As marketers, we know what we need to do.  The idea of matching the right content to the right person in the right place at the right stage in the purchase life cycle to accomplish a marketing objective is pretty straightforward.  It's a concept that fits nicely onto a Powerpoint slide.

But, myriad communication channels exist to facilitate our conversations with the market.  The most important channels being those that our customers prefer to utilize.  As we fire up our content delivery machine to be more targeted, more personalized, and more social with the hope of becoming more credible, more relevant and more effective, the fuel for our multi-channel machine – our content – becomes a critical consideration.

A recent Seth Godin post defined today’s market as a swarm of fleas with our customers and prospects flitting about from one attraction to another with steadily decreasing spans of attention (and an ever increasing buzz of influence from their fellow fleas).  I like the metaphor.  That the life span of a flea is about 90 days reinforces how fleeting the relationship with our customers can sometimes be.   As marketers, we’re seeking to connect with an individual flea (and those in the swarm which influence that flea) with relevant and credible content where and when it matters to drive a behavior.

To improve our chances, the machine for personalized conversations exists.  Database analytics and modeling provide a pretty good idea of who our targets are and how they will probably behave.  Implicit profiling which our customers and prospects carry in their digital footprint provides an introduction.  Explicit profiling through which our customers tell us about themselves can be the foundation for a powerful dialog and a longstanding relationship.

But, we need to live up to our end of the bargain.  If we commit to a customer that we will get to know them and tailor our engagement to meet their specific wants and needs, we have to deliver.  Once we don’t deliver on our promise of personalized, compelling content delivered how our customers prefer, we lose credibility, we lose relevance and we may lose permission to continue our conversation.

The type of content needed to realize the potential of personalized engagement is new to many brands.  To engage in a fleeting moment, we need storytellers.  But, a new breed of storyteller who can establish a customer-needs based narrative – sometimes in a simple headline., sometimes in a multi-media format such as video.   And, create with things like brand voice, social media and organic search in mind.

Also, the volume of content needed to realize the potential of personalized engagement can be staggering.  A new paradigm for content creation is needed– one that produces content with reuse across multiple channels in mind from the beginning.   A content creation paradigm that strikes a balance between the effectiveness of personalized content, and the efficiency of a thoughtful production model.   One that enables core content to be tailored to multiple audiences.    One that aggressively leverages user-generated content.

Personalized engagement promises rich dividends in improved performance against key marketing objectives such as conversion rates and brand loyalty.   Just remember, once the machine is unleashed, it will always be hungry for fresh, compelling, relevant content.