Where is the line?
As I gear up to begin the arduous process at work of overhauling WGU’s entire automated messaging system (for the entire enrollment process) with the help of a newly signed email service provider (ESP), I find myself asking this question frequently. What is personalization and when does it get too personal?
To answer the first part “officially,” I turned to Email Marketing: An Hour a Day by Jeanniey Mullen and David Daniels. Their definition reads as follows:
Personalization: A targeting method in which an email message appears to have been created only for a single recipient. Techniques include adding the recipient’s name in the subject line or message body or having the message offer reflect a purchasing, link clicking, or transaction history.”
In WGU’s messaging, adding the recipient’s name in the message body is something we already do. In looking at the capabilities with our new ESP, there are so many ways we can personalize the email message that it’s almost scary. So where is the line drawn? How much is too much?
One example I keep thinking of as going a bit too far would be the “Abandoned Shopping Cart” messages. I’ve received the “Hey, you forgot to finish your order” messages within 10 minutes of leaving the site. I think that’s a bit too soon–particularly if the message includes the item you almost but didn’t buy. Seen that before, too.
Personalization definitely has its uses. I got an email from Amazon.com today that was a great use of personalization. Here’s a sample from the message (with subject line on top):
Amazon recommendations
This may not have included my name, but think about the relevance of it. I have purchased several email marketing books in the past, oh, 10 months or so. And it’s obviously still quite a relevant subject for me, so this could not have been more perfect. The fact that I received this about a month after purchasing my last marketing-related book (“Tribes” by Seth Godin–fantastic by the way) was great timing as well as I’m about to finish another book.
That said, my question goes out to the email marketing community–where is the line drawn between perfect personalization and a little too close to creepy?
Please comment!
Links:
Email Marketing: An Hour a Day - Jeanniey Mullen and David Daniels
Tribes – Seth Godin
{ 2 comments }
I wouldn’t call “personalization” a “targeting method”, unless maybe you’re overstocked with grains of rice with peoples names….
Historically and at it’s most basic level personalization is including some sort of personal information – supplied by the recipient during subscription or purchase – into the body of an email message. At a more advanced level it is using some sort of behavioral data to make the message more personally meaningful to the recipient, such as your Amazon example.
Where it gets creepy is when behavioral data is over used or where data that wasn’t provided by the recipient is appended and then used.
If a recipient has provided you with their city or state of residence and you insert that data into a message, uless you get weird with it, it usually isn’t considered creepy (and if you target by that information it is considered geo-targeting, not personalization targeting).
If you gathered the recipient’s city and state using IP tracking technology and insert that data into a message, if the data is correct it’s creepy, and if it’s not you’ll look stupid.
Think of it as if you were the recipient. Without parsing words or playing semantics to justify, if it seems creepy to you then it probably is.
Now think of your mother as the recipient. Would she find it creepy? If your mother would find it creeoy the probability that it really is creepy just went up….
I agree, I would like Amazon to suggest items I might like…that’s sometimes nice.
But by contrast, take for example, LinkedIn. I set up an account with extremely minimal information (to use as a professional alternative for those clients who insist on Facebook-ing me). And seriously, all I typed in was my current workplace and my name – my married name (which is common as toast, there are million Emily Carlsons in the world). Suddenly, it was suggesting that I “link” with old college friends, distant family members on my mother’s side, and all my coworkers from my first job (where I still had my maiden name). That was enough for me. Waaaaay creepy. I have no idea how a computer program could possibly know all that, and I definitely don’t think it SHOULD.
My two cents on the email thing – as long as you stay in the realm of “casual acquaintance” and don’t cross the line into “omniscient stalker” you’re fine.
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