It’s time to get personal. The one-size-fits-all email campaigns don’t work anymore.
Today, consumers demand and expect personalized content and experience, both online and offline. To meet these demands, you have to exceed customer expectations and set yourself apart from the competition.
Using top email service providers and personalization, you can reach every one of your subscribers as though you know them personally, like a trusted friend. You can address them by name, deliver messages they love, and deliver content that perfectly caters to their needs. As a result, your subscribers will start looking forward to receiving emails from you.
Personalized emails drive 18 times more revenue than emails that aren’t personalized. Also, personalized emails boost click-through rates by 14% and conversions by 10%.
In spite of this, many businesses have been slow to take up personalization. In fact, it’s only 5% of businesses that personalize their emails extensively. That’s an astonishingly low number.
So, why are so few businesses implementing personalization? It’s because many marketers don’t know how to do it. 60% of marketers admit they struggle to personalize their content in real time.
However, if you do want to personalize your email marketing campaigns, you don’t have to struggle. Read on for five effective tips.
Five Email Personalization Tactics That Go Beyond a Name
- Create Personalized Copy
You feel much better when a friend walks up to you and starts a conversation by saying your name, instead of “Hi!” It makes a huge difference in setting the tone of the conversation.
This is also true for email messages. Subscribers want you to give them a personal shout-out, and people love hearing their own name. Emails with personalized subject lines generate 26% more open rates.
But don’t stop there with the personalized shout-outs. Include the subscriber’s first name in the body of the email too. This is a great way to remind customers you care about their individual experience with your business.
- Use Personalized Images
Another way to boost your click-through rates is to personalize your images. Do this by using different data and customer personas.
For example, you can create location-specific images if you have your subscribers’ location data. In their recent campaign, Virgin created three different images for their customers in the US, UK, and Australia. This improved their click-through rates by 29%.
You can change your images depending on the data you collect. This could include personal preferences, gender, loyalty program status, or weather patterns.
- Use Personalized Offers
Boost your click-through rates and conversions by personalizing your offers. You can use the data you collect to create customer profiles, then create different content offers for various groups of subscribers.
For example, Adidas personalize their offers by gender. Instead of sending their whole collection of men’s and women’s shoes to everyone, they send men’s offers to males and women’s offers to females.
Another great example is Uber. They personalize their offers according to the customer’s location. They know where their customers live and where they travel to, so they can adapt their offers accordingly.
You might have the best offer but if it’s irrelevant to your subscribers, they won’t convert.
- Personalize Cart Abandonment Emails
Did you know that $4 trillion of revenue is lost each year through cart abandonment? That’s shocking, right? Yet, 65% of abandoned carts can be recovered within 24 hours, and email reminders sent within 60 seconds of cart abandonment have a 40% open rate.
Boost the possibility of conversion by personalizing cart abandoned reminders based on customer data.
For instance, J. Crew is a brand that uses fun copywriting and personalized content to encourage customers to complete purchases. When customers abandon their cart, J. Crew sends a reminder email with a great image of what’s in their cart. And with one click of a button, the customer can return to their cart and complete the purchase.
- Personalize Based on Customer Behavior
Though this is complex, it’s an insanely beneficial email marketing technique.
Compile data from social media, your back-end system and your email service provider to send more relevant offers. You can create highly targeted segments based on customer interests, behavior, and their engagement with your marketing campaigns. After segmenting your subscribers, you can trigger automated customer journeys with personalized offers.
Today, using data to improve the customer experience is a great way to boost engagement and stay competitive.