Relevance is the real hook

What neuroscience and ABM reveal about personalization that lands

Relevance is the real hook

What neuroscience and ABM reveal about personalization that lands

The real reason personalization works

Open your inbox. Chances are, there’s a “Hi [Name]!” email waiting for you - and your finger is already hovering over the delete key.

Why? Because shallow personalization is noise.

Neuroscience tells us: humans are wired to filter out the irrelevant.

But, when something feels personal - genuinely personal - we stop, listen, remember and act.

This is the self-reference effect in action.

It’s why we tune into conversations when we hear our name in a noisy room¹. And why emails, ads or assets that reflect our world feel magnetic.

In ABM, relevance isn’t a “nice to have” - it’s a prerequisite for cutting through the noise.

Personalization is about relevance,
not just recognition.

¹ ^{Wood & Cowan (1995), “The Cocktail Party Phenomenon Revisited” – Journal of Experimental Psychology}^.

Personalization isn’t just a name. It’s a neurological signal.

The data is clear:

> Personalized emails get 41% higher CTRs and 29% higher open rates²
> McKinsey reports 40% more revenue from companies leveraging personalization³
> 81% of consumers say they ignore irrelevant messaging entirely⁴

But here’s the twist: it’s not the name in the subject line that drives results. It’s the perceived relevance behind it.

A meta-analysis⁵ of 53 studies on personalized advertising across 11,000 participants found that personalization works only when recipients feel it was intended “for someone like me”.

That’s why “Hi [First Name]” without meaningful content actually reduces click-throughs.

What’s key is that the personalization must signal relevance, not just recognition. In other words, people respond positively when a communication makes them feel understood as individuals.

ABM personalization can’t be a parlour trick. It has to mean something.

^{2 Experian Email Marketing Report (2024).}
^{3 McKinsey, “Next in Personalization” Report (2021).}
^{4 Yes Marketing / Yespo “Email Personalization Trends” Study (2023).}
^{5 Yeo et al. (2025), Journal of Advertising Research. Meta-analysis on personalized advertising across 11,000 participants.}

Why shallow personalization fails (and breaks trust)

While using a person’s name or other basic personal tokens can grab attention, superficial personalization alone does not guarantee a positive outcome - and can sometimes hurt.

Marketers have learned the hard way that simply slapping “Dear [First Name]” on a form letter isn’t true personalization.

Customers today are savvy, and inundated with automated messages; they can quickly sense when a message is just templated with their name^6, rather than genuinely tailored.

Even getting a name wrong (for example, using the last name instead of the first name) is often worse than no name at all – these mistakes have such a negative impact on engagement that you may as well not have added a name. In fact, incorrect or insincere personalization can backfire.

From your inbox to your ads, customers can spot template-based tactics from miles away. And when they do, trust plummets.

In fact, getting personalization wrong is worse than not doing it at all.

Personalization without insight = lost credibility.

In ABM, personalization isn’t optional. It’s operational.

True personalization is about substance, not just form. You can’t check the box [on personalization] just by adding the target buyer’s name, because a real personalized experience goes way beyond a name⁷.

^{6 CMO Council}
^{7 Madison Logic}

Effective personalization uses personal data as a starting point - an introduction - but must follow through with content that is genuinely pertinent to the individual.

True personalization requires:

> Signals: Buying intent, leadership changes, budget cycles
> Context: What’s happening in the account, or industry
> Empathy: What this person, right now, needs to hear

Josh Weale and Lucy Jones put it simply in their recent DashDot piece:

“You don’t need hyper-personalization everywhere. Personalize what matters, when it matters most.”

That means:

> Light, modular messaging at the cluster level
> Signal-driven escalation to One-to-few or One-to-one ABM
> Orchestrated journeys, not isolated assets

What neuroscience and ABM
both confirm

The human brain loves coherence. It pays attention to messaging that is:

> Relevant
> Timely
> Emotionally congruent

That’s why personalization isn’t just a tactic - it’s an experience design strategy.

In Beyond the logo: How B2B marketers are personalizing with relevance, not gimmicks, Josh and Lucy affirm:

“Personalization isn’t just what you say. It’s when you say it - and why you’re saying it.”

Whether it’s content timing, channel orchestration, or message tone, effective ABM personalization follows one rule:

Make your audience feel like the message was built for them.

B2C, B2B - we’re just people!

You’ve heard it before: “B2B buyers expect B2C-like experiences.”

It’s not just a cliché. It’s a warning.

According to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions, and 76% say they feel frustrated when they don’t receive them.

