Dear Sir
Dear Madam
These are generic ways to greet someone. What does it say about the sender when you see an email addressed this way? It shows that they did only the bare minimum. They figured out your gender and that’s about it. It shows that a company is not taking a customer (i.e. you) seriously. When such emails arrive, even potential customers lose interest instantly.
An email addressed directly to you generates curiosity. After all, the sender took the time to figure out your name; someone is talking to you.
If an email starts with the customer's name, it will at least make the customer read the email. If the email is written well, by which we mean that the email copy covers the customer's interests, the customer might click a link in the email, read a few articles on the website, and may even buy something.
This chapter is about email personalization. We receive so many of these automated emails. If the company does not bother to customize the template email or does a poor job at it, emails may start to feel robotic and unnatural. This kind of email personalization software use may take away the human element
By using email personalization and email automation, you save time and nurture your leads effectively.
Isn't it enough to segment your audience into buckets and send them targeted emails? Won’t it drive the kinds of sales and conversions your company craves? Well, not really.
It can make your emails relevant to the reader, but it does not make the emails sound like conversation. The reality is, people won't read anything if they don't feel connected to it. The modern customer thinks "What's in it for me?" before even seeing the brand name. Few brands have been able to inspire loyalty and overcome that resistance. Usually, small businesses and startups don't have a repeat customer base, so they need to work on building good customer relationships.
If you read EngageBay’s inbound marketing guide, then you know there’s more to it than just customer segmentation; you also have to engage and nurture your leads.
Personalization is an extremely powerful weapon in your lead-nurturing arsenal. Check out these stats if you are still not convinced about email personalization:
Email marketing is a growing field, and there's a plethora of email personalization tools, tips, and best practices.
Let’s break down what elements of your email you can personalize and how.
If a school friend saw you on the street and shouted your name, you would instantly turn around because someone wants to talk to you. It makes you alert and you take immediate notice; it makes you feel important.
This is the easiest means of personalization that can, and should appear in your emails. You want the email to be addressed to the lead or customer specifically. Just using the first name is enough to get people to notice and start reading.
Using a first name makes the email less formal. The rest of the email should be easy-to-read and persuasive. It should direct the reader towards your goal.
It’s no surprise that subject lines are more important than ever. People get too many emails, so companies must compete in every aspect. To see a higher open rate, you need a personalized email subject line.
The most effective way to personalize your subject line is by adding the person’s name to it. This may seem a little too simple, but it works. According to Constant Contact, click-through rates may go up by 41%.
Now that you’ve personalized the subject line and the opening of your email, you can use a little more generic personalization techniques in the body of the email. You can still mention the customer's name in the body, but that trick should not be overdone.
Email body is where you can rely on audience segments. If you have created buyer personas, your personalization could be even more effective.
You will use their unique characteristics to appeal to each segment of the audience. As we covered in Chapter 2 of this guide, those segments can be based on gender, location, shopping history, occupation, income, and more. Whether you’re introducing a product or highlighting a service offer, keep your customer segments in mind.
Another way you can personalize the body of the email is through automated behavioral trigger emails. Email automation software track what a customer does on a website and then suggest a related action.
Maybe a customer has put something in the cart but didn’t complete the purchase. You may send them a discount code to finish the transaction. Perhaps they made an account but haven’t showed much activity afterwards. You can remind them of the benefits they are missing out on.
According to Kissmetrics, automated behavioral trigger emails can boost open rates by up to 152%.
Knowing the interests or pain points of your audience can pay off really well when personalizing emails. For example, let’s say you sell fitness equipment. If a customer practices Yoga, you can direct them to landing pages about yoga mats and fitness gear. If another customer is into bodybuilding, you can use a link to a landing page on dumbbells, weight belts, and exercising gloves.
Email personalization can increase your open rates, click-through rates, boost sales and revenue, and convert leads into customers. If you’re not already doing it, it’s definitely time to start. It all begins with knowing a little about your customer besides their name. This information lets you write personalized subject lines and copy headlines, email body content, and the right call-to-action. You can also link your personalized emails to specific landing pages of their interest.
A key component of lead nurturing is email personalization. We have discussed some of the email personalization tools and best practices here, but you need a good email personalization software if you are to get the job done.
In the next chapter, we'll talk about the right tools and platforms for automated and personalized email marketing, so read on.
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