What’s Email Personalization, and How Can You Leverage It?

Email marketing has gotten much simpler to execute over the years. Despite the growing number of digital marketing channels, companies and marketers still consider email an effective way to reach and engage with their audience. The abundance of email marketing tools available, combined with the rapid development of AI, has allowed a lot of automation. What used to take hours can now be done in seconds. 

On the flip side, it also means more competition. Recent studies show that the average person receives over 100 emails daily. Almost half of them are marketing emails. Businesses offer all kinds of products and services, from online courses to DNA test for cats. If your email doesn’t stand out, it will quickly drown in your audience’s inbox, or worse, spam folder. One way to avoid this – among other email marketing strategies – is through email personalization.

What is email personalization?

Email personalization is the practice of tailoring your email to each recipient. It involves customizing email content based on the individual and segmented information you have on your audience, from names and countries to preferences and behaviors. Personalized emails will help you create more resonance and connection with the audience by delivering your message in a targeted and personal way.

The benefits of email personalization

Personalizing your emails will significantly increase the outreach and quality of your campaign. Here are some benefits of email personalization that make it worth the effort:

1. It gives you higher open and engagement rates

Customizing your subject lines, greetings, and content will make your email feel more targeted and personal. It will prevent your message from reading like a generic advertisement, and the recipients will be more likely to open your email and engage with your content.

2. It fosters connection and brand loyalty

Sending personalized emails regularly will eventually build a stronger connection with the audience, making them more likely to stick with your brand over time. Addressing each recipient by their name, for example, will make them feel unique and give them a positive experience, putting you at an advantage over your competitors.

3. It makes your email less likely to land in the spam folder

What’s the point of creating all that content if it just ends up marked as spam? Personalizing your emails will help ensure they make their way to each recipient’s inbox.

4. It increases conversion rates

Personalized marketing content gives consumers a more positive experience, making them more likely to follow a call to action or make a purchase.

Ways to personalize your emails

From segmentation to subject lines, there are multiple ways to personalize your emails:

• Understanding your audience, including their preferences, behaviors, and needs, to help you craft and deliver segmented emails more accurately.
• Learning, optimizing, and delivering the type of content or information your audience is looking for.
• Customizing subject lines, greetings, and CTAs. Greeting each recipient by their name will entice them to continue reading more than a generic word, such as “customers” or “everyone”.

How can I leverage email personalization?

• Audience segmentation. Put your audience into smaller groups based on their demographics, interests, and preferences. It will help you tailor and personalize your content, delivering the right message to the right people.
• Dynamic content. Use dynamic content to personalize and localize your content as much as possible, from text to product recommendations. Use everything you know about your audience: names, countries, weather, local events and trends, previous purchases, etc. Customize all parts of your email, from the subject line to the email body.
• Send time optimization (STO). Mornings and early afternoons are generally the best times to send an email, but it can vary depending on your audience’s behavior. Using analytical tools will help you determine what’s best for your audience and your campaign.
• “From” and “To”. Send your emails as “(Name) from (Company)” and address it to “(Recipient Name)”. Adding a name to the sender column will help your audience “see” an actual person behind your emails, and using their name will add an extra personal touch.
• Important events. Sending birthday greetings will make your audience feel appreciated, and sharing the joy on your business’ anniversary will humanize your business. Both will help you create a more genuine connection with your audience.
• A/B testing. Divide your recipients into two groups and send two variations of the same email to see which one gives better results. They could be different subject lines, visuals, image vs no image, style, length, etc.

Email personalization might sound like a lot of effort, but there are CRM (Customer Relationship Management), analytical, and automation tools available that will simplify the process. Ready to up your email marketing game? Put on your research hat, dive in deeper, and get started on your email personalization sooner rather than later!