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Commentary & Analysis
Do you think marketers understand the full value of personalized communications?
By Cary Sherburne
Published: July 31, 2011
You might want to think again. Sure, many do. But their primary association, the DMA, apparently doesn't. A friend forwarded me an email he received recently from the DMA, and while I will not include the whole thing here, here are the high points that demonstrate that something is lost in translation here!
The recipient's name was not used in the email. It starts out,
"Hi,
Thank you if you participated in last month's survey. Your feedback was helpful."
OK, so first of all, the person's name was not used, nor did they know whether or not he had responded to the survey. These two things are easy these days! And the DMA of all people should be able to take advantage of at least this level of relevancy! The subject line was "Following Up," which implies a personal communication. And as my friend said, "Ironically, it starts with a sentimental opening: 'Because of You.'"
The theme of the organization is "The Power of Direct"! I suppose at least it didn't say Dear Occupant.
And although a real signature from the CEO was included, the return email address was information@email-dma.org.
Yikes! This highlights the fact that print and/or marketing services providers still have a HUGE opportunity to educate the market about the value of relevant communications, whether they be printed or electronic. Sometimes, because we are immersed in this stuff every day, we forget that not everyone knows as much as we think they do.
Make it your goal to personally call on at least five customers this month to share the good news about how their customer communications can be enhanced with relevant communications! We have the tools, we have the know-how. We can make it happen for them. We just need to be out there explaining it and providing real-world examples of improved ROI, response rate, order size, whatever the metric is.
Maybe now is a good time for you to do your own personalized self-promo campaign as a door-opener for those customer visits you will make this month. Walking the talk is often the most effective way of getting the word out.
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