How to Personalize Automated Response Emails

If you work in sales, marketing or customer service, you know that one of your most important jobs concerns building and maintaining a one-on-one relationship with customers and clients. But how do you do that when you have thousands of them? *flashback to the seemingly endless thank-you notes I wrote as a kid* One word: automation.

Here are our top 3 tips for taking a (seemingly) impersonal system and making it quite personal (and personable):

3 Tips for Personalizing Automated Emails

1. “Say My Name, ” a la Destiny’s Child

Let’s be honest, everyone likes receiving something with their name on it. I personally like my name on everything, from my books to my Starbucks cup (and makeup bag, for all you southern monogram mavens who share that affinity). Furthermore, that approach isn’t off the mark: research shows that messaging personalization leads to better lead retention and engagement.

But don’t feel limited to just saying, “Hi (first name),” in the opening sentence—get a little more creative if it fits for your brand! Automated software also includes the option to personalize email subjects, and our friends at HubSpot just happen to have a great list of ideas for the perfect subject line.

2. Get triggered

Remember those triggers we mentioned earlier? (And I don’t mean the “trigger” of someone getting upset whenever Starbucks is out of their fabulous cold brew!) We mean a website trigger—like content that leads viewers to click on an eBook download or subscribe to a blog. These are excellent ways to see what information someone is looking for, thus giving you the opportunity to help them find it.

For example, I personally subscribe to a shoe boutique website. Every week, I’m sent not only a, “Hi there, did you see our new items,” email, but also a, “Here is your personalized boutique based off what you clicked and/or saved to your cart,” email. As a consumer who can often feel like just a number as opposed to an individual, how special does that make me feel?!

 

3. Ask questions



If there’s anything Miss Congeniality taught us, it’s the power of a question. How can you *really* personalize an experience if you don’t know your consumer, much less their wants and needs? Success really all goes back to knowing your target audience.

Relevant questions can be asked in a survey, a quick poll on social media, or even a form for gated content. The point is—make sure you ask! What content does your audience want to see? How do they currently obtain this information? How did they find your platform? Knowledge is power, darling.

Pro tip: Ask a fun question! Not only will this approach help gauge the engagement level of your database, it also gives you the opportunity to report results in a follow-up email, social media story, etc.

Sorry Michael Corleone, this issue is actually personal. Just saying: a study conducted by Accenture found that 44% of consumers were frustrated with companies that didn’t provide personalized shopping experiences. Think about it—doesn’t it feel good when you get ads tailored to what you were already absentmindedly Googling at the office (especially when you work in an industry with products as great as ours)?

At the end of the day, know that personalizing content that goes out to consumers is critical to building longevity and trust. And in terms of brand equity and lovability, isn’t that your goal?

Have other great automation tips to add? Leave us a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter @TheCoreBlog!

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