There was a time not that long ago, when “personal” was not considered “professional.”
By Susan Saldibar
There was a time not that long ago, when “personal” was not considered “professional.” Those were the days when the most personal a company would get would be to add the marital status and favorite hobbies to the end of their corporate bios.
The Tables Have Turned
Today the tables have turned and the most successful companies are those who share their personalities and personal stories with the public — the more personal the better. Case in point are those series of Brookdale ads you may have seen, each spotlighting an employee and his or her reflection on an experience with a resident.
I spoke with Tom Goldman, COO for SoftVu, a Senior Housing Forum partner, and an expert in “personalized marketing automation”, an approach that combines highly granular demographic data with sophisticated automation to create a personalized experience for clients and prospects.
Tom underscores the need to connect personally with prospects and clients. “Personalized marketing” means just that; you are centering each of your communications on the unique life experiences of each prospect. Today we have access to the data and tools to do this in a way that makes those irritating ‘canned’ email messages a thing of the past,” he says.
And SoftVu certainly walks the walk when it comes to getting up close and personal. Here’s a great example from the SoftVu team, as they open their doors and share the personal side of their organization in the holiday video below. Notice how SoftVu’s CEO, Tim Donnelly, doesn’t even appear until the very end, letting the team run the show. Click on the link below to watch the video and check out the landing page where the video is embeded:
Merry Christmas From SoftVu
The Shift
What’s behind the shift to “up close and personal” brand-building? Certainly social media, driven by advances in digital technology are providing much of the fuel. We are also seeing a generational shift as younger management takes over from the old guard, injecting a more personal tone to the public face of the organization. By all accounts it works, not only as a brand builder, but as a morale builder for the team.
“And what many don’t realize is that, in addition to being a great thing to do, it makes good marketing sense,” says Tom. “Whether it’s in the form of a personalized email or a video, research shows that companies taking a prospect-centered approach to their communications usually enjoy a 50% higher success rate than those experienced with non-personalized approaches.”
