Since most sales are emotional decisions, this limits effectiveness. Direct marketers who use bulk mail know this principle. The standard letter, with blue signature, and the informal lift letter signed by a person is considered essential. In catalogs, there is often a picture of the CEO or customer service rep with a message. Yet on Web sites, the principle of personal contact is often missing.
Many sites are as impersonal as a magazine ad.
A particular message may work in magazines, but the Internet is a more intimate medium. It seems to me that this is best accomplished with an individual personality. Other orders I have received have come from people who have read my posts to newsgroups and mailing lists or to whom I have written after they signed my guest book. In almost every case, there was real personal contact. Many large companies on the Web seem to have no understanding of the emotional needs of their potenetial customers.