In today’s busy, technology-driven world, getting your customers attention can seem like an impossible task. After all, people receive an average of 120 emails per day.
As an email marketer, you want your customers and email subscribers to open and read your messages. In a crowded inbox, how can you make an impact?
One the of the most effective ways to get your emails opened is to send what interests your subscribers, which drives them to open each email when you send it. That’s a simple statement, but hard to implement unless you know something about your customers.
This is where the data you’ve been collecting comes into play. You can use information about your subscribers and customers to send better messages. And people want these more personalized emails– 73% of people surveyed said they would rather do business with companies that use their information to make email more relevant. Unfortunately, 70% of companies don’t use personalized emails in their marketing.
What is email personalization?
Personalization can be as simple as adding a first name to the subject line of an email, but it goes far beyond just that. The data you have about your customers or email subscribers can be used to add specific content to an email, so that everyone on your email list receives what’s important to them, instead of the one-size-fits-some approach of the past.
Making use of customer data
You may not realize how you can make your emails better by using customer data. If you aren’t using data, you aren’t alone, as 45% of marketers believe data is the most underutilized asset in their marketing.
The first step is to think about what you can do make your emails more personal for your subscribers. Adding a name to the subject line or content of the email is a good first step, so check that your CRM or email lists have first names. If you know what products or services your customers have purchased in the past, you can personalize emails with suggestions to go with what they already have.
Your email marketing service will have information about email opens, clicks, and likely purchases as well. You may also have address information in your email lists or in CRM, which can be used to personalize an email or to create a list segment to send specific emails to. Analytics on your website can give you information about what products or services people are most interested in, and even break it down into things like regions or cities.
If you feel you’re missing information, make some updates to the collection points you have. Check your email sign-up forms to ensure you’re collecting what you need. Try using a survey of current customers if there’s information you feel you need going forward. Check with your sales team or IT team, they may have data you didn’t even know existed.
Personalization is a challenge
While making your emails more personal for your subscribers may seem like a challenge, and 36% of marketers say that it’s their biggest challenge, taking a few small steps can get you closer to being a personalization whiz.
Assess what you already have and plan what you’d like to do with this data to make your emails more compelling. By doing a little work on your side, you could see your emails become more interesting to your readers, and that can impact your bottom line for the better.
For more information on email personalization, check out the infographic below.
Source: The Modern Day Struggle of Email Personalization by Campaign Monitor
