In 2026, it’s not enough for a brand to merely have an efficient system of auto-generated emails or text messages as a means for maintaining contact with customers. The messaging has to be timely, relevant to the recipient, and, most of all, not feel automated.
An often-repeated rule of digital marketing is “be authentic.” But how does one design automated touchpoints that actually build an emotional connection between a brand and its consumers or clients?
The impact of personalized messaging
It’s 2026. Consumers have come to expect personalized, accurate messaging that anticipates their needs and speaks their language. Impersonal emails and texts fail to create a strong emotional connection with your audience and quickly end up in the trash or “unsubscribe” folder.
By contrast, messages whose language and imagery connect with a target audience will resonate throughout the customer journey. These messages will nurture potential customers—sometimes over months or years—and retain them through the sales funnel with relatively low overhead. Your sales team doesn’t see each deal as “one size fits all.” Neither should your digital marketing team.
One of the simplest yet most effective ways to personalize automated messaging is to understand these demographic differences between generations.
Amazon Ads’ Beyond the Generational Divide classifies its consumers thusly:
- Adult Generation Z (born 1998-2006) trends toward “high character” brands that share their values
- Millennials (1982-97) let their passions define them—often valuing health, well-being, and supportive partnerships above all
- Generation X (1966-81) still uses a strong mix of traditional and new media, and typically prefers 1-to-1 communication and face-to-face interactions
- Baby boomers (1946-65) may prefer traditional media platforms over digital interactions, but share many similar values with millennials
This is a simple example of how to tailor messaging differently for different groups. Every client has unique needs that are more likely to overlap with their ingroup peers. A campaign that uses personalized messaging—automated or not—will only increase brand loyalty by recognizing those needs and creating connections repeatedly.
How to make automated messages feel personal
Before taking your messaging out into the world, look inward. Which of your company’s values are worth highlighting to your target audiences? Where do you do business, where do you source materials from, and who do you hire to produce materials?
The answer to these questions helps define who you are as a business. Aligning your principles with consumer values will set your brand apart. Early in the customer journey, these values matter more than specific product details.
Strategically, your next steps will flow from those values:
- Create/identify customer personas
- Determine opportunities for messaging within the customer journey—specifically, when in the process will your message resonate?
- Craft variations of content that speak to specific needs and challenges: Is the customer concerned with savings? Outstanding support? Are they only looking at specific products?
- Be mindful of the customer’s previous behavior (i.e., video clicks, purchases, page views, etc.) and recognize whether the customer is new (the “getting to know you stage”) or returning (the “we know you” stage)
- If they’re returning, confirm you know them through specific interactions (i.e., chatbot query terms, specific video/page views) and conversions (purchases)
Anticipating needs
The next step: have a strong idea of what your buyers or potential buyers need at a given point in time. Instead of inundating them with random emails, send script messages that show you know who they are. Think: “Here’s some information that is practical to you now that might already be on your mind.”
Take Amazon, a brand hundreds of millions of online shoppers have directly engaged with. Anyone who’s browsed even a single page has seen suggested products tailored to your browsing tendencies or purchase history. The animating principle behind those suggestions translates directly to automated messaging. How can you provide tailored experiences for your customers at a more personal level?
The answer will vary from business to business, but the keys to successful execution are the same: more accurate customer personas, demographic classifications, and insights into buying behavior. Whether operating in healthcare, finance, education, or consumer goods, companies whose messaging meets buyers where they are will see the most ROI.
Where best intents for automation can go wrong
The obstacles to successful execution are many. Maybe you don’t have a strong understanding of the information you’re keeping and how it’s filed. Maybe your data isn’t 100% accurate. Maybe your customer base is so large that some individuals don’t fit neatly into your assigned categories, and the automated messaging for these “edge cases” falls flat.
This is where oversight becomes essential. With the proper quality assurance practices, you can review texts and emails before they go out. If it’s the right process, you can catch a mistake.
More importantly, you should first have a really strong grasp of every decision a new tool or program is going to make automatically before those decisions touch customers. Put in safeguards to avoid unknown situations. The things you don’t know―the unknown unknowns, as opposed to the known unknowns—are most likely to hamper your success.
Between email, app push notifications, and texts, marketers have been using what is increasingly considered “AI” for a decade. These concepts aren’t new. They’re now more practical and better at speaking to customers in a familiar, personal language. Brands that aren’t taking advantage of chain-making decisions based on criteria you feed it about who should get what message, when, have fallen behind.
Customizing those messages to feel personal to the recipient is standard practice. When using the right inputs and applying proper oversight, marketers can trust an automated script to make quality connections at scale.
Erik Michal provides email and marketing automation leadership for ddm marketing+communications. Since 2020, Erik has delivered innovative solutions and industry expertise to ddm’s clients. His passion for problem-solving, creating structure, and understanding data systems continues to open the doors for success in the medical, financial, and insurance industries for ddm.
Photo courtesy Ruliff Andrean for Unsplash+
