5 Best Practices of Email Personalisation

Hundreds of emails reach us daily, but let’s be honest – how many of them are actually being read? People are busy with their lives, so only the emails which attract attention or seem to be useful are truly being opened.

Email marketing is crucial for a business’s success. However, with the changing customer demands, marketers need to come up with creative and effective ways to achieve their marketing goals. Here is a suggestion on the table – email personalization. It will help to meet customer expectations and provide a closer, friendlier experience.

What Is Email Personalisation?

Email personalization is one of the email marketing strategies where the information about the audience is being used to create targeted and specified campaigns. Whether it is the name of the customer, place of living, activity log, or purchasing behavior, marketers can use this information to customize their emails and increase their chances of being opened and clicked on.

Personalized emails are not only proven to be effective in terms of opening, but they also contribute to higher conversion rates, revenue increase, and boost sales. Personalized messages are usually starting with subscribers receiving emails that have their names included in the subject line. Alternatively, some marketers decide to go the extra mile and adapt the email’s content based on more segmented results such as age, gender, location, last product purchased, and more.

How To Personalise Your Emails?

Personalizing your email seems like a lot of work, but it is not as hard as it looks at first. With a great email marketing tool such as Sender, personalizing your campaign can be a simple process that will definitely bring you multiple benefits and results.

It has been discovered that there is an average increase in sales of 20% once the marketers use personalized experiences. Professionals now know how to step out of the box and provide their subscribers with content that will be satisfactory. 

Within the past few years, companies have done a lot of testing and came out with some best performing email personalization strategies which you can also follow in order to give a boost of fresh air to your business and make your clients feel like they are receiving a message from a friend rather than from the marketer.  

Email Personalisation Tactics and Strategies

If you are still unsure about how to personalize your emails, check the following tips and tricks and content ideas to help you out.

1. Personalize the email by including the customer’s name.

It is one of the simplest ways when customizing your email. Just add the name of the customer and they will instantly feel engaged and interested. It will show your audience that your company understands the needs of a client and will be more likely to trust you as they will feel that the content will be relative to them. 

There are two ways of using the client’s name in the email. You can either add it into the subject line where your customer will take notice, or you might want to add the name straight into your email by directing it to the person via the introductory line.

2. Personalize the email emphasizing the importance of the customer’s location

Another great method of email personalization is involving the location of your potential client. You may want to present the promotions and discounts specifically for the selected location, in-store offers, or by presenting a map with the closest stores.

It will give your email recipient an advantage as potentially they were not aware of the stores around them and specific deals designed for their location.

That will not only increase their motivation to visit their local shop, but it will give them a valuable piece of advice which is very important once receiving a newsletter or welcome email from any type of business.

Moreover, the customer will be more likely to read your further emails if you provide them with content that is relative and useful. Check out the location personalization email example below:

3. Personalize your email based on the customer’s purchasing behavior

You might get some inspiration for your email content by reviewing your customer’s purchasing behavior. Shopping habits will encourage them to make purchases.

There are several things you may want to add to your email:

• Check the products your customers have previously bought. Arrange an email to thank them for their purchase or suggest some similar items.
• Examine the products the customer has been looking at while visiting your website. Send out reminders or special deals to encourage purchases.
• You might want to remind your clients about the things they have abandoned in their shopping cart and influence them to review these items again. There is a chance they will be buying these products now.

If you need further guidance, take a look at this great example below:

4. Send your customers a ‘Happy Birthday’ email

Everyone likes birthday wishes, so why don’t you use them as part of your personalized approach? It is an excellent way to connect with your clients individually, celebrate their big day, and appreciate them for being your customer.

You might also consider giving them a special discount or reward as a gift to add more value and make your customers feel special and distinguished. For example, if you have an online course platform, you can give special offers to your new courses. It will generate benefits both ways – your client will be happy with a great offer and you will receive another successful purchase. 

Besides ‘Happy Birthday’ emails, you should also consider sending out a customized email for Christmas, Easter, or any other festivities throughout the year. This can be done for all of your previous buyers or you might want to select the specific VIP list where your loyal customer will be segmented and treated with some extra attention and exceptional deals.

5. Treat your customers with a personalized yearly review email

People are sentimental. By reminding them about the activities which happened last year, topics which were hot, and purchases they have made you will be able to attract attention and engage with your audience. 

Use this email to celebrate your company’s achievements of the year, thank your customer for purchases and give some extra credit for being around – offer deals or discounts to encourage them to start their year with your company. Let’s look at a great example from Spotify, celebrating the end of the year, treating its customers with the highlights and reminders.

6. Tips on email personalization to achieve the maximum results

When personalizing an email, customized content is taking huge importance. However, there are some more elements to consider before successfully implementing email personalization in your marketing strategy:

• Your email needs to be relevant: besides the use of the recipient’s name and attractive subject line, the relevancy of what is inside matters. With people receiving huge amounts of emails during the day, only the ones that stand out are chosen to be opened. Make sure that whatever your email is about, it directly impacts your reader and brings value as otherwise, your efforts might literally go to the trash.

To increase the relevancy of your email, you might want to create buyer personas and collect the important information through the help of sign-up forms. Try and get as much detailed data as possible, it will strongly increase your email opening rates as you will enable a fully developed segmentation which will allow you to personalize the email material to the best interests of your consumer.

• Timing is important: once you are aware of your customer preferences and what they like to see, sending that email at the right time is the following step to successful email personalization. If your customer is visiting your website and looking at certain items, the window of opportunity opens. Analyze their behavior on your website and strike with the email which will bring them back to your site for further purchases.
• The sender needs to be a person, not a robot. This is one of the biggest roles in email personalization. The aim is to please the customer in the manner of a friend, a real person who cares about the needs and knows what the recipient wants. Creating a relationship is what will enable trust, increase the click-through and opening rates. Add the last touch of email personalization by using a real person’s name in the ‘from’ field and at the end of the email. Besides that, you might want to consider the face shot of the team member next to the name, rather than the presence of the logo.

Conclusion: Remember the importance of email personalization

Email personalization can change the game for your company. If done correctly, you will be able to enjoy the benefits of high conversion rates, website visits, and increased revenue. Don’t be a cold-hearted robot, invest some time in your customers, get to know them, and use the information collected to give them what they want. 

Remember to be a friend who sends an email that directly calls the person by their name, includes relative content whether it is based on location or purchasing behavior. Lastly, show some exclusivity by sending individual content to make your recipients feel one and only.