More and more companies are starting to look into how to personalise their marketing and create individual print or email messages to their clients. After all – the most important word to any person is their own name!

Thanks to advances in CRM systems and other technology all business, whatever size, can now gather the data it needs to offer a tailored and personalised service to every customer

But personalisation is not just a simple case of adding a customer name or certain fields within the top of an email or a printed letter buy levitra cheap. It is now possible for us to communicate with our customers about their individual interests and preferences through smart use of gathering the data

A letter arrived for my mum the other week from Monarch Airlines. She lives in Cyprus and flies from Paphos or Larnaca several times a year back to the UK. The document was littered with personalisation from her name, to the airports and really caught my attention as it was so tailored to her with special offers it was difficult to ignore.

In the past, achieving a large degree of personalisation was a real challenge; however with the advance in technology it is now more cost effective than ever to create good quality marketing with individual messages. Think about a recent communication from someone you shop with – grocery store, coffee store, Travel Company. Did you notice any personalisation based on your recent purchases or transactions?

There are two trends which have combined to transform our ability to deliver highly personalised messages to clients and prospects – the first of these is the increasing use of digital media and devices which means that we are able to collect a huge amount of data about customers and this data can be used effectively to build a strong picture of each individual customers preferences, behaviours and needs.

The second is the huge development in marketing automation and personalisation tools which makes it very cost effective to use this fantastic data to deliver individually tailored messages and offers that match your customer’s profile.

The key to personalisation is making sure you listen to what your customers are telling you and that you have a system and process to track this. It’s like when you meet someone for the first time. You talk a little of yourself but then you ask them questions and listen to them and make a mental note of what they are telling you – their likes, their dislikes, their family etc. Making sure you also keep engaged and with relevant answers and questions will also then build the rapport and from this a level of trust.

When you do this with your customers or prospects it’s about working out what is going to be interesting and then playing it back to them.

Personalisation strategies are successful when they are based on a good understanding of the customer’s needs and then serving relevant, timely and interesting messages and content to them.

The more you put in front of them that is irrelevant or mistimed the more they will disengage. So continue to stay relevant and be interested as well as interesting.

Investing and having a good CRM system where you can keep a track of all the information in fields is a must when you want to personalise your company and treat your customers like individuals and not just a group.