Personalized Marketing and Checking Your Mindset WPCP: 152

I’m totally going to date myself here… but as soon as I wrote ‘Let’s Get Personal’ in the post title the song “Let’s Get Physical” by Olivia Newton-John popped into my head and has been stuck on a loop.

Although I will say that I was still in elementary school when this song came out (trying to hold on to as much of my youth as I can I guess).

I’ve gotten a wee bit obsessed with where things are headed in terms of personalization in marketing.

I’m sure I would have dipped my toes in eventually, but as soon as we started working on LeadSurveys and what we wanted it to do, down the rabbit hole I went.

I’ll talk a little more about LeadSurveys in a minute, but let’s talk about personalization.

There are a few terms you’re probably familiar with when it comes to personalization. You’ve seen people use custom fields or merge tags in email marketing (ex: Hi {first_name} and it automatically inserts your first name into the body of the email, or whatever name you gave them when you signed up in the first name field. ;- )).

No doubt you’ve experienced some of this when you’re online shopping and next thing you know you see ads everywhere for a product you were looking at a few days prior. This is the magic of retargeting.

 

It might feel a little creepy (Lord knows all of our action online is creating data for someone), but it’s also making sure you only see ads for things you’re interested in (note: I’m not saying you will only see ads for things you’re interested in. It depends on how many ads are on a site you’re looking at and the type of advertising the site owner is using).

Things are going to get a lot more personal.

I’ve mentioned in a few of my recent emails that I’m moving from Active Campaign to Drip. I’ve been really happy with Active Campaign but as I started digging into more automation I realized that Drip has way more potential with their features than Active Campaign does. I also read a great article by Andre’ Chaperon where he explained in full detail the power of Drip and he more or less convinced me.

I definitely have plenty to learn with Drip, but that’s O.K., I’m in this for the long haul.

Taking the time to set up these automations and send the right message to the right people at the right time will be golden.

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Here are a few of the things you’re going to see more of when it comes to personalization:

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• Welcome messages (ex: Welcome Facebook Friends!)
• Not showing the same opt-in form to people who have already subscribed (many tools already do this)
• Showing custom content based on previous data/actions
• Showing specific offers based on a previous action
• Custom paths for visitors or customers based on conditional logic

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What does all this mean for you?

You don’t have to change everything you’re doing, but you should start preparing for these options.

The first thing I would recommend you do is to make sure you’re using an ESP (email service provider) that has the power to do all of this (obviously my recommendation is Drip). If you’re using an ESP that doesn’t allow tagging or segmenting, then you should move to one that will does this now and start segmenting your subscribers.

I recently wrote on post in more depth over at LeadSurveys that will explain where to start with this.

Read ‘Segmenting Subscribers: Why You Need to and Where to Start’

I cannot recommend ENOUGH that you should NOT jump into every element of this at once.

If all of this is new to you then you should simply start by planning and get the basics set up. Begin by segmenting your subscribers and deciding what the customer journey (or path) is going to be. You don’t need to start building crazy funnels with upsells, downsells, etc. Start collecting emails and segmenting subscribers.

That’s step 1.

How I’m doing all this…

I’ve got the basics set up. I have a tagging framework that makes sense to me and follow-up sequences for each. The next step will be a more in-depth sequence with triggers built into the sequences.

My challenge will be managing all of this while doing my daily emails. I love doing the daily emails and won’t be changing that anytime soon, so I need to figure out the best way to use both without people being sick of hearing from me.

Start simply and move at your own pace.

Whatever you choose to do, this is key in getting your inbound marketing efforts automated and working for you.

 

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Time to talk Mindset

This has been on my mind a lot lately (and by a lot I mean daily).

Because I’m stepping into new things in my business I’m having to work a little harder at keeping my mind right. As much as I love change, it’s also a little scary. I’m constantly telling myself “be comfortable with discomfort”… and reminding myself that doing things outside of my comfort zone means growth.

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I’ve also been having a lot more conversations around these topics. Mindset, processes, balance, and most importantly, trust.

• How do you keep yourself in the right frame of mind when the money isn’t coming in (yet) and you have responsibilities?
• How do you create or produce when you feel stressed or worried?
• How do you connect with people when you feel like you don’t enjoy your own company?

You certainly don’t want to try and put things out into the world when you’re feeling like this.

But you still need to keep moving forward, right?

First and foremost… be kind to yourself.

The crappier you are to yourself the longer you’re going to stay in this space. Don’t go seeking people to commiserate with. Seek out people who inspire you to be the best you.

If you can’t quite get yourself to that place, then a change of scenery is in order.

Get outside, go to a movie, go for a walk, a drive… whatever you can do to physically change your environment.

I noticed this the other day when I was feeling blah… I really didn’t want to do anything but I knew that if I walked the dogs and got OUT of the house I’d feel better. I have enough experience with this to know that when I physically move my body my mood shifts (I know, this isn’t earth shattering, there’s science to back this up. I’ve simply finally accepted that I’m responsible for how I feel).

It’s time to parent ourselves.

We’re not always going to ‘feel’ like doing these things.

Do them anyway.

Stop thinking so hard about whether or not you want to do something in the moment. Often times we don’t feel like doing things until we’re actually in the thick of them (Mel Robbins’ book ‘The 5-Second Rule’ is a great resource to get over this).

And those times when you feel raw, or vulnerable and needing comfort?

DO IT.

Take care of yourself. Take a nap, reach out to someone who can say just the right thing or give you a hug. Be kind.

What I’ve found is that “Everything Always Works Out.”

And it works out quicker when I’m my own best friend.

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Links From This Episode

LeadSurveys

Drip

Content Creators Facebook Group

Andre Chaperon’s Drip Review

Mel Robbin’s 5 Second Rule