If you’re familiar with email marketing, you understand the importance of the open rate and click rate of your emails. These factors are key in understanding how well you are connecting with your contacts and how engaging your content really is. But in a crowded digital marketing environment where most people receive dozens of emails a day, how can you make yours stand out? The answer may lie in your ability to utilize personalization. Did you know that emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened?
The next time you have a message you’d like to share via email, consider the different options for adding a personal touch. Here’s what we know to be the smartest ways to integrate personalization into your email strategy.
Practice restraint when adding personalization
The purpose of adding personalized elements to your emails is straightforward: to add a personal, humanized touch to your marketing message. In order to use these tools successfully your email should sound like it was written with each recipient in mind. To accomplish this, use personalization tools wisely and only where they feel genuine. If you add the same personalization element too many times in one email, you lose the sense of humanization and begin to sound automated. For example, refrain from addressing someone by their first name multiple times in one message. Ensure that your message reads just as a natural conversation would. Be sure to mix up your personalization tokens each time you send an email that over time, your communication doesn’t begin to sound automated and impersonal.
Go further than the first name basis
If you’ve asked the right questions on your forms and nurtured your contacts for long enough, you will have built up a wealth of information about your database. To stand out in a person’s email inbox and make an impact with your database knowledge, use this information to personalize more than just the subject line and introduction of your emails. Celebrate birthdays by sending your contacts a message on their special day. You can even use personalization to celebrate sign up anniversaries and thank your contacts for opting into email communication. Changing up the ways you use personalization tools in your emails will make your brand (and your message!) stand out in the crowded environment of email marketing.
Start with segmentation
When you add an element of personalization to an email, you create the impression that the information included is relevant, important, and intended for the recipient. Take this one step further by segmenting your email lists so your audience only receives information they want to receive. Segment your email audience by geography, age, gender, or even dietary preference and strategize your email copy to communicate your message in a way that applies to that specific group. If your content is designed for the recipients, the added personalization tools will drive home the individualized connection you are working to achieve.
Smarter email personalization starts with a well maintained database and an inbound marketing strategy that allows you to constantly collect key insights from your audiences. Interested in strengthening your database and sending more effective emails? We would love to help!
