Don't pretend to be somewhere you're not.

Pretending to be somewhere you're not is creepy and necessarily erodes trust and can cost you business (see know, like, trust). If you're not familiar with personalization in marketing here's a brief primer:

What is Personalization in Marketing?

Personalization is when a website or e-mail is directed at a large population and is programmed in such a way that individuals within that population have different experiences. For example, an e-mail sent to 1,000 people that begins with "Dear First Name," has been personalized to give the recipient the feeling that it was written specifically for him or her. So recipients named "George" will get an e-mail that begins "Dear George". Recipients named "Helen" will get an e-mail that begins "Dear Helen", even though the sender actually sent all of the e-mails at once.

Personalization in websites is when a website has been programed to recognize return visitors and display a customized message, picture or text for that user (this is usually accomplished based on something called a cookie). An example of personalization in a website might include a happy birthday message on the Google home page when you visit on your birthday (more about that here). It means that the website recognizes me and is giving me an experience tailored to me.

Is Personalization in Marketing Intrinsically Creepy?

No. I see a company's website as a dramatically underpaid employee. It works all day and all night 365 days a year and does exactly what it is told to do (we hope).

When a sales person at your company greets a returning customer by her first name it can be creepy, and it can be friendly. It really depends on the last interaction and how the salesperson presents herself. If she seems friendly, sincere and happy to see the customer returning, she will probably be perceived as friendly. If she seems like she is executing a "sales strategy" and being overly familiar, she will come off as creepy.

Here's a Creepy Example that Happened to me Today

I live in Baltimore (area code 410). I moved here from Savannah, GA (area code 912). Yesterday I filled out a form on an email marketing company website asking for some more information. Like you, and everyone else, I get so many spammy phone calls, I generally don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number. Sometimes, I'll answer the phone if the area code makes me think it's someone I want to hear from.

This morning I got a call from a 912 number listed as located in Waycross, Georgia (pop. 14,725 in 2010 according to Wikipedia). I have done business with people in Waycross, so I was curious. I answered. Sure enough it was "Dan" from the email marketing company. I happen to know that the email marketing company is NOT in Waycross. So, I asked, "where are you". He said "Denver". I asked "Why does your phone number say Waycross, Georgia". He said, "Well we call people all over the country and all over the world, and we don't want them to have long distance charges, so we re-route to a local number."

Uh, yeah.

So, this is the wrong way to do personalization. It got me to pick up the phone, but it earned a 8.5 on the creepiness scale. Not the right way to start a business relationship, and not the right way to use personalization in marketing.