Hello %FIRSTNAME

We get it: personalized content works better. People like to be called by their name. And unless you incorporate creepy Facebook-level-snooping details, it tends to perform better.

But when you get it wrong?

This sponsored message I got via LinkedIn shows how getting it wrong turns a “bad ad” into the biggest turn off since the time I was seen in action at my middle school dance (which was, no joke, held in our cafeteria).

Let’s count the sins:

1. Didn’t get the “mail merge” to work properly on my name.
2. Terrible punctuation in the first sentence.
3. I got this on January 11th. What “holiday season” was I supposed to still be enjoying? Hot Tea Month?
4. Typo and grammar error in the second sentence.
5. I could go on with the little stuff, but the biggest sin is this: there is no value to me whatsoever here. My business has nothing to do with franchising. And I’m not interested in opening a franchise. So, no. I don’t think I will get “a lot” out of exhibiting at your trade show.

Look, my point here is not to pick on this person (hence blurring their name and face). My point is to show that in an attempt to fake personalization, marketers repel people away at an alarming rate. And it’s selfish, because it also makes audiences more cynical and jaded and suspicious when someone comes along with something of actual value to them.

You know what works instead of faking that you know me? Being yourself.

Every brand, product and person has a story to tell. Spend time discovering what that story is and who actually might be interested in it. Then, share that story in an interesting way that respects the people who come in contact with it.

What happened here is just the modern day version of buying a zip code and mass mailing out postcards. The only people who benefited from that was the Post Office, and look where that got them (too far?).

Know yourself. Be yourself. And respect whom you’re talking to. That’s something people could get “a lot” out of.