Make Your Marketing PERSONAL, instead of PERSONALIZED! | Small Business #Marketing Tips

There's a big difference between marketing that's personalised and marketing that's personal. Supposing I get an email from someone I don't know: "Hi G, hope you're well. Would you like to buy whatever it is we're selling?" If you're anything like me, emails like that are ignored and are instantly deleted. Sure, the email addressed me by name. It was personalised. But it wasn't personal. Effective marketing isn't about fooling people into giving you their attention. It's about creating a path that ultimately earns you their trust. Personalised is mentioning their name, their town, or maybe their place of work. In contrast, personal is telling them something they want to hear, making your messaging about them, for them, with them. Most marketers focus their efforts on personalisation as a way to get attention. But if customers don't know you, trust you, the chances of success are slim. Instead, first take the time to really understand your customers. Learn how they think, their interests, their habits, ambitions, fears, and buying behaviors. This allows you to create messages that build connection and trust, messaging with which they identify, messaging they find useful, informative, helpful, educational, even humorous-vicuna, messaging that shows you get them. Messaging that's truly personal.