Customized Multi-channel Marketing - hosted by L2

You collect data on your leads and customers. You want to use this data to offer them more relevant communications and offers. The problem occurs when your latest ouvre collides with their desire for privacy and a reasonable expectation that you will handle their data with care and respect.

As I recently noted, an unexpected email with the last four digits of my credit card number in it gave me the shivers. Now, If I’d been expecting an email from the company or if we’d interacted recently, and if they weren’t a commonly used "front" for phishers, I might not have had a negative reaction. As it was, I hadn’t had any interaction with them in a couple of years and the only place their name had shown up in my life was on phishing attempts. Consequently, having somewhat sensitive information show up in an email from them was disturbing.

This suggests to me some guidelines for personalized campaigns:

• Don’t always reveal how much you know. It’s okay to craft offers or content based on the data you have but don’t print the gory details for me to see.
• If I haven’t heard from you in a while, you are going to have to reintroduce yourself.
• Actually, there may be a very good reason that we haven’t interacted recently and it may be better to approach me as if I were a totally new customer.
• Or acknowledge the lapsed relationship and ask permission (perhaps through an offer) to renew it.

What other rules of personalization would you recommend to keep marketers from walking on the creepy side?

Have you received any creepy pieces that you would like to offer up for consideration?