Despite the fact that these terms sound quite similar, their meanings are different in the most extreme way possible. Besides this fact, the “Person” part in these terms refer to different things.

The “person” in Personal marketing (also called Self-marketing) refers to what you are trying to promote. It is a set of marketing strategies that are used to promote one’s personal brand.

Basically, it is everything you do in order to establish your image as a professional by communicating your values, skills, experiences, and vision to potential employers.

For example, answering this question is also a personal marketing activity, as I am promoting myself as an expert.

To make it simple for you, I would recommend to call it “personal branding” in the future.

However, Personalized marketing refers to how you are trying to promote. It is the ultimate form of targeted marketing, that involves adjusting your marketing efforts and services to the preferences of your target audience.

Remember the last promotional email you have received? I bet it used your name at the beginning. That’s an example of personalized marketing. However, just changing the prospects’ names is the most low-level personalization. Ideally, you should consider every detail you know about your target audience (location, employment, seniority level, personal traits & preferences) to tailor your messages according to that.

By making your marketing more personal, you invest in building long-term customer relations. What does that mean for you? You increase your Customer Lifetime Value drastically by focusing on engaging with your existing customers instead of acquiring new ones.

According to the Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. This stat perfectly represents why do you need to implement sophisticated personalization during your campaigns.