Personalization with out the insincere factor

Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question,“what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.

While disingenuine personalization can come across as smarmy, smart, well-executed personalization can make your customers and clients more comfortable with you and your business. Here are four tips to personalizing in ways that won’t put off your customers or clients.

1. Personalize Your Marketing: Personalization is the order of the day when it comes to all types of marketing. Whether you’re sending emails or producing print material, you should make them personal. Even online video and audio adverts are able to be more personalized by using names and locations. For example, Spotify listeners might receive an advert intended for people in their region. People expect an email to be addressed to then and look to recommended products on Amazon.
2. Focus Your Social Media: Many small businesses start to use social media to help boost their products or services. However, it’s common to start using social media with no plan and only to make use of it sporadically. If you want to make the most of it, you need to create a proper social media campaign (J & A Creative Group can help!). It can be difficult to find the time to do that, but you can get help from small business marketing services. It’s much easier to make sure your social media performs well if someone can dedicate time to them. If you try to do it on your own, it can fall by the wayside.
3. Create Valuable Content: Great content can help you reach out to existing customers and bring in new ones. Your customers will appreciate a brand that provides useful information relevant to their interests. Most of your content should be about engaging with your customers and potential customers. Only a small fraction (think a ratio of 1:10) should be self-promotion and content directly related to your products. You might mention your brand in your material, but the focus doesn’t need to be on the sell all the time.
4. Ask Your Customers to Be More Involved: Many people enjoy being asked to get involved with your brand. Others like to see customers like themselves featured in marketing and communications. For example, your email newsletter could include interviews with customers. You could ask people to send in photos or stories of how they use your products. Many clothes retailers encourage their customers to send photos of them wearing the items they have bought.

Reach out to your customers to allow them to be a part of your brand and even have an influence on how you operate. You could find your customer retention rates improve.