Personalized email marketing is an effective way to drive better results from your efforts.
Personalization was once viewed (and treated) as a one-size-fits-all mass messaging tactic. But email marketing has evolved to focus more on relevant content, segmentation and personalization so that the right message is targeted to the right person at the right time.
What is personalization?
Personalization refers to a business crafting its marketing messages to an individual. This is based on available information, such as purchase history, interests and demographics.
And yes, it can even be as simple as using the first name of a customer in a marketing email, for example:
Subject: Hi Christy thanks for your purchase today!
The goal of personalization is that your target audience feels as though you’re speaking directly to them through your content, website experience and more.
The following are six ways personalization can specifically benefit your email marketing.
Boosts your credibility among consumers
Consumers are more likely to do business with brands they trust. By sending valuable content that’s relevant to your email subscribers, you show that you’re a brand that is thoughtful.
Your email subscribers will ignore cookie-cutter mass emails with generic messaging. These types of emails also prevent potential customers from feeling seen.
By addressing your subscriber by his or her first name, curating content that matters to them and respecting their preferences, you’re exuding professionalism and standing out from the competition. This, in turn, helps you build trusting relationships with those consumers.
Cost-effective campaigns
Other than investing in an effective email marketing platform, such as DailyStory, that can help you design, schedule, segment and personalize your emails, the act of personalizing itself is basically at no additional cost.
Your investment in personalization is more about the time and thought required to use it effectively in your email marketing campaigns.
Increase in email open rates
It’s extremely common for consumers to delete promotional emails without even opening them. Also, remember that Gmail filters most promotional emails to its automatic “Promotions” folder (similar to how spam gets filtered out). This can be an extra barrier to getting your email opened.
In the simplest sense, including a first name in your email subject line can help. Emails with personalized subject lines are about 26 percent more likely to be opened.
Beyond personalizing the subject line with a first name, though, you should offer information about what is in the email. For example, based on a customer’s browsing experience on your website, you could highlight related product recommendations. In that way, you’re not just identifying that customer directly, you’re also speaking to his or her specific interests.
Doing so will help increase your email open rate.
Check out our 12 tips for email subject lines that won’t get ignored.
Boost email click-through rates
Personalized email can see about a 139 percent increase in the click-through rate.
You can only achieve this level of increase with accurate content and product recommendations within the body of the email itself. Of course, this is where the power of personalization enters.
By pairing the content that interests your email recipient with the extra bells and whistles (such as using his or her first name), you can compel that recipient to click on the call-to-action link in your email.
Doing so will help increase your email click rate.
Improve your conversion rates
Personalization helps your emails stand out from your competition because you’re building a bond with your customers based on your clear understanding of them, their preferences and their interests.
For example, when an ecommerce retailer emails a subscriber interested in form-fitting clothes about new skinny jeans with a discount included, the reflection of that subscriber’s interest is there, as well as the incentive to act now.
Just keep in mind that repeat customers are more likely to continue shopping, while converting first-time buyers is a bit more complicated.
Check out our 16 tips to boost your sales conversion rate.
Better return on investment
In digital marketing, so much of your strategy comes down to your return on investment (ROI). If a tactic or channel is not bringing in more revenue than it costs, then
Personalized email marketing is said to generate a median ROI of about 122 percent. Email marketing itself is a fairly low-cost digital marketing channel. And with the right email marketing platform, such as DailyStory, you can unleash the power of personalization with your own emails at a reasonable cost.
In conclusion
The marriage of email marketing and personalization can help level up your strategy (and success rate). Show your email subscribers that they matter with the personalized content they are most likely to engage with.
Of course, personalization can go beyond emails. Check out the eight benefits of personalization for digital marketing in general.
