Email Personalization: How to Boost Opens & Click-Throughs without Being Spammy
Email marketing is not going anywhere. According to DMA Insight, 99% of email users check their inbox daily. If your consumers are receiving an average of 20 emails per day, how do you make sure yours get opened?
Whether you use it for webinar invitations, a new blog post promotion, or deals and flash sales, each click is valuable in generating leads. One of the fundamental techniques that guarantee high open rates is email personalization.
Companies need to have a good grasp of what their target market needs and wants. A recent study reveals that 84% of consumers appreciate being treated like real people rather than just numbers. Email marketing is not just another space for ads. It’s a personal channel where you can start and build relationships with your customers.
Here are 5 game-changing email personalization tips to help increase your click-through rate (CTR):
Segment Your Customers
Segmentation is where personalization begins. If you usually send out massive email blasts, consider segregating your subscribers into different groups, such as those who have recently opened your emails, customers who have already purchased in the past month, inactive subscribers, and many more.
For instance, segmentation will help you determine who among your subscribers speak English as a second language. Crafting an email that includes a phrase or two in their first language, will give them a sense of exclusivity and value. You can also create groups of emails that are based on and tailored for a specific demographic and send it out to each segment.
Make Your Subject Line Stand Out
This is what gets your foot in the door. A compelling subject line provokes an emotion that leads the reader to open it.
How you approach your subject line depends on your brand, industry, and content. Concise and straightforward headlines work, but a dash of wit and personalization can help pique consumer interest. Try experimenting with your subject lines: add emojis, work with puns, and incorporate trigger words (e.g., “free delivery,” “sale”).
Humanize Your Brand
Sending out email campaigns coming from a real person, instead of a company address (e.g., marketing@company.com), is a great stepping stone in pushing for personalization. Again, the goal is to make it seem that the email campaign is tailor-made for the consumer. Email marketing materials that come from one sender, like the brand’s community manager or executive, softens the tone and adds a layer of human connection, especially for big businesses.
Create a Drip Campaign
Drip campaigns automatically execute a set of customizable, pre-written emails that are scheduled to be sent out in sequence to your current and potential customers. This can refer to an email going out when someone signs up on your newsletter. Followed by a few emails that introduce your products or services to the new subscriber. Then, succeeding emails for latest blog posts or promotions.
Drip emails are also based on behavioral triggers such as making a purchase, cart abandonment, or any actions the customer performed. This is the reason why others refer to it as behavioural emails. Drip campaigns guide the customers, new and existing, through the buyer’s journey.
Take Advantage of Location and Time
Chances are, your subscribers aren’t all in one location and are on different time zones. Some are possibly more likely to read and act on emails at 8:00 AM, while look at their inbox after lunch. There’s no consensus to this. You’ll have to do A/B testing to find out the exact times that best result to a high open rate and CTR for your email list.
To Sum Up
Email newsletters remain to be a powerful strategy in maintaining and acquiring potential and new customers. Let’s face it: if your subscribers aren’t following your links, that’s not good for the business.
Unlike your strategic campaigns on social media platforms, email is your one-to-one, personal marketing channel. If you want people to click, send out a tailored and relevant email campaign.