A newsletter that I enjoy for its sassy writing style recently called me by my last name. When it had always used my first. By now, we’re all used to newsletters and their false personalization. With <insert name here> creating the magic of direct address that, upon first read, felt really personal. But I think that approach lost its edge after everyone began using it.
<why do we love this field so much>
So, in the sassy email’s favour, the use of the subject line: “Suzanne Bowness is too smart for this question” did catch me a little off guard. She stopped the scroll, as they say. But it also left me feeling uneasy. Like the robots were pretending to know me too well. And made me think about ways that we can personalize content in ways that are more meaningful:
Segmenting newsletters to smaller audiences
Another newsletter that I otherwise enjoy reading regularly lumps me in a bucket with other readers who are newcomers to writing. As a result, I get a lot of emails offering to teach me the basics. Would it be possible for that writer to take a day and figure out that I’m a different sort of reader?
Or eventually at signup, ask me what categories I want to be sorted into. Here are some I like: advanced freelancer, interested in content writing over copywriting. The checkboxes write themselves. Now that’s personalization.
Addressing advanced audiences with more specific content
Once segmented, I wouldn’t mind being sent the newsletter that addresses me at that higher level of experience. Assume that I already know some terminology and starting the conversation at a higher level or engaging me on a current issue. That might not be possible for a newsletter written by a solo, but surely for a big company.
Another content focus that could work is on emerging topics. For example, I may be an experienced writer, but all of us are beginning AI writers.
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