The Power of Recipient-First Marketing

Sendoso + Alyce

When Sendoso and Alyce joined forces earlier this year, we already knew that we would be bringing Alyce’s customized recipient experiences to the Sendoso platform.

Sendoso’s AI-enhanced SmartSend capabilities have changed the game when it comes to personalizing gifts and one-to-many campaigns, but even with well-personalized gifts there will inevitably be some instances where your recipient already has the item you selected for them or would prefer to receive something else.

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Recipient Gift Exchange

Launching today on Sendoso, our Recipient Gift Exchange experience puts the power of choice directly into the hands of your recipients, giving them the freedom to choose exactly what they want.

For example, I recently sent a CMO an invitation for a gift, some specific gear for an upcoming trip to the desert, and it was well-personalized — so well-personalized that it turned out she had already bought a version of that gear in preparation for her trip. 

She was impressed that we remembered her trip and her love of travel, and with Recipient Gift Exchange, she can easily exchange that gear for something of equal value in our Direct Marketplace.

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Why Does Recipient-First Marketing Matter?

In a world of generic spray and pray campaigns, aggressive marketing “hacks,” and the misuse of AI, we’re losing the art of authentic connection in marketing.

GTM teams spend so much time carefully testing, workshopping, and rewriting marketing messaging — and then frequently choose delivery methods that cheapen and dilute the impact.

Data shows that when recipients perceive that the sender has invested a great deal of time, effort and expense in a message/experience, they confer that investment with quality — and are more likely to retain and believe the message.

Think about your large-scale ad and email campaigns.

Recipients perceive these experiences as cheapened, because they know the same message is being blasted out to thousands or millions of other people in the same way. They’re much easier to ignore because they’re impersonal and don’t convey a high level of value, quality, or meaning.

Now think about receiving a beautiful hand-lettered invitation, a weighty FedEx envelope, a beautifully wrapped, personalized package. That feels special.

It makes *you* feel special and valued by the sender. You bring it into your home and sit down to open it. It’s an experience that confers quality and meaning.

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Sacrificing the Buyer Experience

In a digital world, GTM teams obsess over automation, data and efficiency trying to hack short-term growth at the expense of the buyer experience — but near-term efficiency doesn’t necessarily translate to long-term impact.

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The most efficient marketing investment is not the cheapest. It’s the investment that has the highest possible likelihood of conversion.

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This is why personalized, meaningful gifts and direct mail campaigns work so well to increase meeting rates, second call rates, deal sizes and win rates — and even speed up deal cycles.  

Offering your prospects the option to exchange the gift or donate the dollar value to the charity of their choosing adds another level of personalization by giving them the power of choice.

If your recipient does exchange the gift or choose to donate to a charity close to their heart, they become a more active participant — and now you have another opportunity to connect and build rapport. The point is to focus the experience on the receiver’s needs first.. That’s the power of choice (and good marketing) in action.