5 Email Personalization Tips To Boost Open Rates

What is email personalization in marketing?

First, it is important to define email personalization in marketing. Email marketing personalization refers to the practice of using data to design, create, and write unique emails for specific customers or sets of customers.

Today, with the push of a button, it is very easy to send the same email to thousands of people. If you want to maximize your conversion rates, you need to design a unique, personalized email for each individual or group.

This takes a lot of time, so it is important for you to use every tool at your disposal to maximize the benefits of email personalization without spending too much time on this task.

The goal of email personalization is to create specific emails that will appeal to each person on your marketing list. With certain techniques, such as behavioral targeting, you can achieve this goal without writing a distinct email for each recipient.

Benefits of email personalization

As you figure out how you will maximize the benefits of your email marketing campaigns with email personalization, it is critical to take a look at a few of the top benefits of this practice.

Some of the biggest reasons why you need to pursue email personalization as a part of your digital marketing campaign include:

Higher open rates

One of the first benefits of email personalization is that you can enjoy significantly higher open and click-through rates.

If your recipients feel like the email has been intended for them, instead of thousands of others, they will be more likely to click on and read the email because they will believe its contents are important.

Stronger connections

You will also have an easier time building strong relationships with your customers. Today, customers and clients have higher expectations than they have ever had in the past. They expect your emails and messages to be personalized to them, and that is why an email personalization campaign can help you build better connections.

Boost your brand identity

Email personalization is also critical because it can help you increase your brand identity. You need to send a message that you care deeply about your customers and clients, and if you use personalized emails to communicate with them, your company will build a reputation as one of the leaders in your industry.

Drive repeat engagement

Do you want your customers to come back for future purchases? If so, email personalization is important. Based on the customer data you have, you can personalize your emails to match the wants, needs, and desires of each recipient.

As a result, they will be more likely to click on the links you provide, explore your products and services, and make a purchase.

There are plenty of reasons why you need to use email personalization as a part of your marketing campaign.

5 tips & best practices for email personalization

If you want to create relevant campaigns through email personalization, there are a few key tips to follow.

Some of the most important email personalization strategies and best practices that you should follow include:

1. Collect more information when your subscribers sign up

You want more people to subscribe to your email list. Therefore, you have probably tried to keep the sign-up form short and sweet. However, you still need to collect data from your subscribers when they sign up. That way, you can use this information to personalize the email campaign they receive.

For example, you might want to ask your subscribers how old they are. Or, you might want to ask them why they are interested in your products and services. You might even want to ask for information about their monthly budget. That way, you can use this information to personalize the recommendations you send them.

You do not want to discourage people from signing up for your email list, so you might want to send this information out as part of a survey after they give you their email addresses. That way, you maximize the number of people on your email list but also get the information you require.

2. Segment the emails you send out by buyer stage

When you send your emails to your potential customers, you need to segment them by their individual stages.

Picture your recipients as leads moving down the sales funnel. The email you send to someone at the top of the sales funnel is probably not going to be the same as the email you send to someone at the bottom of the sales funnel.

You should use targeted sequences and workflows to dictate who gets what email. For example, you might want to start with a welcome email, which can help you introduce the company to a potential customer.

Then, when someone is at the bottom of the sales funnel, they might receive an email with a specific product or service they might like. You should track where people are in the sales funnel and make sure you send emails that are appropriate for the stage of the journey.

3. Use triggered emails

Do you want to send personalized emails that will let your recipients know that you are paying attention? If so, you might want to send out emails that are triggered by certain behaviors.

A few examples of email triggers based on customer engagement include:

• If someone signs up for a loyalty membership, send an email thanking them for their registration.
• If one of your customers abandons their cart, send an email reminding them that they have items in the cart. Customizing abandoned cart messages can help you increase your conversion rates.
• If someone takes a look at your shipping cost and decides to go somewhere else, you might want to send them an email with a specific discount on shipping for their next order.

Certain behaviors should trigger certain responses by your team, and you can use personalized emails to help you achieve that goal.

4. Personalize the email with names and subject lines

You may think that personalizing your emails simply means addressing the customer by name. In reality, it means a lot more than that.

You should always start by personalizing the email with a subject line. Make sure the subject line is not too long, as you want the recipient to read it; however, think about how you phrase the subject line. It needs to feel natural.

Furthermore, you can personalize the email by adding a name to the sender. Instead of simply saying that the email is coming from a certain company, sign the email by someone who works for the company. That way, the email is tied to a name and face instead of simply a brand.

5. Use the recipient’s location as a part of the email

Finally, you should also pay attention to where the recipient is located before you send out the emails.

You might want to personalize the emails by specific geographic location. One of the easiest ways to do this is to think about the time zone in which the recipient is located. Think about when someone is most likely to open and read an email and schedule the emails to be sent at that time. For example, you might have a better chance of getting someone to open your email at noon their time instead of 4 in the morning.

You can also use the recipient's location to personalize the email even further. For example, you can mention something important going on in that specific geographic location, or you might want to talk about changes that are taking place in weather patterns. Remember to tie all of this personalization back to your products and services.

Customize your emails

If you are looking for ways to customize your emails, look for an email marketing platform to help you. For instance, Mailchimp’s email marketing software can help you personalize emails that you send to your recipients without spending an inordinate amount of time doing so.

If you can personalize your email marketing campaign, you should have a higher open rate and conversion rate. Take a look at some of the resources from Mailchimp that can help you do exactly that.