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Canto's CMO Erica Gunn shares some lessons on how far may be too far with personalization.","Where do marketers draw the line between a cute idea and just plain creepy when they’re trying to show that they know about their customers? That’s the question at the heart of marketing personalization: How personal is too personal? Using messaging that’s relevant to the customer is always a sound strategy. No one wants to […]","Where do marketers draw the line between a cute idea and just plain creepy when they’re trying to show that...","\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Where do marketers draw the line between a cute idea and just plain creepy when they’re trying to show that they know about their customers?\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That’s the question at the heart of marketing personalization: How personal is too personal?\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Using messaging that’s relevant to the customer is always a sound strategy. No one wants to waste precious marketing dollars on spamming the target audience with language and imagery that leaves them cold. As the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.forrester.com\u002Fblogs\u002Fputting-b2b-personalization-in-context\u002F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analyst firm Forrester describes\u003C\u002Fa> it, “personalization is table stakes” and “the goal is to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time and place.” That’s as true of B2B marketing as B2C. But the problem, as Tamara Grominsky, chief strategy officer at Unbounce, wrote recently, is “instead of driving conversions through creative, tailored messages, personalization more often [takes] the form of ‘Hey {f_name}!’ and nothing more.” And when I was asked \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.marketingbrew.com\u002Fstories\u002F2022\u002F05\u002F03\u002Fcoworking-with-erica-gunn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in a recent interview\u003C\u002Fa> about marketing trends I was least excited about, I had to confess that one is the idea of someone having scraped my photo from my LinkedIn profile to turn it into an animated GIF in a sales pitch. Strategies like these are gimmicky and a little on the creepy side for my taste. That’s where personalization flies or fails; it’s a question of careful judgment. According to 2017 \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.epsilon.com\u002Fus\u002Fabout-us\u002Fpressroom\u002Fnew-epsilon-research-indicates-80-of-consumers-are-more-likely-to-make-a-purchase-when-brands-offer-personalized-experiences\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research by Epsilon\u003C\u002Fa>, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. But according to 2019 \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gartner.com\u002Fen\u002Fnewsroom\u002Fpress-releases\u002F2019-03-11-gartner-survey-shows-brands-risk-losing-38-percent-of\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research by Gartner\u003C\u002Fa>, “more than half report they will unsubscribe from a company’s communications and 38 percent will stop doing business with a company if they find personalization efforts to be ‘creepy.’” The costs of getting it wrong are high. There are some great examples of personalization campaigns that didn’t overstep customers’ privacy—that struck the right balance between cute ideas and creepy intrusion—and others that risked going too far. There are practical lessons we can learn from both.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"toc-1--lessons-from-history\">Lessons from history\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes it’s worth going back to the first big example we remember of where something went wrong to remind ourselves of the lessons of history. Let’s wind back the clock to a 2012 \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nytimes.com\u002F2012\u002F02\u002F19\u002Fmagazine\u002Fshopping-habits.