Hi there, 

In 2012, when Chris Hardwick wanted to get Tom Hanks on his podcast ID10T (then called Nerdist), he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Celebrities get hundreds of emails and reach outs daily, so how do you stand out? 

Research. A Google search of ‘Tom Hanks fun facts’ revealed that he was an avid collector of antique typewriters — at one point he owned hundreds of them and used them almost daily. 

There’s your angle. 

In what is now a popular story, Chris Hardwick sent Tom Hanks a vintage typewriter with the typed-up podcast invite left in the carriage. Four days later, they got back a legendary response that you can see here! 

Mission accomplished! 

All of us like to be seen and acknowledged, which is why even a tiny effort in personalization yields disproportionate ROI. 

Businesses everywhere leverage the power of personalization in different areas of their customer-facing teams. Personalized recommendations or curated product boxes are great ways to elicit customer delight. Lending personalization to the user journey also reduces friction and accelerates deal-closing—global brands with geography-specific languages and payment options experience significantly lower cart abandonments and higher conversions.

In this week’s Compass, we’re looking at how you can leverage personalization as a brand and the impact it can have on your revenue growth. 

What we’re reading

The value of getting personalization right—or wrong—is multiplying [Mckinsey 2021]

Consumers don’t just want personalization; they demand it.