Recently, I was in Washington, DC and NYC recording new episodes for my (not-yet-award-winning – but who’s counting?) podcast. One of my guests, a Chief Marketing Officer, revealed how she’s shifting her brand’s one-size-fits-all messaging to test three new customer journeys. They’re organized around three core affinities: faith, mothers, and singles. She’s chosen those because they seem a good starting place to see how she can boost RoAS.

My CMO is determined not to let perfect be the enemy of good. Sure she could wait for years to persuade her board to give her the funds to do ‘Netflix-style’ personalization. 

But she’d rather do her job and start what I like to call ‘scrappy personalization’ now. 

Why does this matter?
From my conversations with countless mid-market brands (anywhere between $5M and $20M in annual ad budgets), everyone’s desperate to squeeze more from their existing email lists, paid search, social, or programmatic. Yet, despite the big push, returns on all those direct response channels keep falling flat.

Sure, there are plenty of reasons why these efforts are underperforming:

But here’s one reason that doesn’t always top the list: Scrappy Personalization.

I’m not a fan of the word ‘personalization’ because:

Yes, Netflix invests billions in technology each year – somewhere in the range of $280-$560 million on their recommendation algorithms alone. That’s daunting. 

But does personalization have to be that expensive?

I think back to my own fitness routine: once I redefined ‘exercise’ as simply ‘showing up’, I started going to the gym every single day. It wasn’t fancy. It was just me showing up. That’s the kind of bare-bone simplicity we can bring to personalization, too. 

I call it ‘scrappy personalization’ because it fits my way of doing things. I never want to wait for everything to be perfect. I always want to get started. Because the sooner you do, the sooner you start learning things. 

So be like the CMO on my podcast. Do something simple –and scrappy -  now. 

The cheapest, fastest, easiest way to lean into a more personalized approach – and boost returns across your direct response channels – is what that CMO shared:

For instance, an insurance company might appeal to ‘convenience seekers’ who love its online policy center, while others might be drawn to the brand’s ‘trusted reputation’, and still others might respond best to ‘price-first’ messaging. 

At a hunger-focused charity, ‘veteran hunger’ could resonate with veterans and their families, ‘Latin American hunger’ could hit home for Hispanic supporters, while ‘child hunger’ might strike a chord with parents and grandparents. 

You don’t know what will work before you do it. Your target affinity groups don’t have to be perfect. Nor do your journeys. They can be based on your ‘best guess’ or ‘gut feel’ or whatever works for you.

You just have to get started.

So how do you actually start? Here’s a ruthless-but-loving four-step plan:

(By the way, these four steps make up my Return on Marketing Career (RoMC) framework—more on that here.)

If you’re ready to test out this simpler, more scrappy approach to personalization, hit reply and let me know. 

Let’s turn those three big affinities into tangible RoAS lifts – and maybe transform your career trajectory in the process.

Netflix’s Annual Technology Budget, (approx. figures). Netflix invests significantly – between $280–$560 million annually – into recommendation and personalization technology alone, highlighting the scale of investment required for industry-leading personalized user experiences.

That level of investment is way beyond the means of most mid-market organizations, but that does not mean that scrappy personalization can’t work for you. Here are just a few of the examples that prove it: 

If you’d like to discuss your career journey with me one-to-one, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn.

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