As online interaction proliferates, consumers are coming to expect more from the relationships they have with businesses. Now, people expect an interaction similar to what you might have with the owners of a mom-and-pop store, where they ask about your family and chat with you.
This differs from the type of interaction that has lately dominated the scene: the post industrial revolution conversation, which involved calling and waiting on hold for a representative that would read a very scripted response to any of your questions. With savvier consumers, you cannot get away with blanket campaigns anymore. Some may still work, but the ROI you get from a blanket campaign will not compare to that which you will get from a targeted approach. The Internet lets you have one-on-one interactions with your consumers, and that personal touch can go a long way toward making a good impression.
Recommended For You
It used to be fine to customize a template email with a field that would populate your customer's name. That is no longer the case. Now, if you really expect to bump up your open and click-through rates, you need to have a good understanding of the person whom you are actually emailing. The message should be crafted to fit that person. This may be difficult to do on the large scale, but grouping your consumers based on similar interests or personalities can make it much easier to manage. As each email will likely have a main point or call to action, make that point specifically about the person (or group of people) you are emailing. If you want them to look at a new product, tell them specifically why that product will appeal to them.
Personality is very important in the emails you send. By simply including some personality in the subject line, you can increase your open rates. As people come to enjoy interacting with a company in the same way they would interact with another person, you can show how your company really is human. Show them what happens around the office. Tell them about something exciting that you're working on. Your company personality can help build a relationship with your consumers.
Social media
Whereas getting one-on-one in an email to a large group of people is difficult, social media gives you that opportunity. Using outlets like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, you can reach out individually to your customers and followers. It is important, though, to make sure you are consistently reaching out to all of your communities.
Social media is the chance to really let your company personality shine through, and make it human. Provide spotlights of employees in the company on the Facebook page to let your customers learn the faces behind the brand. If you have good content to share, do it, but social media is about more than simply sharing. These outlets give you a chance to build real relationships with individual customers. If you produce video content of your products, keep it up, but supplement with video from around the office. The more a person feels like he or she really knows the people in your company, the more relatable your company becomes.
Phone calls
In the age of social media and text messaging, it might be difficult to believe that many people still rely on the phone to do business. The person on the other end of the line can tell immediately if you are scripted, and that turns them off to the phone call. Structure in a phone call is important, but instead of scripting it entirely, just make a series of high-level bullet points to keep you going, and let that other person fill in the spaces.
Let a conversation happen. You can learn valuable information about a person through a conversation, and you can use that information in future phone calls or follow-up emails. When you let a conversation happen, the person you are calling will actually look forward to hearing from their insurance company.
Advertisements
Across your entire marketing mix—print, web, television, radio, and others—the language and imagery you use are important. The imagery needs to be meaningful to the audience. They should be able to place themselves in the ad and feel comfortable, instead of feeling alienated. The same goes for language. You should speak in the language that your audience will understand and associate with. As with emails, grouping your audience into buckets with different interests can help you reach out to each group in a different way.
Direct mail
When was the last time you opened a piece of mail from a company? It may happen more frequently than you imagine.
When using physical mail to reach your audience, personality is just as important as in other aspects of marketing. People still enjoy getting letters, but junk mail becomes something tossed directly into the recycling bin. Make sure your content is fun and speaks to the person like he or she is real, instead of just a policy number. Make it personal to them: include a reason specific to that person for sending them a note, and keep it honest. If you use any imagery, like in your advertisements, make it directly relatable to whom you are mailing the piece.
Making an impression in just one place usually is not enough anymore. You need to make an impression on your customers in multiple places to stay relevant, and people need to associate with the personality of the company. Let the personality shine through by showing off the office and talking about the office culture whenever it is appropriate. Let your customers feel like they are part of what you do every day. When you successfully reach your customers through email, social media, direct mail, ads and phone calls, the relationships you build will be valuable to your company well into the future.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
