Personalization has become the essential ingredient in every email marketer’s most successful campaigns. Email marketing personalization has proven so effective that it’s become industry standard, and now, even your consumers will notice a difference—71% of subscribers expect personalized messaging.
Maybe you’ve used a recipient’s first name in the subject line, but this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to personalization. If you want to capture the full scope of benefits from personalization, there’s so much more to dive into. Email marketers have a well-stocked toolkit for maximizing the impact of personalized campaigns that enables this process to be easier and more approachable than ever before. From conditional content to send-time optimization, we’ll outline the most effective, data-driven personalization strategies that any email marketer can deploy.
What is email marketing personalization?
At its most basic, personalization is the use of subscriber data to produce more relevant messages and interactions. This data can translate into personalization as simple as using someone’s first name in a subject line. But the world of personalization goes way beyond this. You can use demographic data (what I know about you) or behavioral data (email engagement, website visits, purchase history) to craft relevant content. Use this data to communicate with large groups in a way that feels one-on-one.
When built into sophisticated automation workflows, personalization can turn a standard campaign into a well-oiled conversion machine. You can deliver a highly-targeted, hyper-personalized experience to every customer.
Is personalized email marketing worth it?
We’ve got good news and bad news. Good news: personalization is absolutely worth it. Bad news: if you’re not currently using personalization, you’re missing out on massive gains in your email marketing. Back to the good news: it’s not as difficult as past experiences have led many marketers to believe.
Is it worth the work? Marketers who adopt personalization have a huge opportunity to get ahead of the competition. The data couldn’t be more clear:
- Higher open rate: Personalized email subject lines increase email open rates by 26%
- Stronger click-through rate: Personalized emails have a CTR that’s 41% higher than non-personalized emails.
- Increased revenue: Marketers see a 20% increase in sales when using personalized experiences.
- Infinite time saved: Instead of building email variations for each contact segment, you can build one email and it will personalize on autopilot.
- Boosted ROIs: Better open rates, clicks, and conversions culminate in a greater return on investment for every email you build and send.
Although those stats speak for themselves, but there are even more benefits to personalizing your campaigns.
Have you ever heard of the halo effect?
The halo effect refers to the preference a customer develops after having a positive experience with your brand. Think of it like a warm glow (a halo) people associate your brand with because of a good past experience…you’ve built trust. The halo effect will double-up your brand strength, and customer loyalty, and ultimately result in better brand equity.
It’s not all warm fuzzy feelings, this halo effect and the other positive powers of personalization can be backed up by cold, hard data. Personalization in email marketing can:
- Increase customer loyalty and retention: 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history.
- Make your offers more attractive: 91% of consumers say they are more willing to do business with a company that provides offers directly relevant to them.
- Set yourself apart from competitors: Personalized emails can help you stand out, it’s like the difference between giving a speech to a crowd and walking up to someone to make a 1:1 sales pitch.
Effective personalization starts with good data
Email personalization is crucial for effective marketing, but marketers come up against one common obstacle: a lack of accurate, organized customer data. Without sufficient data on your audience’s demographics, interests, or behavior, crafting truly personalized email campaigns becomes impossible.
How do you collect this kind of data? The most accurate way to gather data on your customers is to just ask them. First-party data is the most reliable way to learn more about your subscribers and turn it into personalized experiences. Here are some ideas on how to collect first-party and other types of data for personalization:
- Start progressive profiling: Ask for new information progressively over time rather than simply adding more fields to your web forms.
- Send check-in quizzes: Quizzes are an entertaining way to learn more about the changing interests of your subscribers.
- Lean on behavioral data: Turn to tools like web page view tracking or your CRM software that keeps track of purchase history, clicks, or website visits.
You may run into instances where you have incomplete data for some subscribers. Make sure you have default messaging (or a full customer experience) for when data is missing. Default fallbacks are lifesavers for incomplete data, but there’s no cure for inaccurate or outdated data. The more manual your data process is, the more prone you are to inaccuracies. Choose an ESP that can connect to your critical databases and send data bilaterally so core systems stay in sync.
