Last night, my wife came home after taking our son to T-ball practice. Walking into the kitchen with our baby in one arm and groceries in the other, she stopped to look on the kitchen table at a piece of direct mail from inkpixi.
The postcard wasn’t unusual,, except it had our last name, Curnett, printed in Princetown LET font on all kinds of items with the word “university” underneath. Curnett University.
It didn’t matter that all the signs of junk mail were on the postcard (Limited Time Offer!). It was enough to stop my wife in the middle of what she was doing, just because someone had thought to use our name in an unexpected way.
- Personalizing Your Content
Direct mail isn’t content. But it does try to leverage personalization as much as possible. Content, before it became the basis for new marketing strategies, was usually disassociated from the person creating it.
Personalization is at the center of content marketing. For both the creator and the consumer, content’s got to be personal to have any real effect on your business. Here’s why:
When you’re creating worthwile content, it differes from, say, a trade magazine in that you can put yourself into it. It’s not just about facts, it’s about observations. Are those observations interesting enough, astute enough, to be worthwhile?
If they are, that’s unexpected. What people expect is to be bored by marketing. If you make it personal, you’re going beyond those expectations.
- Personalizing Your Discussion
The other way content marketing gets personal is by interaction. With the tools available today that allow you to talk to your customers, it makes no difference if you keep putting up billboards. People want personal attention.
Maybe that doesn’t make a difference in your field right now. But it probably will. It used to be called corporate culture, but in most places, that was too fake. Authenticity is attractive.
With a personalizied approach, people will mostly buy from you because you’re you- they can get your widget from anywhere.
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Tags: content, content marketing, Copywriting, getting started in social media, Social Media