How to Customize Emails for Improved Engagement
People are more attentive when they find their name in the subject line of an email. After reading the subject line, their attention immediately jumps to the sender field. Who is the sender? How does the sender know them? Better yet, how does the recipient know the sender?
When it’s a company they trust and recall past interactions with, the sight of one’s name in the subject line is reassuring. However, if it’s an unfamiliar name, the email is spam. No further investigation, no second thoughts–it’s spam. And most of the time, recipients unsubscribe and move on with their lives.
Email customization is a powerful tool. But, in the wise and ever-relevant words of Spiderman’s uncle Ben, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Take caution when customizing your emails with recipient’s names, companies, titles, etc–there is a fine line between being personable and being creepy. Creepy emails use personal data without clarifying to the recipient how their information was captured.
When customizing email campaigns with recipients’ personal information, take the following precautions:
First Interaction Should Always Be a Form
Even if you already have a lead’s name, title, location, etc, let them give you their information before you use it to customize an email. First, email them introducing your company and include calls to action to a lead capture form. Once they’ve engaged and completed the form, you are free to include their details in future emails.
Display Provided Information In a Confirmation Email
If you’ve sent a registration email for an event or webinar, include the information registrants provided in your follow up. Even then, remind recipients that they completed a form. Try including their answers in the body of the email for further evidence.
Here’s a quick example: “Thank you for registering for our Death of Cold Calling webinar! Please review your registration details below.”
Don’t Overdo It
When you have a lead or customer’s life story, it’s easy to get carried away with your customization efforts. Let’s include their name, company, address, and blood type!
Cap your customizations at four. Any more than this seems like you’re adding personal information simply to take up space.
Try adding their name to the subject line, then the company name and title in the body. This personalizes your message, so recipients don’t feel like they’re reading a mass email. But whatever you do, make sure email recipients know your company before customizing emails. Don’t introduce yourself by detailing how much you know about them. Our goal is to be a trusted and reputable information source, not to give email recipients the “uh oh” feeling.
As always, marketing automation tools are a great way to take email marketing up a notch. Not only they offer clear insights into customer behavior and preferences, but they also provide all the necessary data for you to find the right level of personalization. To further enhance your email customization capabilities, some marketing automation tools have recently incorporated predictive lead scoring, powered by artificial intelligence (AI). such tools let you know which leads are more likely to interact with your emails, which topics are more appealing to each lead, and more.
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