The more time I spend on looking at communication in financial services the more clear I become on a fundamental split in personalization. There are two ways that information needs to be personalized, I’ll label them as ‘what’ and ‘how’.
The “What”
‘What’ gets a lot of airtime – what are you going to communicate. This is really important – if someone is only interested in developed equity then communicating on emerging market debt is a waste of your time and their time. Worse, it makes it more likely they’ll ignore your next communication.
The “How”
‘How’ gets less focus but is as important in driving engagement. Once ‘what’ has been decided on the ‘how’ is about how you actually communicate, e.g. the length of the communication and the types of words and visuals used should be individual. This is important in someone actually enjoying your communication and wanting to read or listen to it. Make it enjoyable and they’ll be more likely to read your next communication.
Getting both of these sides of the coin aligned is where real personalization takes shape – this is what we are focusing on to build truly effective communication. Why? Because true personalization will build greater engagement – happier, more knowledgeable clients and more profitable businesses.