Email Personalization: Best Practices and Examples
May 25, 2023
Email personalization is an often overlooked aspect of email that can easily set you apart from your competitors.
Email’s unique ability to communicate with a user in a personal 1:1 setting is a superpower that other marketing channels could only dream of. This is increasingly important as consumers grow annoyed (and angry) with online advertisers using their data to follow them around the internet with retargeted ads.
What Is Email Personalization?
Email personalization is when your SaaS is able to use your basic customer data in order to send customized emails to your customers.
Remember, your email is competing with countless other emails at any given time, any personalization that reminds your customer of your relationship with one another (for lack of a better term) just might give them the nudge needed to open yours before the sea of others.
In fact, “just might” is actually “will”. According to a study from Experian, emails that contain a personal touch in the subject line are 29% more likely to be opened and 41% more likely to have your CTA clicked.
A separate study from McKinsey discovered that 71% of consumers expect personalization in their emails and that 76% of consumers are actually frustrated when they are messaged without any personalization.
The tiny personalization that drives these results and sentiment are as simple as adding a first name to your email subject line.
Email Personalization Best Practices
Because email personalization is the sending of email content to specific recipients based on their interests, behavior, demographics, or other factors it is a good idea to follow a few best practices.
Use relevant data: Use only the relevant data when emailing your subscribers, such as their name, location, past purchases, or history within your product.
Use dynamic content: Use dynamic content to truly create personalized emails that change based on the above information. This can include personalized images, specific product recommendations, or upgrade offers based on their current usage.
Send transactional emails: Sending transactional emails based on specific actions or events, are a great opportunity for personalization in your emails.
Test often: A/B test different personalization strategies in order optimize your emails based on the results. Do your customers prefer personalization in the subject line or the email body itself? Test to find out.
Avoid over-personalization: We’ve talked about how great personalization in email is, but avoid going overboard with personalization. It can come across as inauthentic. Strike a balance between personalization and respect for the recipient's inbox and privacy.
Following these email personalization best practices will allow you to create personalized emails that resonate with your subscribers while respecting their inbox. Balancing personalization in emails will allow you to build a deeper relationship with your customers which should increase engagement and future sales.
Email Personalization Example
One tiny example of personalization that drives significant results and sentiment is simply adding a first name to your email subject line.
“Happy birthday [Chris]! Enjoy 50% off our annual plan!”
vs
“A special offer for you!”
It can be that easy.
Another place that you should consider adding personalization to your emails is in the actual body of the email itself. Addressing your customer by name in the first sentence of your promotional email is a gentle reminder that they have invited you into their inbox and that you take that privilege seriously. This personalization in the body of your email will show up in the Preview Text of most email clients, such as Gmail.
This extra touch of personalization in the subject line or the body of the email itself is often enough to stand out in your recipient’s crowded inbox.
Email Personalization With Loops
These personalized emails are as simple as adding a merge tag with an email provider like Loops. As long as you have previously tied the customer’s email address to basic data such as their name, it’s as easy as a single click to customize all of the emails in your campaign.
It might not seem like much, but the truth is that your customers now expect this extra touch. As competition in consumer’s inboxes continues to increase while they also grow warier and warie of online advertising, spending the time and effort to personally address them will be well worth it for your brand’s sentiment and bank account.
Email Personalization: Best Practices and Examples
May 25, 2023
Email personalization is an often overlooked aspect of email that can easily set you apart from your competitors.
Email’s unique ability to communicate with a user in a personal 1:1 setting is a superpower that other marketing channels could only dream of. This is increasingly important as consumers grow annoyed (and angry) with online advertisers using their data to follow them around the internet with retargeted ads.
What Is Email Personalization?
Email personalization is when your SaaS is able to use your basic customer data in order to send customized emails to your customers.
Remember, your email is competing with countless other emails at any given time, any personalization that reminds your customer of your relationship with one another (for lack of a better term) just might give them the nudge needed to open yours before the sea of others.
In fact, “just might” is actually “will”. According to a study from Experian, emails that contain a personal touch in the subject line are 29% more likely to be opened and 41% more likely to have your CTA clicked.
A separate study from McKinsey discovered that 71% of consumers expect personalization in their emails and that 76% of consumers are actually frustrated when they are messaged without any personalization.
The tiny personalization that drives these results and sentiment are as simple as adding a first name to your email subject line.
Email Personalization Best Practices
Because email personalization is the sending of email content to specific recipients based on their interests, behavior, demographics, or other factors it is a good idea to follow a few best practices.
Use relevant data: Use only the relevant data when emailing your subscribers, such as their name, location, past purchases, or history within your product.
Use dynamic content: Use dynamic content to truly create personalized emails that change based on the above information. This can include personalized images, specific product recommendations, or upgrade offers based on their current usage.
Send transactional emails: Sending transactional emails based on specific actions or events, are a great opportunity for personalization in your emails.
Test often: A/B test different personalization strategies in order optimize your emails based on the results. Do your customers prefer personalization in the subject line or the email body itself? Test to find out.
Avoid over-personalization: We’ve talked about how great personalization in email is, but avoid going overboard with personalization. It can come across as inauthentic. Strike a balance between personalization and respect for the recipient's inbox and privacy.
Following these email personalization best practices will allow you to create personalized emails that resonate with your subscribers while respecting their inbox. Balancing personalization in emails will allow you to build a deeper relationship with your customers which should increase engagement and future sales.
Email Personalization Example
One tiny example of personalization that drives significant results and sentiment is simply adding a first name to your email subject line.
“Happy birthday [Chris]! Enjoy 50% off our annual plan!”
vs
“A special offer for you!”
It can be that easy.
Another place that you should consider adding personalization to your emails is in the actual body of the email itself. Addressing your customer by name in the first sentence of your promotional email is a gentle reminder that they have invited you into their inbox and that you take that privilege seriously. This personalization in the body of your email will show up in the Preview Text of most email clients, such as Gmail.
This extra touch of personalization in the subject line or the body of the email itself is often enough to stand out in your recipient’s crowded inbox.
Email Personalization With Loops
These personalized emails are as simple as adding a merge tag with an email provider like Loops. As long as you have previously tied the customer’s email address to basic data such as their name, it’s as easy as a single click to customize all of the emails in your campaign.
It might not seem like much, but the truth is that your customers now expect this extra touch. As competition in consumer’s inboxes continues to increase while they also grow warier and warie of online advertising, spending the time and effort to personally address them will be well worth it for your brand’s sentiment and bank account.
