Email personalization is something that most professionals are not taking advantage of. It's time to stop sending out generic emails and start putting your customers first! Email personalization is something that most professionals are not taking advantage of. It's time to stop sending out generic emails and start putting your customers first!
Email personalization is done to match the content with consumers’ preferences or behaviors. So, it is best to know your customers well before you start sending personalized campaigns their way. One of the ways to do this is by using customer personas which are basically representations of specific types of customers that share similar characteristics and behavior patterns.
Based on their personalities or behavioral traits, these personas help marketers craft messaging that resonates and demonstrates how the company understands and cares for individual needs.
Many businesses have been incredibly slow to take up personalization. In fact, it has been reported that only 5% of companies personalize extensively. That is a shockingly low figure.
But it is one that seems to be changing as more and more businesses realize the power of truly engaging with their customers. Today’s infographic from strategy consulting firm Frost & Sullivan looks at six email personalization techniques that do not rely solely on someone’s name.
This includes using location and time data, as well as making use of customer personas and automated triggers to create emails like alerts and reminders which can be tailored based on individual preferences or actual behaviors. The infographic also highlights the benefits of personalization in email marketing, including measurable results and improved customer loyalty.
Among the six email personalization techniques, the top two are location and time. For example, in regions where winter snows make shopping difficult, you can send announcements about upcoming sales several weeks before they start.
Those people who live near mountains could be alerted to your sale for snow gear long before it starts or when its ends due to bad weather conditions. This is possible because you know their region, season(s) of the year, where they are located geographically.
This is also relevant to business-to-business marketers since companies that sell products with high perishability (think food), would greatly benefit from this type of personalization.
Knowing when a product needs replenishing is critical so automated notification emails can save you time, reduce unnecessary expenses (shipping), and can ensure your clients are never without their favorite products.
For example, you can set up emails for the welcome, welcome back, purchase, abandon cart, etc. Automated behavioral triggers will help increase email open rates as well as click-through rates which basically means your money spent on sending these emails will be very effective and productive instead of wasted.
A study by marketing technology firm Yes Lifecycle Marketing found that consumers who had abandoned their carts were sent a thank-you email and then prompted to continue shopping from where they left off.
In this instance, conditional personalization was used to create relevant experiences for customers who might have been trying to check out on the site but felt distracted before completing the checkout process.
As a result, 35% of people who received this type of personalized email went on to make a purchase, while only 5% did when they received generic emails. It’s important to note that these emails meant no additional work or time input for the company since all info needed is already in the database - it is simply a matter of using it.
In addition, the study found that more personalized emails performed better in both open and click-through rates compared to generic ones. Personalization can indeed have a significant impact on conversion rates while also reinforcing brand loyalty among customers.
By “targeting campaigns at specific customer segments or smaller groups within an overall group of customers”, email marketing opens doors for success since it provides marketers with more precise data on who they are trying to influence.
And targeted communications have been shown to generate 30% higher CTRs than non-targeted emails according to Econsultancy. In fact, September 2015 research from Yes Lifecycle Marketing showed that personalization was one of the drivers of metrics for digital marketing success across channels.
Personalization in marketing has become more prevalent in recent years due to the increase in customer outreach via email and other means. Promoting personalized experiences will attract repeat customers while helping businesses keep existing customers happy and therefore reduce churn rates.
When doing email personalization, asking the right questions allow you to dive a little deeper and make a more personal connection with your customer, increasing their likelihood of returning to your business or replying to an offer they found interesting.
One great example that comes from our own email marketing at YesInsights is taking the time to really understand what topics my subscribers are interested in learning about.
By simply asking one question when my subscribers sign up, I can send out an email with content based on what my audience is interested in. This technique makes them feel exclusive and wanted while also making sure I'm sharing relevant content which increases click rates and conversions overall.
On top of this, you have the added benefit of being able to collect your customer's data, which you can use for further personalization down the line.
