Imagine yourself at a house party. The music is pumping, people are yelling you can’t hear a thing .

Then abruptly, somehow above all the noise, you hear your name, clear as day. With laser accuracy, you zero in on the person talking behind you, certain that’s who said it. Almost like magic, the party noise get quieter as you listen closely to hear what they’re telling about you.

Before hearing your name you would’ve said it was impossible to hear anything. Moments afterward, you’re hearing every term of an intimate conversation. This is called the cocktail party impact.

These days the world has become noisy with marketing messages. People are bombarded with so many ads that they’ve begun to tune them out. Like one big house party, it’s become so loud , no one can hear anything.

That’s why personalization is essential. It makes people tune out all the background noise and focus on what you’re telling. With emails, for example, personalization can result in 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click-through rates, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

How to attain your messages personal

Putting this lesson into practice has gotten easier in recent years. Modern technology lets big companies like Netflix and Amazon to seamlessly personalize their recommendations based on your past viewing behavior and buy decisions.

For a eatery, however, personalization may seem less straightforward. It might voice complicated and time-consuming , not to mention involve expensive technology that’s hard to use.

Yet, it doesn’t have to be so. There are actually a number of easy ways for you to attain your restaurant’s marketing more personal, less generic, and rise above the noise.

Five ways to personalize your marketing

1. Say their name

Dale Carnegie famously told, “A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important audio in any language.” Ita s as true today as it was in 1936, when he first published How to Win Friends and Influence People.

When someone takes the time and care to remember your name, it stimulates “your feeling” welcome and appreciated. Get good at remembering names and never miss an opportunity to use them. If you’re “not good with names, ” get better. It’s an invaluable skill.

You should also talk to your staff about the importance of names and ensure they’re greeting regulars by name when possible.

Starting your emails with a persona s name is also essential. Dear loyal client simply doesn’t work anymore. You can also try putting their name in the subject line or afterward in the email for effect.

2. Treat regulars differently

You don’t talk to new acquaintances the same way you talk to old friends and you shouldn’t talk to new customers the same way you talk to regulars.

Servers should ask new faces whether it’s their first time at the restaurant and tailor what they say afterward accordingly. New customers may want to know what dishes are most popular, while recur customers may be more interested in hearing about new additions to the menu.

The same is true of your email communications. New subscribers should receive a welcome email that references their recent visit to your eatery. They shouldn’t simply hop right into your ongoing emails with no introduction.

3. Leverage their interests

If you run a sports bar, chances are a lot of your customers like sports. If your eatery is vegan, chances are many of your regulars are health-conscious and likely care about the environment and the welfare of animals. For other restaurants, common interests may be less obvious, but if you’re truly unsure, you can always ask your customers immediately .

Now, once you’ve identified a common interest, you can incorporate it into your marketing. Create a nightly special around Monday Night Football. Host a special event to raise money for a cause you know your customers hold dear or a craft brew tasting night to encourage first-time customers to try you out. Appear for ways to use the interest as a topic for emails and other promotions.

4. Reference your location

Most of your recur customers live close by, at the least in the same city, if not the same neighborhood. An easy way to make your marketing seem more relevant is to reference this location.

If your have opt images for your website, attain them local and include well-known and well-liked landmarks. The same goes for flyers, or for choosing a location to shoot a promo video.

If theres nearby attractions, weave them into your specials and promotions. If people often eat at your eatery before attending presents at a nearby theater, create a date-night dinner special. Or better yet, partner with the theater to make it a package deal.

If something notable happens in the neighborhood, consider referencing that in your next email. People identify with where they live. Any way that you can make your marketing feel more local assist make it feel more personal.

5. Be aware of the time of day

There may seem nothing personal about the time of day, but it’s a fact that matters to everyone. We do different things in the morning than we do at night. We crave different foods.

By constructing utilize of the time of day in your marketing, you can make it more relevant and timely to individuals.

Some ways of doing this are obvious. Greet people with good morning, good afternoon and good night. When you post things on social media, make sure the time of day is appropriate to what and you’re posting pictures of coffee in the morning, steak at dinner, and so forth.

When sending emails, you can start it with good morning if you intend to send it out at 8 am, or you can reference the day of the week. Anything to make it more specific and defined it apart from the constant background noise.

Get personal

Using names, visit frequency, interests, locating and time of day can all help to personalize your marketing, but the real key is to actually be more personal. If your communications feel corporate and anonymous, they’re never going to resonate.

Make your marketing more personal by being real and authentic. Use a Ia in your emails. Share little tidbits about yourself. Write like you talk and give your messages some personality.

When writing emails, make sure they come from a real person with a name and a face , not a generic company account.

Personalization is worthless if the messages don’t feel personal.

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Originally posted by Yelp WiFi