Don’t get bogged down by irrelevant data. More data isn’t always better, it can actually be worse. Bring in the data you need to create personalized experiences in a meaningful way. Just leave the rest behind.
The real culprits in all of this are email marketing platforms that make it harder to handle your data. With the right platform, personalization is a walk in the park—so your best bet for easy, effective personalization is to choose a data-driven platform.
The absence of advanced tools and capabilities within email marketing platforms limits marketers' ability to segment audiences effectively and deliver dynamic, personalized content at scale.
Platforms like Delivra make personalization easy for data-driven teams. Delivra takes the stress out of your data collection, making it easier to gather, organize, and put it straight into action. Delivra’s suite of advanced tools for personalization is specifically designed to empower every marketer.
From advanced automation to dynamic content capabilities, every tool will help you deliver highly targeted email and SMS campaigns.
The most effective email personalization strategies
(Hint: It’s easier than you think. Personalization is anything that uses data to make messaging more relatable and relevant which makes it a mutually beneficial connection point between you and your audience. Personalization also becomes more fun when you realize it comes in lots of shapes and sizes, especially when it’s not just, “Hello, NAME)
Improve your send strategy with send time optimization
Send time optimization (STO) is your best friend for improving open rates—and personalizing your send strategy beyond its content. Send time optimization is an intelligent system that does all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to delivering your email at the best possible time. There are two parts to send time optimization: predictive sending and time zone sending.
Predictive sending sends your emails when they are most likely to be read. In this form of send time optimization, machine learning will calculate the best time to send your campaign to each recipient based on their past click and open behavior.
If you haven't sent to a recipient yet or they don’t have a click history, their email will be sent at the “best” time based on an average of all the clicks from your recipients.
Time zone sending will deliver your emails at a scheduled time in each subscriber's local time zone. For example, if you schedule your email to send at 10 am, all subscribers under time zone sending will receive that email at 10 am in their local time.
If you don’t have their location data, Delivra will evaluate an optimal send time based on when the recipient has interacted with your emails. And if this data doesn’t exist, the campaign will be sent at the time scheduled in your time zone.
Maximizing personalization tags in email content
Use personalization tags to tailor your email content and structure. These tags are a great way to include dynamic content and customize emails using 1:1 data from the contact record. There are a few places you can do this:
Subject lines: Show unique or personal information in your email subject lines to grab subscribers’ attention as they scroll through their inboxes.
- Examples of personalization tags in subject lines:
- Treats that %%PetName%% will love!
- The cast of %%ShowName%% can’t wait to see you on %%ShowDate%%
- Hi %%FirstName%%, use your rewards before they expire.
Email content: Make your email content more relevant to subscribers by merging in purchased product information, membership renewal dates, ticketing information, and more.
- Examples of personalization tags in email content:
- Your Premium Membership to the American Professionals Association will automatically renew soon. Your %%PaymentType%% will be charged $%%SubscriptionCost%% on %%RenewalDate%%.
- It’s official! You're going to see %%ShowName%% on Broadway!
- Your online course %%Course1%% classes begins %%CourseStartDate%
Mastering conditional content
Conditional content is where email personalization starts to heat up. Use conditional content to customize blocks of email content for segments of subscribers. Dynamically display email headers, footers, and body content based on subscriber attributes such as membership status, email preferences, and purchase history.
This could look like showing or hiding exclusive subscriptions and offers based on member vs. non-member status. It could also include VIP access, advanced discount ticket sales announcements, or members-only email footers. For example, check out how AVMA used conditional content to create variations of their newsletter footer and subscription centre.
Additionally, consider conditional content tailored to subscriber interests. For example, your outdoor gear store sends a newsletter to all its customers. Separate your audience into two segments based on their interests: hiking and kayaking. In the section of your newsletter where you offer outdoor tips, show one segment of subscribers three articles on the best trails in the area and show your other segment gear reviews on kayaking equipment. With one small change, you have created tailored email content that will generate more clicks.
