You probably already know about list segmentation, and splitting your subscribers into specific niches based on interests, gender or other personal information, which has been shown to bring up customer engagement, clicks, and conversions overall. This method is called personalization, and it’s just one part of the best way to help drive your message home and get your campaign noticed.
Say Hello to Every One, Not Everyone
When a subscriber opts into your mailing list, they usually provide a little bit of personal information. Name, gender, age; there’s a plethora of categorical data you can ask for when someone decides they want to hear from you. You have the information, make sure you use it. One of the best ways to garner more opens on your emails is a personalized subject line, so get the subscriber’s first name in there, and make sure they know the message is for them. Instead of starting off a newsletter with, “Hello, everyone”, begin with a greeting to the specific subscriber the message is meant for.
Break It Up
Taking it a level beyond simple use of names and salutations, utilize the information from the subscribers’ opt-in to help categorize them into specific segments in your list, and subsections in the main category of subscribers. Group your customers by gender, age, and even by the number of times they’ve made a purchase or contracted a service from you, and use that information to further personalize the campaign. You can even use a customer’s birth date to send them a special offer for the month in which it takes place – a gift just for providing a little detailed information.It takes a little extra work and a little extra research, but list segmentation helps keep your content relevant to the reader. The more relevant it is, the more likely a customer is to continue to engage with you and your business, and the less likely they are to unsubscribe from your mailings.
True Personalization
Of course, it doesn’t end there. To completely tailor your email marketing strategy toward a specific customer requires detailed tracking and reports. If you don’t hear from a customer for a while, make sure to drop them a line and ask if they want to come back, sweetening the pot with a deal makes that even better. Likewise, you can send offers and content tailored to a customer’s specific purchase habits, with the right tracking data. This can range from something as simple as a coupon to use on an item they purchase often to a discount on an item they’ve put in their cart, and then removed or outright abandoned three or more times.Learning your customers’ habits is a long process, and takes great attention to detail, but MECLABS’ MarketingSherpa blog has reported on personalized email campaigns bringing in open rates of close to 40 percent, with a clickthrough rate of 30 percent or more. With MarketingProfs reporting an average open rate of 18.9 percent in the United States as of 2013, while the average clickthrough sits at a mere 3.3 percent, the difference makes the extra work more than worthwhile.
