The power of personalization in your communications
Personalizing communications to your group members will attract attention and help you reach your goals
What happens when you don’t personalize your communications? The answer could simply be nothing. If your content is not attracting attention from your members, they will never read it. If they do not read your content, they will never act on it. As a result, they do nothing and nothing happens. When you do not personalize your data, there will be no negative consequences or repercussions. However, nothing good will happen either. You may have some super dedicated members that interact with your content no matter what, but in order to attract the attention of all your members, you need to do more than simply share content. It needs to be shared in a way that catches their eye and makes the audience want to read more. Still not convinced that personalization is worth your time yet? Here are three reasons why personalization can make your communications more effective in reaching your goals.
Attracts Attention
People can get dozens to hundreds of emails a week, and nobody has time, or the willingness, to look through every single message. (Let’s be honest: if you are somebody that reads every piece of spam you receive, you are very much in the minority.) And I am sure we have all heard the age old saying of “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but everyone does it anyway, whether consciously or subconsciously. So what do you do with hundreds of emails and not enough energy to read them all? You judge the book by its cover; except emails do not have ‘covers’. By comparison, you judge the email contents by its subject line and from address. The new saying does not sound near as fabulous as the original, but let me explain. A subject line that includes somebody’s name is much more likely to attract attention than one that is more general in nature. The same can be said for an email that comes from a real person, rather than an organization or company email address. When you are able to grab the attention of your members, your email has a better chance of actually being read and not ending up in the trash bin.
Targets Individuals
Have you ever been talking about how badly you want something, and then all of a sudden, an ad pops up on your phone for that EXACT product? This is how ads target individuals’ locations, interests, and characteristics. While sending an email to your group members does not sound like a marketing sales campaign, it compares in a lot of ways. You are most likely not selling a specific product to your members, but you are selling the desire to be involved and donate.
How can this apply to your group? Maybe you have a segment of your members that are not able to be involved during in-person events, but they are always eager to donate money. Or maybe there are some people that do not have much money to donate, but they love to be involved and donate their time. If you know that a certain group of people may not be interested in donating their time, it could save you time and resources to target the individuals that are always interested in helping out in-person. Another example could be by location. Say you need urgent assistance at a warehouse in Philadelphia. You would not reach out to members near Pittsburgh for help; you would contact the locals.
Not only does targeting interests and characteristics save you time, money, and resources, but this kind of personalization can also serve as a way to attract attention. Looking back at the last example, let’s say you are a passionate resident of Philadelphia. Are you more likely to read an email subject that reads “Urgent Help Needed at Philadelphia Warehouse” or “Urgent Help Needed at Warehouse.” While it seems simple, that one word can do a lot to attract people that are interested in helping the city of Philadelphia.
Encourages Involvement
This reason is a little less black and white than the last two. How can personalizing an email possibly encourage the recipient to be more involved? The best way to explain this idea is to relate back to sales campaigns. It is not uncommon for us to be served the same ad multiple times. If I do not ski, but I get dozens of ads for new ski boots, I am much more likely to quickly swipe past the ad when I see it or block the user altogether. On the contrary, if I love to cook and I see a few ads about a really nice frying pan, I may buy that product or follow the company for further information.
The same can be said with email campaigns to your group. If you are constantly asking somebody for money and they only have their time to donate, they are quickly going to lose interest in helping your organization or might even ignore messages you send with an assumption that you are asking for more money. However, if you consistently offer them the opportunity to help in-person, they will keep a watchful eye out for your messages and more ways to assist you. By targeting individuals’, you are able to identify how they can best help your organization and therefore encourage them to act in that manner without diluting their inbox with a million other options.
The takeaway?
The best way to encourage involvement is knowing your members and how they like to be involved. This knowledge not only helps target individuals that are best for a given task, but it makes your connection more personal. When things feel more personal, people are more willing to help. However, none of this would be possible if you are not able to attract the readers’ attention first. After all of this rambling, each of these ideas can be solved by one similar thing: personalization. Personalizing your communications can attract attention, target individuals, and encourage involvement that eventually leads to fulfilling your goals as an organization.
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