As a professional marketer, I’m on the receiving end of these automated-personalized emails all the time, and I, too, find them very annoying and disheartening. Last year, I took time out of working a booth at a trade show to go and meet up with someone who had sent me several emails before the show suggesting we had a lot to talk about. The person, when I found him, didn’t even recognize my name and fumbled for a few minutes to figure out what was going on. The company was interesting but such a negative experience at the outset meant it was very easy for me to choose working with one of their competitors who hadn’t aggressively, automatically targeted me with a “personalized” touch. I have many examples of this same scenario playing out. It’s why I try to focus my marketing programs on authenticity — scale is necessary, but authenticity is more important even if it’s slower. It doesn’t take long to crack that authenticity wall — and once you have, regaining trust is a long, slow road.