3. The Importance of Targeting

Personalisation is not merely about using a name taken from a mailing list. Although it helps if a letter is accurately addressed to a person rather than just ‘the occupier’ or ‘the general manager’, be aware that while a personalised address might fool the recipient into opening the envelope, it is unlikely to make a sale unless the message inside is relevant. In fact, some people are affronted by the fact that an organisation that so clearly knows nothing about them has presumed to adopt such a cloyingly chummy tone.

What is more, it is common for companies to use the wrong name in the first place. According to Experian Intact, an online data cleansing service, each year more than £18 million is wasted trying to reach the 1.5 million people in the UK who move home, generating 500,000 postcode changes, and the approximately 700,000 people who die. It is also illegal (under the Data Protection Act) to contact people who do not want to be mailed marketing material, so, in the UK, mailing lists have to be ‘cleared’ against the 240,000 per year who register their names and addresses on the Mailing Preference Service database.

Different laws cover business-to-business mailing lists, but these tend to be even more inaccurate than the consumer ones, because so many people change their jobs, titles and locations each year.

The copywriter is seldom involved in the selection of a mailing list, but she or he will be expected to write copy which mirrors the lifestyle of the people on that list.

The list will contain the names of people who meet certain criteria. They may be house owners who live in a specific location, such as London, or they may own a specific brand of car, or read a particular magazine. Although your words may be going out to several thousand strangers, you have to find a way of making them feel that you are writing to each one personally.

Look at the criteria used to specify the list and try to work out what all these people have in common. Try to get into their heads. Find out what makes them tick. Think of the care and time you would take in writing to a friend and apply the same principles to your copy. Be courteous and honest and get straight to the point, because the recipient’s time is every bit as precious to him or her as yours is to you.