When Personalisation Goes Wrong

Are you looking to get more engagement from your next direct mail campaign? If so, adding personalised elements is a great place to start.

However, personalisation is far from foolproof. So, how do you make sure you create personalised perfection and not a costly faux pas?

Who’s Mr Komp?

Seeing your name spelt wrong in a headline can be an instant turn off, leaving recipients feeling less than favourable toward the mailer.

By making the personal impersonal, error-strewn personalisation can diminish the impact of your mailing and may leave some recipients feeling frustrated.

Getting Personalisation Right

If you plan to add personalised elements to your next mailing, follow these top tips to ensure you get it right.

Start as you mean to go on

Double-capturing data, entering details twice to maximise accuracy, is a great way to nip errors in the bud. We’re all human (well most of us), mistakes can happen. But by ensuring rigorous data capture procedures are in place, you can help minimise any mishaps.

Electronic Capture

When you see some handwritten responses, it’s not hard to see why mistakes happen. Moving your data capture over to an electronic method, such as an electronic form hosted on your site or available in-store, is a great way to minimise interpretation errors.

Data Validation

By allowing customers to verify their details at the point of capture, minor errors are more readily caught and corrected.

Why Get Personal?

When you get it right, personalisation is a sure-fire win. Seeing your name spelt correctly in a headline is a powerful motivator. It tells you that the mailer really knows you, cares about you and wants you to feel special.

All of these emotions help to drive engagement in a number of ways, whether that’s making a purchase, requesting further information or simply heading online.

While personalisation can’t do all this alone – relying on clear messaging, compelling imagery and solid design – it plays a crucial role in the wider success of a direct mail campaign.

*stats courtesy of Segment.com