their customers, not just the challenges and opportunities they face at work.
Through marketing automation, consumer or B2B messages in direct mail, website interaction, and digital advertising can be made more relevant, edited and targeted with the help of data analysis, digital technology and marketing software.
What are the benefits of personalised marketing?
Personalised marketing can boost conversion rates by five times more than slick slogans, according to figures from specialist, WebEngage, in an analysis of 400+ billion messages to consumers.
By using personalised marketing, you build your relationship, reputation, loyalty and trust with customers. Your brand profile will grow as your thought leadership marketing enhances the debate.
At the same time, your company’s reputation with present and future employees is likely to strengthen, as they see your business as caring and conscientious.
How to master personalised marketing and use it effectively
We’ve already mentioned the importance of creating ‘heart space’ when conducting a successful personalised marketing campaign, but it is also vital to ‘embrace the grey’: opening up the ‘grey areas’ of human nature.
One stellar example of this mentioned in the video stems from a 2021 Christmas campaign by chip brand Doritos in Mexico. El Mejor Regalo (The Best Gift) told the heartwarming story of a father confirming that his gay son was “loved as I am” after he came home for the holidays with a male college friend.
The tagline was ‘the best gift you can give this Christmas is accepting everyone the way they are’, and the video marketing only briefly features Doritos.
The happy coming out story is mirrored in the story of a single father who asked Reddit users how to talk to his son about his sexuality.
The advert was part of Doritos Mexico’s #OrgulloTodoElAño (#PrideAllYear), a campaign that seeks to highlight stories from and support the LGBTQ+ community all year long.
In a further #PrideAllYear release, Doritos Mexico followed this up with a Mother’s Day TV video, titled Thanks Mom, and Mom, that celebrated families with two mothers.
One example not to follow is the controversial Pepsi ad featuring Kendall Jenner giving a can to a police officer at a protest. The 2017 video, which borrowed imagery from the Black Lives Matter movement, was intended to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Instead, the video marketing provoked so much global outrage for making light of a serious issue and appearing to trivialise demonstrations aimed at tackling social justice causes, that it was withdrawn.
Key takeaways
When it comes to personalised marketing, emotions are good, because when you engage with people emotionally, they engage back. Your message is something that people want to watch and share. It makes your brand central to an important conversation.
So, resist the urge to brand, brand, brand – which is what traditional advertising tells you – and concentrate on creating heart space that will unite people through shared human interest stories in your thought leadership marketing. If that’s backed up with thoughtful research, it will add credibility and empathy to your conversation – and therefore to your brand.
If you liked the video, please share our story. Thanks.
You can also read more about different B2B marketing approaches for the new era in the B2B Marketing Playbook
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