5 Things Marketers Can Be Thankful for This Thanksgiving
Here are five things I think marketers can be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
1. We no longer need to send generic batch and blast emails
Ah, the batch and blast email. As a consumer, I’m definitely over them. The companies I regularly interact with should know me. They should be able to send me emails that make sense to me personally — not send me a new email every day with the hope that one will stand out to me.
Luckily, marketers don’t need to rely on this tactic anymore. They can personalize the content of their emails to each individual the moment the email is opened. They can send emails that are triggered based on certain criteria — which make the email much more relevant when it’s received. And they can send smarter bulk emails that determine the cadence of email sends based on how each person engages with that company’s emails.
With all of these capabilities at their fingertips, marketers can be thankful they aren’t forced to send generic emails any longer.
2. We can use machines to identify each person’s interests and preferences
Can you imagine if you had to personally sift through all the data you collect on each of your customers or shoppers to figure out what each person is interested in? It would be exhausting, not to mention impossible if you do business with more than just a few people.
Thankfully, machines can sort through all the data you have acquired on each person — from deep behavioral data you pick up from their interactions with you across channels, to attribute data you collect across systems in your company, to survey response data you have gathered in the past — to uncover each person’s interests, needs and preferences.
You don’t have to wait for each person to tell you that she prefers the color blue or is interested in solutions for small businesses. You can infer that information from everything you already know about her.
3. We don’t have to pick one single message to feature on our homepages
Deciding what message or promotion to feature on your homepage is a big task. You want to be as relevant as possible to anyone that might land on that page, but you don’t want to be so generic that you end up not saying anything substantive.
The good news is that we no longer need to pick one single message to display on the homepage, or any other key area of a website. You can personalize the content to each of your key audiences — or even to each individual — instead.
Do you want to show one message to enterprises and one to small businesses? One to first-time visitors and one to returning visitors? One to shoppers of one category and one to shoppers of another? That’s all possible.
It’s even possible for machines to pick the message or promotion that makes the most sense for each individual person.
With all of those capabilities at your fingertips, there’s no reason to waste such an important area of your site with irrelevant or completely generic content anymore.
