Personalization In Marketing

For my first 16 years in tech sales, I averaged 240K/year W2 income. In my last 4 years, I averaged 720K/year. In order to triple my income, I had to change my sales approach entirely. Here's what I changed: I started using a new approach that I now call Yo-yo selling: 🪀 Yo-yo selling emphasizes starting at the executive level, conducting thorough discovery within the organization, and then returning to the executive with a tailored business case. Like holding a yo-yo, you are constantly in communication with the Executive Sponsor and updating them as you collect information and conduct deep discovery lower down in their organization. You are literally going up and down the organization, but always taking everything back to the Executive Sponsor to surface your findings along the way. Here's a breakdown of the framework: 🎯 𝐈𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐤’𝐬 “𝐘𝐨-𝐘𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠” 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 This strategy involves a three-step process: 1. Start at the Top (Executive Engagement) Initiate contact with a senior executive to understand their most pressing challenges, the reasons behind the need for change, and the consequences of inaction. If your solution aligns with their needs, secure their sponsorship for further discovery within their organization. To secure the Executive Meetings, it's essential to create a tailored POV (point of view) on where you think you may be able to help them based on your initial research of their highest level goals and priorities. Chat GPT has made this research a LOT faster now. 2. Conduct In-Depth Discovery (Middle Management) Engage with department heads and key stakeholders to uncover the day-to-day challenges they face. Focus on understanding their processes, pain points, and the implications of current inefficiencies. Gather direct quotes and insights to build a comprehensive view of the organization's needs. 3. Return to the Executive (Present Findings) Compile the insights gathered into an executive summary and business case. Present this to the executive sponsor, highlighting how your solution addresses the identified challenges. Tailor your demonstration to focus solely on relevant aspects that solve their specific problems. 🚀 Why It Works 1. Accelerates Sales Cycles: Engaging executives early ensures alignment and expedites decision-making. 2. Builds Credibility: Demonstrates a deep understanding of the organization's challenges and showcases a tailored solution. 3. Facilitates Internal Buy-In: By involving various stakeholders, you ensure that the solution meets the needs of all parties, increasing the likelihood of adoption. I'm pleased to share that that Yo-yo selling was recently awarded as a Top 15 Sales Tactic of All Time by 30 Minutes to President's Club, and I received a cool plaque for entering the 30MPC Hall of Fame. Since I have no chance of entering the Hall of Fame for my baseball or golf game, this is a nice consolation prize 😁

AI is getting more personal — and it’s changing how global brands connect with consumers. We’re entering an era where AI doesn’t just automate — it individualizes. From product design to marketing, personalization is becoming the new standard of brand experience. 🟣 Nike uses AI to tailor product recommendations and predict purchasing behavior through its SNKRS and Nike App platforms — driving a reported 40% increase in engagement. 🟢 Coca-Cola leveraged generative AI for its “Create Real Magic” campaign, allowing fans to co-create digital art and content, reaching over 2 billion impressions globally. 🔵 Starbucks uses its “Deep Brew” AI engine to personalize offers and store operations, contributing to a 10–15% lift in loyalty engagement. 🔴 Netflix attributes over 80% of viewership to AI-driven recommendations — proving how deeply personalization drives retention. What’s changing is not just the technology, but the intent: AI is no longer about scaling efficiency — it’s about scaling empathy. The brands that lead this shift are turning data into connection, algorithms into experience, and scale into trust. #ArtificialIntelligence #Personalization #BrandInnovation #MarketingAI #CustomerExperience #GenerativeAI via @tingle.ai #DigitalTransformation #Ai

