The power of being personal

Why personalization can be so effective

Why personalized is better

The power of personalization is linked to a variety of psychological benefits we experience when something is tailored to us as individuals - whether we're conscious of the personalization at play or not.

According to a study from the University of Texas, we can attribute our preference for personalized experiences to two key factors:

1. Desire for control

Even though a personalized experience doesn't necessarily involve the recipient making any actual choices, receiving content overtly tailored to you and your interests gives your brain the impression that it's more in control. And people feel much more positive towards you when they feel like they're in control of the situation.

2. Information overload

With personalization, you aren't forced to sort through and consume lots of resources to find what you're interested in. You're given exactly the information you were looking for. This helps reduce your perception of information overload and brings across a more positive experience.

The brain's response to
personalization

Undetected personalization

Some of the most effective personalization is the kind the prospect doesn't even notice. Research has found that people prefer personalization even when they're unaware of it. This is all thanks to the brain's reticular activating system (RAS).

The RAS acts as a kind of gatekeeper, filtering out irrelevant information and allowing the information you need to pass through. If your content is full of information the reader doesn't need or want, the RAS has to work overtime, creating cognitive overload. A well-tailored customized content experience will pass right on through the RAS and make the biggest impact.

Most commonly, the RAS is associated with the concept of selective attention, which means that we naturally orient to information or ideas that we are invested in

Dr. Rachna Jain

What's in a name?

One of the types of personalization we now largely take for granted is including a person's first name ina piece of comms. This might not seem like much, but don't underestimate the power of calling someone by their name.

A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Research found that the brain lights up in certain areas when it hears its own name, particularly in the middle frontal cortex, associated with social behavior. The areas responsible for long-term, visual, and auditory processing are also affected, all from hearing one little word.