Personalized Content And Email Marketing Success
The number of marketing emails deleted immediately after opening is staggering. The number of emails that are never even opened is downright depressing. Modern marketing teams have learned that the best way to make their email marketing strategies work is to personalize the content. This method helps sales, engagement, and brand value to go up significantly.
What Is Personalized Content?
Personalized content relates directly to the customer. It’s the extra details in the email that lets customers know a business pays attention to them and is there to serve them. This element makes customers feel important and cared for. They feel a closer connection to brands that put in the effort to get to know what their customers want and need.
How Does Content Personalization Help A Brand’s Content Strategy?
By personalizing the content in emails, a brand can count on more engagement with customers. Customers are more likely to recognize a brand and even open their emails if they see their own name in the subject line. Personalized emails stand out in an inbox and add a personal touch to a sea of generic emails. This method offers a way for marketers to stay a step ahead of the competition.
The Statistics Speak For Themselves
- 74% of marketers find that customer engagement rates improve with targeted personalization.
- Emails that have personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.
- Sales increase an average of 20% with the use of personalized experiences.
How Can Personalization Increase Engagement With A Brand?
Customers are more likely to engage with a brand that uses personalization strategies. These techniques make a customer feel appreciated for engaging with this brand, thus encouraging them to continue. It also shows customers content that they want to see, giving them the feeling of control over the content presented to them. On top of that, giving people more of what they already like and want to see will always garner positive results.
The Best Practices For Personalized Email Content
There is a multitude of ways to personalize content for customers. In preparing to use these methods, a marketing team needs to understand their customer base and demographics, conduct questionnaires and research, and consider which practices will work best for the brand’s marketing goals.
The Importance Of Buyer Personas And Research
Buyer personas are the best way to organize data and information on customers in order to better understand their wants, needs, and trends. Buyer personas help to create specific personalization for customers with the goal of being able to react to their desires in a way that will promote further brand engagement.
Two important types of data create effective buyer personas. Demographic data offers information on the basics; age, location, etc. This is crucial in creating broad ideas of which kinds of customers will want what kind of service or product. To create a fuller and more effective buyer persona, combine this information with psychographic data. This data offers insights into customers’ behaviors and interests. The marketing team can analyze and amalgamate these two types of data to create a well-researched buyer persona. Furthermore, a brand will equip itself better to personalize their email strategy for each buyer persona.
Methods of Personalizing Content
A few email marketing tips would include:
Leverage Dynamic Content
Put simply, this means controlling what content customers see in their emails. Some content that is appealing to one customer is not suited for another. Refer back to the buyer personas to determine the best content for each customer.
Talk Like A Human
People don’t want to read an email written by a sales computer, or a human that sounds like one. The human touch gets better results. Consider a more informal, less salesy tone for emails.
Automate Action Emails
Whenever a customer completes a particular action, such as buying a product or searching the website, automatically send them an email. This furthers the engagement with the customer. It also offers the opportunity for the brand to get customer feedback or make another sale.
Get On A First Name Basis
Use the customer’s first name when greeting them in the subject and body of the email. Offer a comment about the weather in their location. Add little details that show this brand cares about its customers.
It’s All In The Timing
There are keys times of the day when customers are more likely to open their emails. Do some research and automate emails to be sent at these times. Consider time zones so as to not leave out international customers.
Personalized Landing Pages
Match the personalized emails with personalized landing pages. Based on purchase history, interests, and customer behavior create a landing page that furthers the personalized experience. Think further than just the email marketing campaign to the entire customer experience.
Use All The Data Available
Be sure to use all of the data available and think outside of the box. Use purchase history to recommend products. Use location to suggest whether or activity based purchases. There are many options for gaining customer engagement with personalization by using data creatively.
Create An Effective Email Marketing Strategy
Personalization is a tool used by many brands. Those that are not taking advantage of this technique find themselves underperforming in comparison to competitors. Customers are no longer wanting the one-size-fits-all marketing approach. Brands that show their customers that they recognize their importance as individuals are the ones that have loyal customers. Brands that are too cold and disconnected show that they do not understand their customers. Customers recognize this and will move away from brands that don’t offer signs of a human touch.
A successful marketing strategy contains personalization practices like the ones listed above. The next step is to choose a pleasing email template and begin connecting with customers.
Nicola Yap lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her two cats and works as an organic marketing strategist at Eminent SEO, a high-quality web design company that helps web-based companies handle their digital marketing plans, web design and development, and digital marketing strategies. If you’re unsure about your niche, your market, or what type of content would be most beneficial to your blog, Eminent SEO can help. Follow her on Instagram or Twitter.