personalizing email marketing tips

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Sending emails is an indispensable way to reach clients. Email marketing is 40 times more effective as a customer acquisition strategy than relying on Facebook or Twitter. As such, it remains a crucial marketing tactic.

Unfortunately, only a few understand how to reap the full benefits of email marketingSeventy percent of businesses collect data from their clients but fail to capitalize on the insights. More often than not, marketers use templates and send emails in bulk. While this saves time, it is an ineffective way of doing business as these messages tend to end up in spam or trash folders.

According to SmarterHQ, 72% of consumers are willing to engage in interactions only when messages feel personal. Remember that your goal is to reach people, not just inboxes. Personalizing emails to make them more conversational and compelling can cause email open rates soar and forge good customer relationships.

Email marketing, when done properly, can do wonders for your business. More interactions translate to increased sales. This article will provide tips on how to create personalized emails and list seven benefits of putting them into action.

How to Create a Personalized Email for Marketing

The first task is to gather relevant information from your clients and customers: who they are, their needs, and preferences. Once you have that information, it’s time to divide your email list into groups.

Segmenting email addresses will guide you on the kinds of emails specific clients and customers should receive. You can divide your roster based on location, background, age, and other data.

According to Al Lautenslager of Entrepreneur Asia Pacific, people generally prefer to receive the following types of content in their emails:

  • Timely information
  • Personal invitations
  • Rewards for acting quickly
  • Fresh news that’s relevant and useful

To make your emails stand out, implement the following enhancements:

Personalize Subject Lines

study from Stanford Graduate School of Business found that simply adding the customer’s name to the subject line of an email can generate the following results:

  • Enhance email open rates by up to 20%;
  • Increase sales by up to 31%; and
  • Decrease unsubscribe rates by 17%.

Note Their Interests and Activities

Customers appreciate it when they’re offered products based on what they’ve viewed or “liked.” It saves them time looking for similar items, thereby facilitating a good user experience. It also results in higher profits. According to Leslie John, Tami Kim, and Kate Barasz of Harvard Business Review, tailoring ads based on onsite activity increases product revenue by 38%.

Track website visitors’ clicks and browsing history. Then, classify subscribers as heavily engaged, moderately engaged, or not at all engaged. Insights derived from these groupings will help you craft more targeted messages and help usher customers along the sales funnel. Offer quality content based on personal preferences.

When faced with a large number of emails on a given day, people tend to discard purely traditional variants because they think they have nothing to do with them. A more personalized approach solves this by encouraging engagement and providing real value to your subscribers.

First, ask what kind of emails they like to receive and how often they want to receive them. This way, you ensure that your messages are something they want in their inbox.

Make Customers Feel Appreciated

Sending welcome, milestones, and birthday emails makes your clients and customers feel that they’re important. According to Experian, compared to traditional promotional emails, birthday emails with offers yielded:

  • 481% higher transaction rates
  • 342% higher revenue per email
  • 179% higher unique click rates

Use Landing Pages

While sharing relevant information, it also helps to link your email to pages where customers can learn more about your products or services. This makes it more convenient for customers to mull over what you have to offer. As a result, encourage more people to move toward purchases.

Incentivize Customers to Act Quickly

People are more likely to associate enjoyable email experiences with businesses that offer benefits. Discounts and limited-time offers urge consumers to act immediately when the rewards are significant. Avoid sending too-good-to-be-true statements, as consumers easily recognize these as click bait.

Benefits of Personalized Emails in Email Marketing

  1. Boosts credibility

Customers will only do business with brands they trust. To build that trust, you need to connect with them and mark your presence. According to research from Adestra, 73% of millennials prefer to be contacted by businesses via email.

Send value-adding content to build your brand’s credibility and keep you top-of-mind.

  1. Builds and nurtures relationships

It’s imperative for businesses to establish and maintain relationships with clients. Catering to their needs and sharing stories that resonate with your target audience will help achieve this. If consumers feel that they have a connection with your brand, they’re more likely to support the band and remain loyal. Accenture’s pulse survey supports this by showing that 91% of consumers are more likely to purchase products from brands that offer relevant recommendations. Through email marketing, 80% of business professionals believe you can increase customer retention.

  1. Cost-effective

Compared to other modes of marketing, personalized emails are less costly and take less effort to produce. All you need is content based on consumers’ onsite behaviors and relevant demographic information.

What’s more, you can automate email marketing to save time and dedicate your energy to more complex tasks.

  1. Increases profits

Sending emails keeps customers engaged with your brand. It also enhances email open rates, drives traffic, and increases site transactions for more profit. These claims are supported by the following statistics:

  1. Improves brand recognition

Reaching the right people at the right time with the right message makes a successful email marketing campaign. The goal is to be at the top of your clients’ minds when they are ready to purchase. They may not buy today or tomorrow, but when they have already decided, your brand will be the first they turn to.

  1. Communicates thoughtfulness

With the right email marketing plan, you communicate that you care about more than just sales. Humanizing your brand puts customers at ease, knowing that behind the digital store are actual people trying to provide solutions to their problems. Personalized email marketing extends customer service and aftercare — both of which play to your advantage.

  1. Increased client satisfaction

When consumers are presented with product offers that fit their interests, they are more likely to buy. According to a study, 42% of clients are annoyed when they receive impersonal content.

Moreover, consumers are willing to provide in-depth information in exchange for a more pleasant and personalized experience. Adding value and keeping things easy are crucial steps to getting customers to return after they’ve made their first purchase.

Bottom Line: Sending customized emails to consumers can dramatically improve results. Delivering quality content, adding a personal touch, and following these tips will benefit both you and your customers.