Ask qualifying questions that define who your prospective customers are, especially if you're providing content or resources that require a lot of engagement and input to use. Common examples include: "How many employees does your company have?"
If you're offering a product for businesses like HR software or email marketing tools, understanding their size can help determine the pricing and features required.
"Are any of your employees in X industry?" If you want to sell them an add-on service such as payroll services or employee benefits management, knowing they employ people in one specific industry will allow you to customize the message further.
"Which position do you currently hold at [company or organization]?" This helps when targeting individuals who might make a decision about adding a new member to their workforce.
Customer personas are essentially backstories about your customers based on research and data collected over time by following them through each channel they are present in. They are crucial to effective email marketing because they help sales teams empathize with their audience while also providing insights into how best to communicate with them.
Without creating a customer persona, many business owners rely on what they believe their target demographic is like, but this often leads to sending out irrelevant emails that make it harder for them to find real success through email marketing. Hence, that is why email personalization is needed.
Persona building offers several different advantages, including:
- It allows you to get a better idea of how your customers will respond to an email.
- It helps marketers understand the types of emails their prospects want and need from them.
- Personas can help marketers build more relevant messages that have higher click rates, which increases lead generation over time.
1) Create one paragraph descriptions for each main demographic you are targeting with your email campaigns (e.g., men aged 30-55 who live in rural areas). If using targeted content like an article or webinar for older generations is appropriate and potential customers use different channels (like LinkedIn instead of Facebook), this should be taken into account when determining where to promote it.
Your business might cater toward certain genders more than others because of what you sell (e.g., women's clothing vs. men's fashion).
2) Drill down into each demographic by describing the motivations they have for doing business with your company (what is their "pain point" they're trying to solve?), what channels they usually use, the words they use to describe your business, and what they care about most.
If you're located in the United States and your customers are usually local (based on contact information included with their email), this can affect how to best reach out to them — like sending a promo code for free shipping instead of letting them enter it manually once they've checked out.
3) Determine whether your customers want a lot of information or just a few main points.
4) Identify different ways you can reach out to them by answering questions such as: "What do they like? How can we get their attention?" and "How will we keep them engaged?"
5) As you begin emailing new leads and current clients, always collect feedback on how well your messages are reaching their audience (i.e., did it meet their needs?) and make changes based on what you're hearing.
Companies that don't follow this step often fail to build effective personas for their audience because they don't take the time to understand their customers' motivations and goals. They simply assume they know what their audience wants from them because it's obvious, but this is a common mistake that can lead to hours wasted on ineffective campaigns.
Customer personas are composite profiles of common demographics and behavior patterns that offer general insight into your audience as a whole. Creating these profiles will enable you to tailor the email content more specifically, which can result in higher engagement rates and conversions from signups/downloads/leads.
The best email marketers use location and time to send out personalized emails based on the fact that if someone signs up during different hours or from a different area code, they may have very different needs.
For example, if someone signs up for your newsletter at 1 AM, you might not want to send them an email immediately offering a webinar on business growth strategies. Instead, you should probably offer a late-night snackable piece of content like a blog post introducing your business and how it can help them.
You might also want to consider sending a postcard or quick email thanking them for their signup so they know you value their time and attention, rather than just blasting them with a sales pitch after first contact. On the other hand, if someone signs up from your city's main area code during regular work hours, you may want to offer that person a webinar recording on how your product will help increase efficiency in their office location within 24-48 hours of signing up.
They're likely expecting some sort of follow-up from you since it's obvious you have their contact information now, so offer immediately what they would most likely need next after signing up for your content.
Another great way to use location and time is by sending customers who live in different time zones an email with a suitable piece of content tailored specifically for them.
For example, you might be able to offer new customers in Australia a recording of one of your webinars that just took place since it would have already been recorded by that point anyway. This gives people in another country the same great information that people living in your area are receiving but fast-tracks them to get their hands on it immediately.
