The B Series Part 4: Personalization
B Series B Bold element
“A person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
-Dale Carnegie
Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Not yet on a first name basis with the 200 individuals we targeted in our B Series awareness campaign, we wanted to introduce ourselves strategically and make a tremendous first impression without being too forward.
Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should
There are a myriad of personalization methods and options available; however, in business-to-business (B2B) correspondence to C-level executives, it’s presumptuous to use too friendly an approach.
Personal Touches
Using a hand-picked database of individuals within companies we knew would be a good fit for our experience and capabilities, the campaign tailored written communication to individual readers based on personal attributes, details or actions. We addressed recipients by their first name or professional title only once in the salutation of each piece. We also feathered in their company name in customized copy only when and where it made sense.
Behind the Scenes
Each outgoing piece invited the recipient to download free marketing materials from a web page accessible via a username and password. This allowed us to identify individual visitors and greet them online with a personalized message and in some test cases, a video specifically recorded for them.
Our analytics recorded when a recipient visited the web page and what they viewed and downloaded while they were there. This information was then referenced in context in the next piece they received—without calling undue attention to it.
Click for an overview of B Series personal touchpoints, destination points and timeline.
Delivery
Voice was a critical aesthetic touch that displayed our company’s personality in a tone appropriate to the audience, in a way that made the technology behind the message disappear. In the B Series, we communicated in a warm, friendly, personable manner that, by design, wasn’t too familiar.
Whether our deliverable is design, consultation, brand revitalization, a decision-tree interactive piece, or packaging, our solutions spring from individual customer needs and desires. Therefore, each touchpoint contained a succinct message defining ways in which Brainstorm fulfills our clients’ goals.
An Ongoing Effort
As an awareness campaign, the B Series was simply a request for an initial introduction—a first step in earning the right to address a select group of people by their first names.
Building an introduction into a long-term business relationship takes time and effort. To that end, just as we did before hand-selecting our list, we continue to read and follow business news for each company with which we engaged, commenting and congratulating as appropriate.
Because genuine interest may just be the second sweetest sound in any language.
Up Next
The B Series Part 5: Offers & Incentives
To read previous installments in this series click on one of the links below or click “B Series” under topics:
The B Series Part 1: Awareness Overview
The B Series Part 2: Strategic Design & Messaging
The B Series Part 3: The Componentry
Tags: Higher Ed Marketing, Featured, Electronic Communications, Philanthropy, Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Process, Foundation Marketing, Marketing, Financial, B Series
