On Email Marketing Personalization
People respond more favorably to marketing when they feel
special and unique. People respond differently to things when
they perceive themselves as part of a group. These are only some
of the psychological factors that come into play when using
individual message personalization as a part of your email
marketing campaigns. When done correctly, personalization can be
a powerful way to reinforce the bond between your brand and your
customer. However, poorly personalized messages can just as
quickly sever that connection that you have worked so hard to
establish. This article describes some of the techniques for
using personalization in an effective way.
Hello, Salutations!
The initial greeting has a tremendous impact on whether a
recipient will read the rest of a communication. The tone must
match the type of communication, and the type of relationship
that exists between the sender and recipient. For example, "Hi,
John" is good for an email from a business to consumer, but too
casual for a message to a business recipient. A "Dear Mr. Smith"
or "Dear John Smith" is more appropriate for a business to
business communication in email just as in a business letter.
Product and Service References
A very strong technique is including a reference to a specific
product or service that the recipient has either already
purchased, or that they have requested information about. For
example, "How are you enjoying your new Mini-Cooper?" or "Thanks
for using us to clean your carpets last Thursday". This
naturally ties in to up-sell or cross-sell opportunities, like
"Need batteries for your Olympus D-550 digital camera?" Don't
forget to link directly to the page on the site that corresponds
to the product or service you are trying to up-sell.
Location
One way to help people feel a sense of belonging is to use a
known location reference. For example, "Everyone in Chicago
knows a great Pizza when they try one", or "The best limousine
in Los Angeles." Make sure that you have the recipient
associated with the correct location, or you are doing more harm
than good.
Affiliation
When recipients are members of a known group or organization,
you can create a positive tie-in. For example "As a member of
the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, we invite you to order
business cards at 25% off". When using this kind of
personalization, you must make sure that the relevancy will be
obvious for the recipient. This works particularly well for
sending partner offers, but again only as long as the offer
tightly matches the needs of the target group, and will be
perceived as relevant.
Images and Multimedia
Images and or multimedia that tie back to any other form of
personalization is so effective that it's worthy of putting into
its own category. This can take the form of product images that
correspond to the exact product that they have already
purchased, like a picture of the Olympus D-550 camera. They
could also be images of a familiar city skyline, as in the "Best
Pizza in CITYNAME" example. A highly effective technique is
using a personalized image of the recipient's organization logo,
or web site. The purpose in each case is simply to provide a
familiar frame of reference in the most compelling way possible,
resulting in the recipient feeling better understood and more
comfortable, leading toward better acceptance of the offer.
Don't Get Too Personal, and Other Potential Hazards
The more reliance your email marketing campaign has on your
database, the more important that it is to have the correct
data. Errors in your data can lead to your mailing showing how
poorly you know the recipient, not how well.
Always have default information to substitute in case you are
missing data. You can write your copy so that substituting this
default text maintains the flow of the narrative. For example,
let's say you plan on merging the "Company Name" from your
database into your email, Using default text of "your company"
works well as in "We know that XYZ Corp. can benefit from our
services" or "We know that your company can benefit from our
services".
Lastly, always respect the privacy of the recipient and avoid
all sensitive information. Anything that might make the
recipient uncomfortable such as financial status or health
status, are best left off limits when it comes to email
personalization.
Conclusion
Doing it right requires a good database, planning, care, and
bulletproof technology. You may find that outsourcing your
personalized email marketing campaigns is the best way to make
sure everything goes smoothly. When personalization is used
correctly combined with good targeting of offers, the results
can be much greater than the sum of the parts, boosting your
bottom line accordingly.
