Now That I Have Your Attention…

A few months ago, I was flipping through the pages of my Maclean’s magazine when I came upon a full page by BMW for the Mini. It was the interior of the car and as a Mini owner myself, I was delighted to take a moment and reflect on the cool features, such as the huge speedometer planted smack in the middle of the dashboard (great for those backseat drivers).

In the next moment, my mind was blown away when I saw the ad was personalized with my name and city, but done in such a way that it looked as though the magazine had been printed just for me, although I really knew my subscription information had been used.

I come from an industry where inline, personalized content has been around for a long time, so if I was stunned, imagine the impact this ad had on the typical consumer?

Now let’s imagine this ad had been placed as an loose insert with the magazine, bound in plastic wrap. Hands up, if the first thing you do when you open your mail is toss the extraneous papers that fall from the envelope. Wow, that’s a lot of hands. Imagine how much marketing thought and effort just went in the trash, never read and never acted upon.

The technology that allows us to place our targeted messaging directly within a financial statement has effectively eliminated the risk that the targeted content will not at least be skimmed.

Your message doesn’t have to be in a glossy magazine with a city sign in the picture that says “Welcome to [customer’s city here]”, but it does have to stand the chance it will be seen by customers. Now you have their attention, if only for a brief moment. Make it count by making it relevant to the one person who is reading it, or it might just as well be sailing toward the trashcan.