Another way you can use conditional content is based on past subscriber behavior. Here are some ways to collect and leverage this kind of data:
1. Analyze web browsing behavior
Example 1: Your subscribers are browsing your website for vacation packages. Create conditional content in your upcoming email newsletter to personalize email images and text for vacation destinations viewed.
2. Historical purchase behavior
Example 1: Insert product recommendations into follow-up emails based on a subscriber’s most recent purchase.
Example 2: Send product replenishment reminders after an elapsed period of time to encourage customers to re-order, “Ready to reorder ___?”
3. Lead scoring
Example 1: Tailor call-to-action (CTA) buttons based on a contact’s current lead score. For hot leads, display “Schedule a demo” text on your buttons, for cold leads, display “Download guide” for an introductory e-book or other lead magnet.
By employing conditional content and leveraging subscriber data effectively, you can create highly personalized email experiences that resonate with your audience. Implementing these strategies not only boosts engagement but also enhances conversion rates, ultimately driving the success of your campaigns.
Apply personalization to sender/reply addresses
Personalized marketing automation isn’t only for sending, you can leverage personalization to tailor how you route email replies as well. Don’t leave subscribers wondering if they’re reaching the right person or anyone at all. And avoid the pain of all replies funneling into one inbox and having to manually forward them to the right person. Yikes.
Enter personalization tags. Use tags on “From” lines that your readers recognize at your organization. For example, enter a tag for a subscriber’s customer success manager to direct replies to the most appropriate place.
This would look something like this: %%CSMName%% <%%CSMEmail%%>
Other common routing options could include your:
- Customer support manager
- Sales representative
- Account manager
- Regional representative
That way, when they’re replying to your emails, customers can feel assured their message is going to a human (not an anonymous “reply-to” address) and someone who is best equipped to help them. Using personalization tags in your internal email automations allows you to personalize the communication process and increase customer satisfaction.
Master contact segmentation
Integrate or import data from your CRM to dynamically populate segments, manage your audience lists, and keep them up-to-date. Here are two ways you can get creative (beyond classic demographic data) with the customer info stored in your CRM:
Example 1: Update a customer status field to indicate that a prospect has become a customer.
Example 2: Evaluate each customer’s last purchase to identify dormant buyers to send through a win-back automation.
Manage your preference center
Finally, give your subscribers a voice in how you personalize their content experience. Manage subscriber preferences with tags to ensure that you’re sending the content they want. Always offer an external-facing form at the bottom of your marketing emails to give subscribers a way to self-manage their preferences—this is another way to collect that golden first-party data.
Stay clear of these email personalization pitfalls
- Prevent bad or improperly formatted data: Ensure your data is accurate, up-to-date, and properly formatted to avoid sending emails to the wrong recipients or with outdated information.
- Leave behind inadequate testing: Test your personalized emails thoroughly to catch any errors or inconsistencies before sending them to your audience. This ensures a seamless and professional experience for your subscribers.
- Avoid disconnected systems: Ensure that your email marketing platform (ESP) is integrated with your other systems to maintain consistency in data and messaging across all channels.
- Lose missing default values: Always have default values saved to tag fields to avoid sending emails with blank or incomplete personalization elements.
- Skip over-segmentation or exclusion: Avoid over-segmenting your audience to the point where you exclude contacts unnecessarily.
- Prioritize connection: Remember that the goal is to establish a meaningful connection with your audience, not simply to fulfill data requirements. Focus on creating authentic and engaging interactions.
- Follow good opt-in practices: Respect your subscribers' preferences and privacy by obtaining clear consent before sending them personalized emails. This builds trust and ensures compliance with regulations.
- Remember your “who, what, why”: Before implementing personalization strategies, have a clear understanding of your audience, your objectives, and the reasons behind your personalization efforts. Intentionality is crucial for effective personalization that drives meaningful results.
Look at that! You’re off to a strong start with your data and email personalization! Implement these pointers, avoid the pitfalls, and watch your data organization and email personalization go into hyperdrive.
