Is Your E-Zine Getting Too Personal?

Personalization has quickly gone from being the
hottest new "must-have" for e-content to the most
misunderstood and misused e-accessory.

Some e-zine writers are particularly guilty of
crossing the line between good touch - bad touch.
I've noticed a trend lately towards using business
newsletters to share the writer's most private,
intimate troubles, deviating entirely from the focus
of the publication.

For example, here are excerpts from three highly-
respected, high-circulation online marketing
newsletters, all published within a few days of each
other. Names have been omitted to protect those
guilty of sharing too much:

Exhibit A: "If you're wondering how mom is doing,
she went through round one of chemotherapy. No
problems. Not bald yet. It takes more than one
treatment to lose your hair! Overall in excellent
spirits, feeling quite well. Thanks for your prayers
on her behalf."

Exhibit B: "Hi, I'm back! Did you miss me? I didn't
publish yesterday because I was in the hospital
getting a PET scan (no, they weren't looking for
hamsters in my colon;-). A PET scan is the latest
imaging technology. It creates a 3-D image of your
entire body using giant cameras and nuclear physics.
Cool, huh?"

Exhibit C: "My father passed away on Sunday. He
died in his sleep, the way he wanted. Thank you
to the 200 of you who sent me your thoughts after
the last article about him. I wrote the eulogy for
his funeral with the help of the rest of my family.
If you'd like to find out why he was so special,
take a look at the eulogy at …"

Having read those, are you feeling all jumped up
about marketing now? Or are you a little bummed out?

Personalization should make your customers/readers
feel you understand them. It can have a warming
effect on your relationship with them. It can even
allow you to target products and messages specifically
to their interests. These are universally agreed to
be good things.

The challenge now for players in the industry is to
set a few guidelines and limitations for themselves,
i.e. just how personal can we get before we've gone
too far? As a heavy user of e-zines, I love
personalization - within limits:

Please, use your e-zine to speak to me in a
one-on-one, relaxed style about marketing or
whatever your topic is.

Speak to me personally about your own professional
experiences, failures and successes.

Speak to me of inspiring case studies involving
real people.

Survey me to find out what I need.

Subdivide your opt-in database into super-specific
categories so you can narrowcast your messages to
your various target audiences.

Use software to personalize your e-zine by
sprinkling my first name throughout the copy. (Yes,
I still get a kick out of that!)

That's personalization at its finest. But hamsters
in your colon? Like the guy breathing down my neck
in the bank line-up, you just got much, much too
close. And instead of inspiring me, you've creeped
me out.