Let’s get personal… with our email marketing. The data shows that when you personalize your emails, you get higher open rates, click rates and increase ROI. We have laid out 5 simple ways to make your emails more personal.
Article Overview:
- Always start with your buyer personas
- Gather the right data (contact form, prospecting)
- Use Location & Time to your advantage
- Segment your list
- Personalize the To - From - Reply fields
Consider your own behaviors as a buyer… don’t you love to see your name in an email subject line? Or get that special “Happy Birthday” email from your favorite brand? Consumers love a personal touch and it’s easier than you think to implement personalization into your email marketing strategy to increase open and click-through rates. Here are just a few simple ways to get personal with your clients.
1. Start with your Buyer Personas
If you are an inbound marketer or familiar with inbound marketing then this is no surprise. If you have no clue what I am talking about, check out our article on content that impresses your prospective buyers.
You can’t create content or emails that work until you fully understand your buyer personas and what will make them want to open an email. By creating personas, you will understand their demographics, interests, online behaviors, goals and challenges. Understanding that, you can create a strategy to create emails and campaigns that will get results.
2. Ask the Right Questions
One easy trick for personalization is to use the potential customer’s name in the email or send an email on their birthday. Does your current contact form ask those questions? It’s important to understand your buyer personas, and ask relevant questions based on them. Are they a B2B client and do you need to know company size, sales cycle, target industry?
Arm yourself with the information you need to effectively personalize your emails and increase open rates and ROI.
3. Use Location & Time to your Advantage
We are based in San Diego but work with clients all over the country in different time zones. It is extremely important for us to take that in account when communicating with them, and we are guessing you do the same. So why not take that into account for your email marketing? This is another example of asking the right questions, finding out where they live or work will help with customizing the time at which you send them emails.
You want your emails to reach them at the most optimal time, regardless of timezone. We suggest A/B testing your emails to go out at different times of the day. Perhaps your list prefers emails at 8:00 am in the morning, or maybe they prefer them at 5:00 pm. With enough data, you can begin to segment your list to send at the optimal time.
4. Segmentation = Greater Open and CTR
With the information you gathered in the personas and contact forms, segment out your list that suits your business best. Maybe by location, company size, industry, transactional history and more. The more your can segment your list, the greater personalization you can give to that list. There is no set number of segments you need to create or number of contacts in each, but the more detailed you can get, the higher open rates, clicks and success you will have.
If you don’t believe us, check out some of the data from HubSpot. Based on their research, when you have more than one segment list, you are likely to see an increase in click through rates.
5. Personalize the “sender” and “reply”
Again, this one seems easy, right? We will start with the “sender” email and name. The numbers show that when you personalize the sender name, you get more opens. When all else fails, use your head of sale, CEO, lead customer service, or whoever may be relevant. In terms of the email, try to use a real email address, if you use a personal name but use “email@company.com” as the email, it feels less genuine.
Experiment with different variations of your name, job title and company to see what works best. Or try using names or departments based on the emails you are sending. If the email is transactional or customer support, address it at such.
There are many other ways to personalize your email marketing, but this is a great start. We would love to hear from you, what tricks do you use to personalize your emails and increase opens?