If you over-curate & overthink your personal brand to perfection, your engagement will be dead! You see them everywhere—polished, poised, and perfectly positioned personal brands. Yet, their engagement is flat. Their audience? Passive. This is the"Perfect Persona" Effect—where people curate an online brand so flawlessly that it becomes unrelatable. And science backs this up. 📌 A study from Harvard Business Review found that leaders who share their struggles increase trust by 66% compared to those who only share polished success. 📌 Social psychologist Dr. Elliot Aronson’s "Pratfall Effect" proves that people perceive those who show vulnerability as more likable than those who appear perfect. The brands that win aren’t the ones that look flawless. They’re the ones that feel real. This is how we work this out with SackBerry clients: 1. Show the process, not just the results. ❌ “We grew our business 10x in a year!” ✅ “We struggled for months with zero sales—here’s what finally worked.” People relate to struggles, lessons, and real journeys. Share the how, not just the highlight. 2. Write like you talk. The easiest way to sound human? Read your post out loud. If you wouldn’t say it in a conversation, rewrite it. 3. Share your unpopular opinions. The fastest way to stand out isn’t to blend in. Take a stance. Challenge industry clichés. Say what others won’t. 4. Use the “3-Post Rule” to create trust. Your content should rotate between these formats: A personal story (human connection) An actionable insight (expert credibility) A polarizing take (sparks discussion) 5. Don’t fear the “mess.” -Not every post needs to be perfect. - Test new ideas. - Share drafts. - Build in public. People love watching something unfold in real time. So, tell me—what’s one thing you wish more people shared online? #PersonalBranding #Authenticity #BuildingInPublic #ContentMarketing

The rise of AI doesn’t make agencies irrelevant. It makes them indispensable—if they evolve. I’ve heard the speculation: “With AI doing so much, will we need agencies anymore?” The truth is, AI isn’t eliminating the need for agencies—it’s exposing which ones are ready for the future. The partners embracing AI aren’t being replaced. They’re leading. They’re building smarter workflows, unlocking new insights, and evolving from executional support to strategic acceleration. After last week’s post on the 20-60-20 rule, many of you shared how you're balancing AI automation with human oversight. Today, let’s take that one step further—into how this balance is driving real operational excellence and unlocking new doors in advertising. Here’s a simple framework I’ve observed among the most successful AI adopters: Enhance → Automate → Innovate Enhance: Use AI to improve existing processes—make them faster, smarter, more scalable. Automate: Remove repetitive tasks. Free your teams to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets. Innovate: Use AI to unlock new capabilities that weren’t feasible before. Let’s bring this to life with a real-world partner example: A tech partner began by enhancing keyword research. What used to take hours, AI now does in minutes—suggesting keywords based on vast data signals. Next, they automated reporting. AI now builds reports with insights and recommendations pulled from multiple sources. Their analysts? They’re back to focusing on strategy. Then came innovation. By combining AI-driven audience insights with creative optimization, they built a system that dynamically adjusts ad content based on real-time performance. That level of personalization? Simply wasn’t possible before. Here’s the kicker: human expertise remained essential at every step. Keyword research still needed a strategist to align with brand goals. AI-generated reports required interpretation to guide decisions. And the personalization engine? It’s tuned and refined by creatives and planners every day. This brings me back to a core belief: AI is a collaborator—not a replacement. The partners winning in this space aren’t just using AI—they’re working with it to amplify their teams and build smarter solutions. Looking ahead? I see AI evolving from optimization to orchestration. Predicting trends. Adjusting strategies in real time. Maybe even composing full-funnel campaigns with inputs from multiple signals and channels. But we’re not there yet—and that’s exciting. Because it means there’s still time to build, test, and shape what this future looks like. So let me ask you: How has AI helped you enhance, automate, or innovate your operations? What new possibilities are you starting to explore? #AmazonAds #AI #FutureOfAdvertising

The search bar is dead. And most e-commerce platforms don’t even know it yet. After working closely with AI systems and recommendation engines, I’ve learned one thing: “Personalized shopping” was never truly personal. It was pattern matching. It was collaborative filtering. It was reactive logic pretending to be intelligence. Now we’re entering a different era. → From personalized to personal → From search-based discovery to proactive intelligence → From browsing endlessly to AI agents working for you This is agentic commerce. Traditional e-commerce makes you do the heavy lifting: Search → Filter → Scroll → Compare → Hope Agentic commerce flips the entire model: Describe what you want → AI delivers with context One of the most interesting examples I’ve seen is Glance. They are not building another shopping app. They’re building a contextual, agentic AI commerce layer powered by multiple specialised agents working together. Instead of one algorithm guessing what you like, Glance deploys multiple AI agents working for you in parallel: → Weather Agent analysing real-time climate and fabric suitability → Trends Agent tracking global shifts and micro-trends → Occasions Agent anticipating upcoming events → Physical Agent understanding your skin tone, undertones, and body type → Lifestyle Agent decoding your aesthetic preferences All coordinated by an orchestrator that synthesises everything into a unified styling strategy. That’s not basic personalization. That’s contextual intelligence. And the most powerful shift? You see yourself in the generated looks. Not stock visuals. Not generic models. You. Commerce becomes a conversation instead of a search box. From personalized to personal. AI agents working for you. Learning with every interaction. Refining your style instead of just tracking clicks. This is the rise of agentic commerce. #Glance #AICommerce #AgenticAI

