What’s in a Name?
“Batch and blast” may not be such a distant adage of the past, as marketers are still shooting blind when looking to connect with customers. Address fields, from big brands to small outfits, are impersonal. Even worse, some e-commerce leaders send e-mail from Joe Schmoe, President, with an address field that reads “customer service center.” Get the message? Your customer does too, but certainly not with any human interest or bonding with the brand relationship.
Your address field should convey warmth and personalization. Consumers are limited on ocular bandwidth—they can only take in so much while letting other e-mails fall by the wayside into the spam folder. It’s important to connect with your customers, establish and maintain a relationship, even if no e-mails are even exchanged. Just propagating the perception of interest by the marketer is of value in this information-overloaded world.
Consistently is also key. The more a brand connects with its customers, consistently, from the same e-mail, with complimentary, personalized brand messages, the better the marketer will connect with that customer. Consistency of message, from the “to” line and back, also builds trust with the customer. Brands today make-up so much of who we are, by how we dress (i.e. Nike, Guess, Armani, etc.) and what we use (ie. Apple iPod, Volkswagon Beetle, etc.), that becoming a part of a customer’s brand set is akin to marrying into the family.
For example, over the holidays I ordered a gift for my wife from an e-tailer who specializes in rare, antique collectibles. In response to my order, I received an e-mail from a person, not a Terminator like machine, who confirmed my order, and was open to helping me out with any further assistance (and orders!). A few weeks later—close to gift-giving time—I received another e-mail from the same person highlighting complimentary items to my gift that would be great in the home, at a discounted rate in 2007. I also agreed to be added to a monthly e-mail newsletter, and that too was personalized from another associate at the company.
Time flies and in a short period of time it’s my wife’s birthday. Well, I know what she likes and I know who I like dealing with. Rather than search through an online and offline mailbox full of catalogs, I’ll bet the first place I go will be into the folder in my e-mail application of past purchases that were positive, where I really felt taken care of and got great customer service, even if I didn’t conversationally exchange one e-mail with the company.
Just as a picture can be worth a thousand words, so can a name when it’s connecting with your customers.
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