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003Cem>New York Times Magazine\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fa> cover story about how data-wrangling customer purchasing patterns at Target had a negative impact on a customer. According to the article, if customers bought certain products, they were highly likely to be pregnant, so coupons for maternity and baby products were duly dispatched to their home addresses. For the father of one teenage girl, this reportedly first prompted him to complain to their local store about the inappropriate coupons … before apologizing when he discovered his daughter was, in fact, pregnant. The moral of the story is about the line brands can cross between the personal and the private. At best, instances like these represent how good intentions can go awry. At worst, it’s possible that companies can use sales information about health and well-being in a way that customers may not have consented to. The context of today’s personalization campaigns will be different, but I believe the questions will be the same. What information do you have about the customer? How did you acquire it? Do you have their consent to use it in the way you intend to reach them? The practical tip here is to have clear data and compliance protocols about how your personalization campaign will work.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"toc-2--predicting-the-future\">Predicting the future\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let’s call them what they are: Netflix, Amazon and Spotify are personalization engines. Sure, there’s content, but they are also great examples of machine learning engines that understand consumer preferences well enough to predict what they may want next. You watched, read or listened to this: You’ll probably like this next. By using consumer data in this way, companies can become problem-solving, time-saving, effort-easing engines. And if they save me time and effort and solve the problem of having to think too hard, they win my loyalty. Spotify’s end-of-year Wrapped report adds a layer of gamification to this personalization by revealing your annual listening habits and offering a game based on your listening. But the practical takeaway here is that personalization should aim to anticipate and offer relevant solutions to a customer’s problems (even relatively trivial ones like determining which new series to binge-watch). It’s not about asking questions. You already know the customer; that’s the point.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\">\u003Cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"880\" height=\"450\" src=\"\u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2023\u002F01\u002F19184306\u002Fmarketing-personalization-body.jpg\" alt=\"Woman at computer looking at customer engagement on an orange abstract background.\" class=\"wp-image-62845\" srcset=\"\u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2023\u002F01\u002F19184306\u002Fmarketing-personalization-body.jpg 880w, \u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2023\u002F01\u002F19184306\u002Fmarketing-personalization-body-450x230.jpg 450w, \u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2023\u002F01\u002F19184306\u002Fmarketing-personalization-body-768x393.jpg 768w\" \u002F>\u003C\u002Ffigure>\u003Ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"toc-3--building-relationships\">Building relationships\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In my opinion, one of the most successful, least intrusive, and enduring personalized marketing campaigns of the last generation has been the “Share a Coke” campaign for Coca-Cola that Ogilvy created and originally \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.techtarget.com\u002Fsearchcustomerexperience\u002Ftip\u002FTop-5-personalized-marketing-examples-and-their-takeaways\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">launched\u003C\u002Fa> in Australia in 2011. One of the least commented-on aspects of the campaign is its success in drawing customers closer to the brand through social engagement and the rise in Coke’s social following (an extra 25 million new Facebook followers for Coca-Cola in the campaign’s first year). The practical tip here is to consider personalization as a relationship-building strategy rather than a broadcast campaign. If you are communicating with someone on a personal level, you aren’t just transacting, are you? What’s the engagement flywheel that you’re creating from the first personalized communication you send out? You might be campaigning at scale, but the personalized communication is one on one.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"toc-4--judging-the-line\">Judging the line\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Communication is about building relationships. With marketing personalization, the dividing line between relevance and overreach is intrusion. When it comes to saying something interesting, it’s about solving my problem rather than asking me a question. If you are thinking about pitching me, please don’t scrape my LinkedIn page.