I’ve been hearing about ‘1-to-1 marketing’ since 1999. That’s when The Matrix first came out. (What do you mean you’ve never heard of The Matrix?)

How many times do you think I’ve seen it happen in my 25 years in this industry – agency side, brand side, startup side?

That’s right.

Almost never.

We don’t do 1-to-1 marketing at my agency either. And I don’t know any CMOs managing tens of millions in media budgets who do it either.

Outside of Netflix and a few tech giants, genuine ‘personalization’ is mostly nothing more than a slide in a deck.

Marketing is a lot like life: we love to dream and talk about what’s possible but rarely execute it at scale.

In marketing and in life, we all want to be personally understood. Yet somehow, instead we all end up getting generic retargeting ads for things we bought last week.

Personalization was supposed to be the future. It was going to lead us to the promised land of genuinely personal communications. “Seamless 1-to-1 marketing at scale!” they said. The tech would handle it. And yet, here we are – still serving generic display ads for products people already bought. (That’s not really very personal at all, is it?)

What went wrong?

Tech failed marketers - We all wanted an ‘easy’ button. Instead, we got Google Analytics 4 – which requires an expert with thousands of hours of experience to configure.

Implementing Salesforce? Feels like assembling IKEA furniture without the instructions.

And a true personalization engine across ads, websites and thank you emails? Yes – right after I solve world hunger?

Marketers failed the tech - Most marketers don’t understand the tech. Worse, many don’t want to. And I get it – when you’re managing teams, prepping for a board meeting, and reviewing campaign messaging, who has time to become a martech expert?

Human behaviour is complicated. There is no one-click solution to something so fundamentally human.

Want to do personal communications but don’t have the budget for a personalization engine that costs more than your entire marketing team’s salaries?

Here’s a radical idea: start with what you already have – your customers.

Step 1: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone: Forget complex martech. You don’t need an AI-powered algorithm to realize families book vacations differently than solo travelers. If you’re a nonprofit, different donors care about different causes. Start there.

Step 2: Learn a New Skill: Crazy concept – talk to your customers. Or, if that’s too much, at least run a survey to ask them what they think. Validate what you think you know about your main customer segments and their affinities for your product, service or mission.

Step 3: Create More Value: People don’t want mass messaging – they want relevant messaging. And guess what? More relevance = more revenue at segment level.

Step 4: Move Up Faster: You’re not Netflix. I don’t have those budgets either. That’s fine. Segment smarter, personalize at the ‘micro-audience’ level, map advertising and messaging to audiences, and watch your results improve.

In my recent deep dive into mid-market digital strategies across the USA, I discovered that organizations with marketing budgets in the tens of millions are shifting from mere data aggregation to harnessing deep customer insights. This drives truly personal communications that resonate beyond surface-level personalization.

These firms aren’t just adding names to emails; they’re interpreting behavioral nuances, customer journeys, and contextual signals to build a narrative that speaks directly to individual customer needs.

Retail: Take a mid-market lifestyle brand like Huckberry. Instead of sending generic product recommendations, they analyze customer interactions and lifestyle trends to craft messages that reflect a deep understanding of each customer’s journey. This enables them to create content that feels like a conversation with a trusted friend.

Financial Services: Regional banks and community credit unions are leveraging insights from spending habits and financial milestones to provide tailored advice and timely offers. This approach transforms communications into strategic touchpoints, building trust and fostering long-term relationships.

Healthcare: Mid-sized providers are going beyond patient data to interpret insights on health behaviors and preferences, enabling them to send care tips and appointment reminders that truly connect on a personal level.

These examples illustrate a transformative trend: leveraging insights to drive communications that are genuinely personal, resulting in more meaningful and enduring customer relationships.

References: Evergage’s 2020 Personalization Report; Forrester’s 2021 Digital Personalization Study; Salesforce’s State of Marketing Report.

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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