The bulk of content you come across on social media platforms is curated just for you. Those algorithms that feel like they know you better than your spouse does are designed to keep you hooked. The average individual spends more than two hours on social media daily. All these are making people expect only personalized content and nothing that doesn’t align with their interests.
Customers expect personalized experiences – a recent McKinsey study shows that 71% of consumers look forward to engaging in personalized interactions with today’s brands. This phenomenon of personalization has now become the standard in email marketing, too. Brands from all sectors derive massive benefits from the use of personalization in email marketing campaigns; a noteworthy example is when Samsung personalized its notifications and emails after the release of its Galaxy Note 9, and as a result, the company saw conversion rates up by 275% compared to past product rollouts. The examples of brands that successfully reaped the benefits of email personalization are manifold, but the discussion isn’t about this. Because we can all admit that personalization is a prerequisite, the next logical step in this journey is to learn how to use it.
What elements can be personalized?
There are multiple areas you can personalize an email to improve its clicks, open rates, and so on. One element that’s among the first to come to mind is the recipient’s name. But this is an obvious starting point. Another powerful yet often disregarded component is the name of the sender themselves.
The sender field is one of the most prominent elements when someone scans their inbox. While subscribers generally expect emails to come from brands, seeing the name of a brand’s rep or specific team member makes them feel like the message is actually coming from a real person. This is the first step to building interest that can later translate into trust.
Another important element is the subject line – the succeeding piece of info someone sees in their inbox. A line that feels cold, impersonal, and mass-oriented will fall on deaf ears. But one that reflects the recipient’s interest, needs, and when it’s not in a creepy way, their recent interactions? That can make the difference between the mail being ignored or accessed.
You should also extend your personalization efforts to the content inside the mail itself. You can use your recipient’s location, for instance, to send local deals and offers, and create relevant content suggestions. The goal is to make the message feel intentionally designed for them, not to just insert a name.
Choosing the right email marketing platform
Personalizing an email used to be a real challenge before automation. However, today, businesses don’t only have automation; they also have AI. Email marketing platforms integrate these technologies to deliver email personalization tools and services. However, there’s a wide range of platforms in this regard, and if this variety makes it feel challenging to find the best one for your needs, remember that the right solution essentially comes down to the level of customization, automation, and control your business needs.
A good email marketing platform will make it easier to understand your audiences, segment your subscribers, and deliver relevant content without needing you to put in any manual work. It should provide you with features like behavioral tracking, dynamic content, automated workflows, and AI-powered recommendations so you can create more personalized experiences without wasting time.
Another essential factor is scalability. A platform that works well for a small list of subscribers may not cut it when your business and consequential list of targeted individuals grow. Two of the most commonly used email marketing platforms are Mailchimp and GetResponse – and it bears mentioning that they offer different capabilities even if they seem, at first glance, optimized to do the same thing.
Mailchimp offers standard features and can deliver if you want to personalize emails without the learning curve; and, of course, if your segmentation needs are minimal. Importantly, costs can rise abruptly and considerably when your list expands or when it includes unsubscribed contacts. GetResponse, on the other hand, is a standard for businesses needing first-rate personalization, offering more advanced automation capabilities, detailed segmentation options, and tools designed to create more complex customer journeys. The Mailchimp vs GetResponse comparison is just an example of why taking the time to assess different email marketing solutions is essential to making the right decision.
Personalization is only good when it’s helpful
Not intrusive. Not invasive. And clearly not there to prove you have access to customers’ information.
Today’s audiences are more aware than ever of data privacy, so when one receives an email right as they’re scrolling for a product, it can instantly make the sender look like a creep. Subject lines like “We know you’re looking for ...” or “Since you need a ...” are the shortcut to the spam folder. They feel like surveillance and even unlawful access to one’s online habits. You need to establish where the line is in order not to cross it, because otherwise, you’d be signing yourself up for failure. When a subscriber is searching for a service or product, let some time pass before you pop up in their inbox.
Measuring the impact of the campaign
You don’t implement a personalized campaign and go to sleep, expecting to see conversion rates boom in the near future. You need to understand how your mail performs and improve your strategy over time.
There are multiple metrics to help you better understand what implementations have potential and which are flops, like open and click-through rates. If a strongly segmented campaign generates open rates but fails to convert, the content may not align entirely with the recipients’ interests.
An effective way to test your campaign’s effect is to use A/B testing. It implies sending two types of emails to see which resonates better with targeted recipients. You can also experiment with different levels of personalization and analyze engagement patterns to see what works best for particular audiences. Such insights will help you move from basic personalization to sending messages that reflect your audience’s current interests, and, more importantly, constantly evolving needs; because the trend that a given customer is fond of today may be completely irrelevant to them two weeks from now.
Personalizing emails has never been easier – nor has it been more important. Make the most of what you know about your customers if you want to remain relevant and strengthen your conversion rates, which is the ultimate point behind such marketing campaigns.
