Why personalised marketing makes a difference?

Successful marketing is more “up close and personal” than ever before. A trend that is highly likely to continue. If you still rely on scattergun campaigns and mass marketing techniques, you may want to rethink your strategy. In today’s guest post, explore the impact of personalised marketing approach.

Not least as the companies enjoying the most success and growth potential are those who don’t just believe that personalised marketing makes a difference. They are the ones who build their whole company proposition on it.

To get to grips with why personalised marketing makes a difference, let’s first look at who you are promoting your products and services to- Millennials. Sometimes referred to as Generation Y, this is the 81 million people born between 1982 and 2002. They have grown up with technology and a far greater sense of entitlement. This is the bunch of savvy consumers, willing and able to shop around and research before making decisions. Also, they are sceptical marketing “fluff” or generic campaigns.

Today’s consumers are also becoming comfortable with the way companies use data to hone in on their buying patterns, lifestyles and preferences. Amazon, Google, Facebook and other technology giants know how to manipulate this – with personalised ad placement streaming through much of consumer’s’ online activities.

91% of adults in the UK own a mobile phone. They have technology in their hand, to research and buy both products and services that suit them and their lifestyles. They can also comment on, like and share imagery covering a vast range of ideas, preferences, activities and products.

Information is power and can be personalised with a fingertip.

All of this makes branded materials – especially those that serve a useful function – doubly impressive and impactful.

Take for example the humble plastic bag, with its multitude of purposes. It is, of course, now subject to a big drive to reuse them for as long as possible. Get your logo, message or imagery emblazoned on a paper bag and you have personalised communication that your target audience will carry around and use for some time. Simple, affordable and highly effective personalised marketing.

You can even do short runs with mixed messages and various images to make the bags applicable to different people and situations – making them even more noticeable and personal.

Will this type of consumer notice something that is ambiguous or aimed at the mass market?

In essence, yes. They need – and have come to expect – marketing messages and imagery placed right in front of them. Being used to instant information and feedback, they are also impatient. So don’t expect them to spend long searching out product information.

However, what you have to keep in mind in the age of Big Data and the Internet of Things is that there is also a phenomenon known as “screen fatigue”.

Bombarded with spam emails, inundated with online advertisements, blinded by banner advertising, consumers want to be treated as an individual (in a less cynical and more personal way than online ads).

For this, sometimes something simple works best.

If you can get your marketing message or brand image into their hands, without joining the “white noise” of online communication, you can really get noticed.