Personalization is about more than just names, especially if you have access to enough information that makes it possible to determine where someone is located or what time zone they're operating in. There are several ways this impacts your strategies, including;
Promoting different products depending on location: An electronics store could suggest visiting online marketplaces selling popular items without having to pay for shipping.
Business hours: If your business operates during certain hours of the day or week, mentioning these in emails can encourage people to purchase items at specific times.
This type of personalization makes use of email triggers to push users toward taking the desired action based on what they've already done previously (like viewing products or browsing categories). It's most commonly used after someone has made a purchase, but there are other contexts where it can be useful as well.
For example, if someone abandons their shopping cart before checking out or visits your website without signing up for newsletter updates, triggering an automated email sequence to persuade them to finish what they started is a good option.
And if someone has taken multiple steps toward signing up for an email list but hasn't completed the process, sending them relevant marketing material while still providing value can help motivate them to finally take action.
If done correctly, automated behavioral trigger emails can turn even non-active leads into paying customers and reestablish interest in previously dormant accounts without much effort from marketers. They achieve this by identifying triggers to send out automated emails to inactive users based on their previous interactions with your business.
For example, if someone has made three purchases from you but hasn't returned for six months, you might want to send them an email asking if they need anything else or if there's anything you can do for them now that you know they're interested in what your company offers. This can coax even the most passive of customers into returning to your website and making another purchase without much effort on your part.
Another trigger marketers often use is very similar to the last one—sending an email offering 50% off a specific product (or all products) after someone has not completed a transaction for several months or more. The benefit of this automated email is it can help bring a customer back into your ecosystem and give them an incentive to make another purchase so you don't lose money on their first transaction.
We've discussed how important segmenting is from the consumer side but businesses need to be just as strategic about segmenting too, especially if they have multiple brands or offerings that target different audiences.
If a specific customer takes interest in one of your brands instead of the one you want them to buy, you should still attempt to keep them engaged with your company by personalizing each brand message within reason. By doing this, you'll maintain a relationship with that person that could result in future business outside of what they originally came for.
For example, maybe your business sells dog food and supplements, but you notice someone made a large purchase from one of your supplement brands instead of the dog food brand. You might want to send them an email offering a free sample or discount code for their next purchase in order to get them back on track with your original plan.
Your company would gain more by selling another product they're interested in rather than losing out completely if that person left and never returned after not receiving the content they wanted when they originally signed up.
To ensure you aren't spammy and obnoxious with personalization (by sending 50 emails in a day about the same topic), be sure to test what works best for your audience before investing too much time into it.
If people are complaining regularly about your behavior or responding negatively to certain types of content, you probably need more input on how they want to be communicated with and should focus on improving your personalization strategies.
There are many ways to use personalization in your own business, including:
Customer support: The more empathetic you sound when talking with customers online (or elsewhere), the more likely they are to continue doing business with you and recommend you to their friends/family members. Taking the time to get acquainted with your audience beforehand will go a long way!
Advertising: You can speak directly to individuals who have visited your website or used your online shopping platform.
Social media: You can create specific content that caters to a certain audience, then post it on their personal social media profile.
Email marketing: This is a perfect opportunity for you to get in touch with the people who signed up for your list and turn them into loyal customers! If they opted-in through a form on your website, you have access to demographic information about them too.
Personalizing your emails and landing pages is extremely important if you want conversions from people who sign up for your content or download a lead magnet from your website. You can easily link the email they receive to the specific landing page that discusses what was included in the original email they signed up for.
If you're sending someone something more generic like a newsletter, make sure it's clear which category each email falls into so they don't miss out on relevant information by not looking at all of them (or ignoring an individual one because it didn't interest them).
When you have several different classes of emails, consider creating a calendar so people know what's coming next. When they sign up for your email list, ask if they want to receive newsletters every month or only when there are new product releases. This way, they can purchase or subscribe to your business when they're ready instead of worrying about irrelevant content being sent to their inbox on a regular basis.
