Personalise It
“Powerful advertising is anticipated, personal, and relevant.” – Seth Godin
Your clients expect to receive generic ‘warehouse’ marketing. If you have segmented it as I have discussed above, you are well ahead of the pack as you are telling your clients you know about them specifically. To make it even more powerful you want to personalise your marketing.
This is the human side of the ‘relationship’ in ‘customer relationship management’. It’s about taking the time to record information about your clients in your CRM beyond just the raw financial and loan related information.
What I mean is that every communication doesn’t need to be: Hello [Insert Client Name Here] — Have you checked your loan statements recently, etc., etc.
As I’ve said already, the number one reason clients leave any business is because they don’t think the business cares about them, they were just another sale. By personalising your marketing, you are sending a person to person message, not a business to person message (i.e., not another mass mailed ‘let me sell you something’ message).
We aren’t trying or pretending to be their best friend or ingratiate ourselves with them, we are just showing that we remember them and what we did for them, that they aren’t just a number to us. Of course, they know we are a business and we are staying in touch primarily for the purpose of future loans, but they have to get their next loan from someone, it might as well be from someone who knows them and expresses an interest in the results of their service to them.
By personalised marketing I mean that we do something more specific than the segmented automated marketing that we have running. It is about looking at that specific client and sending them something precisely about them and their situation.
For example, if they put in a pool with the loan you organised, it doesn’t hurt to be able to send them a pool toy with a note letting them know you hope they enjoy their new pool. Or perhaps you learnt which sports team your clients follow and send them a couple of tickets to their next game. It shows that you were actually listening and seeing them as people, not just a pay check.
Providing personalised experiences for our clients is the ultimate level of engagement you want to work towards. Articles, birthday cards and newsletters are the foundation of your client engagement, but how about rewarding them for being your client in a way relevant to them. Sending a family of four to the movies once a year will cost you not much more than a single month’s trail of an average loan.
Here is an example I have personally experienced. Knowing I have young children, the Big 4 Bank I have some home loans with recently gave us tickets to an exclusive screening of a new kid’s movie. Not only did it create a fun night out for us, it started a positive relationship for the bank with my children where they felt they were being given special treatment. This is the basis of creating inter-generational clients which multiples the value of your business even further. And it gives the bank an excuse to talk to me and create more than a transactional relationship. They are building loyalty and making it harder for me to leave them, all for the cost of 4 movie tickets that they probably bought in bulk at a discount.
In business, the personal touch can make all the difference and be something a client remembers for a very long time. The reason it works is that the client can see you haven’t just put their email address on a newsletter but have taken the time and effort to think about them and give something relevant to them. It’s the opposite of neglecting them.