We had a beautiful customer newsletter... and no one cared. Up until the end of 2023, we had a highly designed version of the newsletter. It looked great, but it took a ton of time to pull together. Every send required custom images, specific copy lengths, and with no real guardrails on content, we tried to include ✨everything.✨ And it did… fine. But not fine enough to warrant the time it required and no clear strategy, so we stopped doing it. This year, I relaunched our customer newsletter — and doubled our engagement score and click-through rates. Here's the 4 steps I took to do it: 1️⃣ I redefined the purpose. The newsletter needed to be a valuable touchpoint for account managers — something that kept customers informed and encouraged them to explore more of the Lattice ecosystem through features, events, and content. Not salesy. 2️⃣ I scrapped the overly designed template and went plain-text. The emails now come directly from Account Owners (because who’s Kerry Wheeler anyways?). 3️⃣ We segmented our customers into three key groups and tailor content to each one based on what’s most relevant to them. 4️⃣ I implemented strong content guardrails. Every send now includes just two of the most relevant product updates, events, and resources — and it must be actionable today (no “coming soon” teasers). The results? Open rates held steady at ~50%, but engagement took off. Click-through rates more than doubled, and we’ve heard great feedback from both customers and AMs on how the newsletter has kept them informed and engaged.

Most people connect with recruiters on LinkedIn the wrong way. They send a generic connection request. They immediately ask for a job. They get ignored. Here's how to connect with recruiters so they actually respond: Step 1: Personalize your connection request. Don't use the default "I'd like to add you to my professional network." Instead, mention: → Why you're reaching out → What caught your attention about their work → A specific role or company they recruit for Example: "Hi [Name], I saw you recruit for [Company/Industry]. I'm currently exploring opportunities in [Role] and would love to connect." Keep it short, LinkedIn limits connection messages to 300 characters. Step 2: Don't ask for a job immediately. If they accept your request, don't jump straight to "Are you hiring?" Instead, start with: → A thank you for connecting → A brief intro about your background → A question or ask for advice Example: "Thanks for connecting! I'm a [Role] with experience in [X]. I'm exploring opportunities in [Industry]. Would you be open to a brief chat about the market right now?" Step 3: Make it easy for them to help you. Recruiters are busy. Don't make them guess what you want. Be specific: → What type of role you're targeting → Your key skills and experience → Your timeline (actively looking vs. passively exploring) The clearer you are, the easier it is for them to think of you when something comes up. Step 4: Follow up thoughtfully if they don't respond. If they accept but don't reply, wait 5-7 days and follow up once. Keep it short: "Hi [Name], just circling back to see if you had a chance to consider my message. I'd love to connect briefly if you have time." If still no response, move on. Step 5: Engage with their content before reaching out. Before you send a connection request, engage with their posts. Like, comment, share. Show genuine interest in what they're working on. This makes them recognize your name when you connect. Recruiters want to help people who are clear, professional, and easy to work with. Show them you're all three. Follow me for more strategies to get noticed by recruiters.

"Let me know if you have any questions." "Happy to discuss further." "Looking forward to your thoughts." Every time you end a follow-up with these wimpy closes, you're asking busy executives to do work they won't do. They're not going to think of questions. They're not going to schedule a follow-up call. They're not going to send you their thoughts. They're going to delete your email and move on with their actual job. The fix is making the next step so easy that a drunk executive could do it. Instead of "let me know if you have questions," embed your calendar link directly in the email. One click to book time. Instead of "happy to discuss further," Create a simple yes/no decision box: "Ready to see the ROI calculation? Yes | No" Instead of hoping they'll respond with their availability, give them three specific time slots to choose from. The most powerful follow-up technique? Use their exact words from your call. When Jessica said she's "bleeding money on software licenses," don't paraphrase it. Quote it exactly. Reference her Thursday board meeting. Add one insight she didn't know. There's nothing more impossible to ignore than hearing your own words reflected back with new value attached. Your generic templates sound like every other vendor they're ghosting. But your personalized follow-ups that reference specific moments from your conversation get responses. Stop making prospects do the work of figuring out next steps. Start making it obvious how they move forward. Every follow-up is life or death for your deal. Most AEs are committing suicide with their own emails. Don’t be like most AEs.

