6 ways to personalize your email marketing
We continue our series on how you can improve your email marketing and make it more efficient. We have already covered the importance of a tidy database, main newsletter metrics, and email texts. And today you will learn to personalize your email strategy.
Imagine you enter your favorite store, and on the counter, there are cookies and gummy bears that you come here every day for. The seller knew when and why you would come, and put the products aside in advance. Naturally, you’d want to return to this store, even if the prices are a little higher than in the other ones. This store owner has a personal approach to you. It just feels nice.
It is the same with email personalization. At the very least, personalized emails are lovely and, at most, are very useful:
- They arrive at a convenient time (yes, email services can do that). Not too often, not too rarely.
- They recommend something the receivers need. Bookworms get publisher news, fashion-lovers get sales from brands.
- They know you. They remember what you looked at on the website, your interests, and congratulate you on your birthday.
Personalization doesn’t mean you only add the names in the header and that’s it. We have selected 6 ideas of how you can and should personalize your mailing lists.
1. Offer products that the user was interested in
It often happens that a person was interested in some products on the website or even added them to the cart but did not buy them. According to Baymard Institute statistics, 70% of website visitors never actually finish placing an order.
To encourage your subscribers to buy better, you can offer a discount on the selected product, offer free shipping, or simply remind them about the product they have in the cart.
This is what an abandoned cart email looks like
As a result, people get emails with more favorable terms for products they were once interested in.
If you want to implement this mechanism or need to improve it, you can read these relevant articles:
- How NetRan online store implemented abandoned cart emails and how much money they made.
- Abandoned carts. Why is a series better than a single email?
2. Use dynamic content
Dynamic content is a variety of special fields that we can change in each email. Why use them:
To address each subscriber by their name.
To give a unique promo code.
To change the discount amount depending on the customer's status.
To recommend a specific product based on the user's preferences.
To mention the city, title, company name, and other variables in the email.
This technique is old but gold — according to Retention Science, people are 2.6% more likely to click on the email with their names in the subject line
The changeable word or phrase is highlighted with a special markup at the layout stage. Thanks to this, the email service will understand what additional fields need to be added to this place.
For example, you can use these variables in UniOne
Learn to add dynamic content in UniOne.
3. Set up triggered emails
Triggered emails are sent in response to actions or inactions of subscribers. For example, a person has bought something and receives a 'thank you for the purchase' email. Or one of the subscribers has stopped reading the emails, so we send chain emails to try to get them interested in the newsletter again.
Trigger Made a purchase Placed an order Stopped reading Subscribed to the newsletter |
Response Thank them for the purchase Send the order details Write less frequently. Ask if everything is alright. Offer a discount Send a welcome email |
Triggered emails are automatic — you set them up once, and then they work on their own. These emails help to personalize your communication with a client. Subscribers move to the target action in different ways, depending on what their previous actions were.
A 'thank you for the purchase' email. This one comes with gifts!
We described in detail the purpose of triggered emails, their benefits, and when you should send them to your subscribers.
4. Segment your database
During the segmentation process, we divide the database into groups to send different emails to different subscribers. This is how men get men's goods, New Yorkers learn about hot city events, and those who like to relax in Europe will only get European tours. As a result, we increase opening rates, click-throughs, and overall email conversion.
Dermatologica found out where the subscribers live and offered different skincare products based on the climate,
Relevant articles:
In the previous email lists for dummies article, we talked about segmentation.
How to segment. 6 criteria, plus examples.
How email segmentation increased the revenue by 4 times.
5. Mind the entry point
Subscribers come to the newsletter through different sources, and you should take it into account.
FOR EXAMPLE
An online education company offers courses on programming languages, web design, business administration, and project management. For each course, there is a separate landing page with a subscription form. When a person signs up, they receive a standard welcome series with a company description, its courses, and advantages.
The welcome series is cool, but if we step back to the entry point, it would be just perfect. Let’s take a person who subscribes on the web design course landing page. They get emails on different professions in design, links to webinars for Photoshop and Illustrator, practical layouts, and templates for work. Those who subscribe on the Python landing page get their own email chain. At the end of each chain, we can give them a discount with an offer to enroll in the course.
This kind of personalization reflects each person’s interests and therefore works better than the email series targeted at all subscribers at once.
When I signed up for a design course on Netology, I got emails that helped me prepare for a specific program
6. Figure out the sending time
The day and time of sending is a controversial topic. On the one hand, some studies prove that on some days of the week, people read emails more often. On the other hand, all subscribers are different, and you will not be able to pinpoint a convenient time for everyone.
However, the sending time can also be personalized for different subscribers. Here are some tips on how to do it:
Consider the time zones. An email sent at one time will reach New York at 7 PM and Honolulu at 1 AM. You’ll agree that a few will open a newsletter that came at 1 in the morning.
Ask your subscribers when it is convenient for them to receive the emails. You can ask a question at the subscription stage or in one of your emails.
Use "The Best Sending Time" in the email list service. The algorithm calculates when subscribers read the emails and adjusts itself to them. Each person receives emails at the most suitable time.
Test different sending times and days. Try to do A/B testing to find out when your audience responds best to your emails.
What’s the next step
Not all people like to get information from emails. We recommend you go beyond emails over time and personalize your interactions with customers through different communication channels. You can start by offering several communication options to choose from: messengers, text messages, email, push notifications, or a mobile application. Your user will pick the communication channel that fits them best. This will reinforce your whole marketing strategy in general.