Show Customers You Care

If you’re like most brands, you’ve probably put a lot of thought into personalized marketing. You segment your lists, tailor your messages, and use customer data to deliver more relevant experiences.

And for good reason. According to a recent global survey, 96% of consumers say they’re likely to buy from brands that personalize their tactics and messages. But there’s a difference between personalized and personal. Technology, data, and AI have made it easier than ever to customize marketing at scale. They’ve also made it easier to overdo it. When personalization gets too specific, too automated, or just a little too good at knowing what someone did online five minutes ago, helpful can quickly start to feel creepy.

So how do you create marketing that feels personal without crossing that line?

Keep using customer insights to build targeted lists, customize messages, and tailor offerings based on individual preferences. Then think beyond the data. Consider how design, creative execution, and small details can show customers there’s a human behind the communication.

Digital tools

Digital personalization should make things easier for your customers, not remind them how much you know about them.

Use what you know to serve up relevant content, simplify someone’s next step, or recommend something genuinely useful. But resist the urge to personalize simply because you can. A well-timed reminder about an abandoned cart can be helpful. Following someone around the internet with the same product for the next three weeks? Less so.

And don’t let automation take all the personality out of your brand. A thoughtful subject line, a useful follow-up, or a response that sounds like it came from an actual person can make even an automated interaction feel more human.

A good gut check: Does this make the customer’s experience better, or does it just prove we have their data?

Tactile materials

When so much marketing happens on a screen, showing up in the real world can be surprisingly powerful.

Think beyond the standard postcard or brochure. Handmade elements, special packaging, unexpected sizes, tactile papers, interesting printing techniques, or even a hand-applied stamp can turn a communication into something people want to pick up, open, and remember.

Print doesn’t need to replace your digital marketing. Used strategically, it can complement it and give your most important audiences an experience they aren’t getting from every other brand in their inbox.

Distinctive delivery

Once you’ve created something memorable, think about how it arrives.

Fans of Ted Lasso know his daily delivery of shortbread cookies wasn’t memorable just because of the cookies. The small pink box and personal delivery made the gesture feel special.

Apply the same thinking to your marketing. Could your communication arrive like a gift? Could a limited piece be passed from one customer to another? For a small, high-value audience, would an overnight package or courier delivery make someone curious enough to open it? Could your sales team personally deliver something at an event or meeting?

Sometimes how you communicate can be just as memorable as what you communicate.

Memorable experiences

Of course, a personal touch doesn’t have to arrive in a mailbox or inbox.

Consider what you can give customers that they couldn’t get just anywhere: an invitation to a small event, early access to something new, a behind-the-scenes experience, a workshop with one of your experts, or even an unexpected thank-you.

The key isn’t making it elaborate or expensive. It’s making it relevant. The best experiences demonstrate that you understand what your audience values and care enough to create something specifically for them.

And sometimes the simplest gestures are the most memorable. Remembering someone’s preference, following up on a previous conversation, or sending a thank-you with no sales pitch attached can do more for a relationship than another perfectly optimized campaign.

Make it personal

Personalization doesn’t have to mean knowing more about your customers. Sometimes it simply means showing them you care.

Use the technology. Use the data. Then add the creativity, judgment, and human touches that make someone feel like more than a name on a list.

Because the marketing people remember isn’t always the most personalized. It’s the marketing that feels personal.