Personalisation is now an expected aspect of every email. When you open an email, you expect it to at least be addressed directly to you.

Getting this wrong is an instant deterrent. Meaning it’s critical to keep your database up-to-date, and the more information you can gather on a contact, the more personalised you can get.

6 ways to personalise your emails

Marketers are looking to enhance their personalisation levels with every interaction, trying new and exciting things. So, we’ve put together our 6 methods for personalising our emails.  

1. Start simple with Merge Tags  

Meet the expectation that is already set. If people expect an email to be addressed to them, then address the email to them. This is an easy goal to accomplish as well. You simply need to add a merge tag into your email to pull in the first name. A piece of data which, 9 times out of 10, you will already hold. If you do want to get more personal, you can add merge tags into the body of text. Include information like company name, sector etc to make it obvious you know who you’re targeting.  

2. Don’t leave your Subject Lines out

Make it personal from the get-go. Acting effectively as the heading to any email, your subject line is the first thing your recipient will see. Make it count with direct interaction. You will seem like you’re talking directly to your recipient and them alone. And it’s possible with the simple addition of a merge tag. Why not try a split test to see the difference this makes for your own audience?  

3. Replace the missing data with Salutation

Salutation is the step up from a merge tag. Since you won’t have the required data for every contact, this option allows you to set the ‘default’ if the data is missing. So instead of a blank space where a name should be, you can amend ‘Hi  ,’ to ‘ Hi there,’. Even when the information just isn’t there, your emails will still read seamlessly. Keep the message, without missing a step.

4: Use Dynamic Content Blocks to amend the content  

Why stop the personalisation at single words or phrases, when you can customise entire sections of your email. Using pre-determined rules and variations of articles, you can change how the email reads for each contact dependent on whether they meet certain criteria or not. It’s the ultimate customisation challenge.  

5: Images are not exempt

Just because images aren’t text by default doesn’t mean they should miss out on the personalisation movement. Editing your images to include merge tags will undoubtedly make them stand out from the crowd.

6: Change the email full stop with Workflows

Personal interests should shape every buyer’s journey. Use workflows to divide your audience based on their own interactions. Interested in cars? Onto the motor show you go. Interested in knitting?

Down the wool channel for you. Use various conditions based on open, clicks or web activity, whatever is most appropriate, to direct your contacts where suits them best.  

And there you have it. 6 ways to tailor your content to your audience. Implement one, or all of them, and identify what result it has. See how our email marketing software can make it all possible.

 

Email Personalisation Tips

It’s clear that personalisation in marketing has advanced way beyond name dropping your subscribers in intros and subject lines. With marketing automation and CRM platforms becoming more commonplace in companies of all sizes and budgets, intelligence and behaviour tracking is more accessible than ever before.

That said, it’s important to maintain a balance between personalised, dynamic campaigns and coming across creepy and desperate.

Analyse first. Market second.

The beauty of lead generation is that your sales team have access to a wealth of information about the companies and individuals browsing your website. While this information can make their jobs easier, it’s important to analyse the leads before jumping on them from the get-go.

We recommend page scoring to help qualify lead behaviour as it also provides a good indication of how interested they are in your product as well as the phase of the lifecycle.

Context is everything.

Marketing automation is about making your data and campaign mechanics work harder while giving you back the time to focus on the human-lead areas of marketing. While your website is tracking behaviour and collecting intelligence, it’s key to remember data is only successful within context. Timing is, therefore, everything.

We recommend a combination of lead nurturing and drip marketing. Lead nurturing enables you to easily identify the needs, interests and professional requirements of the individuals on your database.

While drip marketing allows you to set up a series of relevant campaigns in advance, triggering them to send relevant information and encouraging engagement, through an automated flow.

Engage with leads who are active.

It seems pretty obvious, but this advice is often ignored: don’t waste your time on cold leads when you could be nurturing warm leads to convert. It’s a bit like continuing to knock on a door that no one has answered – come back later.

We recommend using lead scoring to help assess whereabouts in the journey your leads are, helping you to determine the best time to target them and with the best content.

Those who aren’t responding? Keep tabs on them if they’re still visiting your site, even if they aren’t engaging with your campaigns.

Track what they’re visiting and consider if you are sending relevant information that meets their needs. Need more tips on how you can improve your existing campaigns and activities? Take a look at our guide to creating a highly effective email campaign.