And while these stats come from the B2C world, the expectations they reflect don’t vanish the moment a buyer sits in front of their work laptop.

Today’s B2B audiences - especially senior stakeholders - spend most of their time spent outside of work being marketed to by hyper-personalized digital experiences.

As a result, generic outreach feels outdated and jarring.

When your ABM campaign shows up with a boilerplate message, it’s no longer neutral - it feels like you didn’t try.

And it gets worse: companies that succeed at personalization aren’t just winning hearts – they’re winning revenue, with personalized messaging delivering 10–15% lifts, while top performers exceed 25%.

If you’re in ABM, these gains translate directly: faster deal cycles, deeper trust, better multi-stakeholder engagement.

Even the operational blueprint matches B2B reality: McKinsey cites the following must-have capabilities for scalable personalization – each of which maps directly to ABM:

Whether your buyer is booking a vacation or buying a CRM, people have been “trained” to expect relevance by default. And in ABM, relevance is table stakes.

How to build a message for one person

Start with insight. Then build your campaign around felt relevance.

What does that look like in action?

> Strategic tiering: Who really needs One-to-one treatment?
> Message matrices: Map content to personas, not job titles.
> Empathy-driven sequencing: Does each touchpoint build trust?

Remember: consistency builds belief.

A personalized landing page means little, if the follow-up email is boilerplate.

Personalization in ABM: The trust multiplier

Successful ABMers use personalization to deliver role-specific and account-specific content.

The higher the reward, the greater the degree of personalization. Consider resources vs. the depth of personalization you can achieve.

With on average 6-20 people involved in any major purchasing decision, your personalization needs to not just be to the account, but to the role and the person as well.

Let’s take an example:

> The CFO will receive messaging that is focused on ROI and cost savings
> The end-users will be sent information about ease of use / interfaces
> Technical stakeholders will receive content about integration and security

This “multi-stakeholder messaging” ensures that each decision-maker receives the information most relevant to them

And it can go deeper.

The more you know about the individuals, the more you can personalize and craft customized value propositions for each key person (not persona!) within the account.

E.g. it may well be that the CFO is closely aligned with the CEO on growth, and sees your solution not as a cost, but as an investment - therefore, messaging around cost will not achieve the desired result.

You’re not just trying to capture attention. You’re trying to earn belief.

In ABM, that means speaking to:

> The pain your stakeholder lives with
> The language they use in meetings
> The outcomes they’re accountable for

Get this right, and you won’t just see clicks – you’ll spark conversations.

When buyers feel seen, they pay attention - and they convert.

What’s changing now?

AI promises scalable personalization. But the guardrails still matter.

The June-July DashDot edition made it clear:

AI without human strategy = automated irrelevance.

So, use AI to adapt.

But root everything in insight and intent, and empathy.

Why personalization works
(when done well... )

So, why does personalization - done well - cut through and land?

Because, quite simply, it aligns with how the brain processes information.

From attention to action, neuroscience reveals three principles that explain why relevance always wins:

You’re not just inserting names. You’re designing belief.

Emotionally congruent messaging triggers attention

The brain spots emotional alignment, fast. If your message mirrors the buyer’s fears, frustrations or aspirations, it earns a place in their mental inbox.

Research shows we retain emotionally salient information far better than neutral content - especially when the message matches our current state or concern.

→ In ABM: That means your messaging must reflect what your audience feels - not just what they do. Cold logic alone won’t convert.

Relevance signals = cognitive shortcuts

The brain is constantly filtering inputs.

What gets through? Cues that say “this is about you”. From the self-reference effect to real-time intent signals, personalization works when it signals value to the recipient. If your content reflects their role, industry or current challenge, it earns engagement.

→ In ABM: That’s not just “Hi [FirstName]”; it’s aligning tone, offer and channel to the moment the buyer is in.

Memory loves fluency, timing, and surprise

Psychologists call it the fluency effect: we prefer messages that feel easy to absorb.

But, we also remember what interrupts the pattern (salience). And we remember what comes first - or what’s repeated at just the right moment (primacy and recency effects).

→ In ABM: This is where sequencing, orchestration and insight-based timing matter. Personalization is an experience, not just a subject line.

We personalize not just to show we “know you” - but to help your brain react by saying, “this is for me.”

Conclusion: In ABM, personalization is how you prove you care

Every ABM team says “we put the customer first”.

Here’s how you prove it:

> Personalize with relevance, not just recognition
> Build messaging that reflects real insight
> Create buyer journeys that feel coherent, considered and human

Because, when it feels like it was made for them, your buyers won’t just read it.

They’ll remember it.

They’ll trust you.

They’ll act.