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003Cem>Originally published on \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.forbes.com\u002Fsites\u002Fforbescommunicationscouncil\u002F2022\u002F11\u002F02\u002Fmarketing-personalization-walking-the-line-between-creepy-and-relevant-campaigns\u002F?sh=3d4c36d5615f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forbes\u003C\u002Fa>. \u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>",5,{"url":36,"url_md":37,"alt":38,"height":39,"width":40},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.canto.com\u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2023\u002F01\u002F19184307\u002Fmarketing-personalization-feature.jpg","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.canto.com\u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2023\u002F01\u002F19184307\u002Fmarketing-personalization-feature-450x263.jpg","Man with megaphone sharing marketing ideas overtop of a green abstract background.",700,1200,[42],{"id":43,"slug":43,"title":44,"path":45},"industry-insights","Industry insights","\u002Fpost-category\u002Findustry-insights\u002F",[47,54,61],{"featuredImage":48,"postId":49,"slug":50,"title":51,"description":52,"path":53},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.canto.com\u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2020\u002F04\u002F19191914\u002FAudreyPray_I-House-Headshot-450x312.jpg",44370,"creative-spotlight-audrey-pray-jr-international-house","Creative Spotlight: Designing with purpose with Audrey Pray, Jr. at International House","Audrey Pray, Jr. is the Creative Lead at International House, where she uses her design and videography skills to help enrich the experience of globally-minded graduate students in New York City.","\u002Fblog\u002Fcreative-spotlight-audrey-pray-jr-international-house\u002F",{"featuredImage":55,"postId":56,"slug":57,"title":58,"description":59,"path":60},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.canto.com\u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2019\u002F07\u002F19194400\u002Ftransform-creative-workflows-dam-450x300.jpg",30485,"how-5-teams-transformed-their-creative-workflows-with-dam","How 5 teams transformed their creative workflows with DAM","Here are some of the ways creative teams have streamlined their content workflows with DAM, and gained time back to devote towards creating.","\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-5-teams-transformed-their-creative-workflows-with-dam\u002F",{"featuredImage":62,"postId":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"description":66,"path":67},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.canto.com\u002Fcdn\u002Fen\u002F2019\u002F08\u002F19194305\u002Funlocking-content-marketing-team-450x301.jpg",31205,"unlocking-the-potential-of-your-content-marketing-team","Unlocking the potential of your content marketing team","The biggest challenge facing content marketing isn’t creating better content; it’s how we manage that content in a way that helps teams work better together.","\u002Fblog\u002Funlocking-the-potential-of-your-content-marketing-team\u002F",{"left":4,"top":4,"width":5,"height":5,"rotate":4,"vFlip":6,"hFlip":6,"body":69},"\u003Cpath fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M9.175 10.825Q8 9.65 8 8t1.175-2.825T12 4t2.825 1.175T16 8t-1.175 2.825T12 12t-2.825-1.175M4 20v-2.8q0-.85.438-1.562T5.6 14.55q1.55-.775 3.15-1.162T12 13t3.25.388t3.15 1.162q.725.375 1.163 1.088T20 17.2V20zm2-2h12v-.8q0-.275-.137-.5t-.363-.35q-1.35-.675-2.725-1.012T12 15t-2.775.338T6.5 16.35q-.225.125-.363.35T6 17.2zm7.413-8.587Q14 8.825 14 8t-.587-1.412T12 6t-1.412.588T10 8t.588 1.413T12 10t1.413-.587M12 18\"\u002F>",{"left":4,"top":4,"width":5,"height":5,"rotate":4,"vFlip":6,"hFlip":6,"body":71},"\u003Cpath fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M12 14q-.425 0-.712-.288T11 13t.288-.712T12 12t.713.288T13 13t-.288.713T12 14m-4.712-.288Q7 13.426 7 13t.288-.712T8 12t.713.288T9 13t-.288.713T8 14t-.712-.288M16 14q-.425 0-.712-.288T15 13t.288-.712T16 12t.713.288T17 13t-.288.713T16 14m-4 4q-.425 0-.712-.288T11 17t.288-.712T12 16t.713.288T13 17t-.288.713T12 18m-4.712-.288Q7 17.426 7 17t.288-.712T8 16t.713.288T9 17t-.288.713T8 18t-.712-.288M16 18q-.425 0-.712-.288T15 17t.288-.712T16 16t.713.288T17 17t-.288.713T16 18M5 22q-.825 0-1.412-.587T3 20V6q0-.825.588-1.412T5 4h1V2h2v2h8V2h2v2h1q.825 0 1.413.588T21 6v14q0 .825-.587 1.413T19 22zm0-2h14V10H5z\"\u002F>",{"left":4,"top":4,"width":5,"height":5,"rotate":4,"vFlip":6,"hFlip":6,"body":73},"\u003Cpath fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M12 20a8 8 0 0 0 8-8a8 8 0 0 0-8-8a8 8 0 0 0-8 8a8 8 0 0 0 8 8m0-18a10 10 0 0 1 10 10a10 10 0 0 1-10 10C6.47 22 2 17.5 2 12A10 10 0 0 1 12 2m.5 5v5.25l4.5 2.67l-.75 1.23L11 13V7z\"\u002F>",1789189310041]