We run 5,000 Account-Based Advertising campaigns and deliver 1 billion ad impressions every month for our B2B customers. Here’s how we use Account-Based Advertising internally at Demandbase: BACKGROUND: As you can imagine, we are heavy users of Account-Based Advertising. We don't only sell it, we live it. Our goal is to focus on accounts with the greatest LTV. The primary levers we pull are segmentation, ad creative, and integration into our overall account-based GTM strategy: 1. Segmentation Segmentation is the foundation of our account-based advertising strategy. It enables the appropriate level of resources, the right message, and the right workflows to be focused on every account in our ICP. We segment accounts by starting more general and then get more granular, so each general segment has subsegments with greater levels of specificity. Here is our classification of segments: * Geo–country level * Revenue range - we have five revenue segments * Tiers - we have three tiers based on industry, technographics, and engagement scoring that define how much resources we put to each account * Journey Stage - we use custom stages that define where an account is in the customer journey * Product Interest - a combination of intent data and campaign responses 2. Ad creative Our goal is to the deliver the most relevant asset for the segment to drive the greatest engagement. We do that in three ways. First, we use an asset engagement heatmap. This shows what content assets are getting the highest level of engagement across channels and use those messages to target each segment. Second, we use dynamic creative that personalizes by industry and company name in real-time. Third, we use detailed and technical creative for re-targeting, after accounts have engaged with our website. 3. Integrating Advertising into our account-based GTM Account-Based Advertising by itself is only one component of an account-based GTM. Results will be limited if not thoughtfully integrated into a broader strategy. There are three key ways we do this at Demandbase. First, we orchestrate the same segmentation and creative strategy across Marketing and Sales Channels (i.e. LinkedIn, Meta, Google, Marketing Automation, Content Syndication, SEM, and Sales Automation). Second, we use the Tier segmentation to define the level of resourcing entitlements we give to each account. Tier 1 receives the most entitlements across Sales and Marketing (i.e. direct mail, 1:1 campaigns and experiences, and executive strategy sessions). Third, we create advertising response and engagement reports using UTM parameters for our SDR as a way to prioritize and personalize outreach. TAKEAWAY: Account-based advertising is a popular and effective use case for engaging accounts and providing air coverage. You can use segmentation and good creative to optimize its effectiveness. But its full potential is only realized when you integrate it into your account-based GTM strategy.

You spend 20 minutes researching someone, write a personalized message, hit send, and get blocked. That's not bad luck. You triggered something in the first three lines without realizing it. Here's what actually happened: Your message felt low-intent. Even though you researched them, even though you used their name, even though you mentioned their company, something in how you structured it made them think: "This was sent to 500 people." And when someone feels like target #247, they don't just ignore you. They block you. Here's the S.E.E.D framework we use to book calls without getting blocked: 1. Situational context-  ⤷ Start by showing you understand something happening in their world right now. ⤷ A market shift. A new hire. A product update.  ⤷ Not a compliment, a signal that says "I noticed." 2. Evidence of insight  ⤷ Drop one thought that proves you understand their landscape.  ⤷ "Usually when companies ship X, Y bottleneck shows up next."  ⤷ Insight is the new personalization. 3. Earned Permission  ⤷ Don't ask for a call. Ask for a micro yes.  ⤷ "Want the breakdown?" "Should I send it here?"  ⤷ Make it easier to say yes than to ignore. 4. Directional CTA ⤷ Your CTA shouldn't demand time; it should direct momentum.  ⤷Let them pull the conversation forward, don't push it. Outreach doesn't fail because people hate messages. It fails because people hate being treated like targets. When your message reflects thought, timing, and relevance, people don't block you. They engage with you. PS: Have you ever been blocked after sending what felt like a thoughtful message? #SalesTips #OutreachStrategy #ColdEmail #Personalization #SEEDFramework