Statista claims that by 2022, 4.3 billion people will use emails.
So if you believed that email was on the path to becoming obsolete, rethink, because, in a marketers quiver, an email is still one of the most potent weapons to target customer acquisition and engagement. After colleague recommendation and industry thought leaders’ assertion, email is the most persuasive source of information for the B2B audiences. According to eMarketer, for customer acquisition and retention, email marketing, according to 80% of marketers, is still the most effective digital strategy.
Email marketing, thus, tops the marketing to-do list of all successful businesses. And to make it effective, you need to personalize it. Let us now describe six methods to leverage personalization in marketing through emails:
1. User Segmentation
According to a report by Campaign Monitor, segmented emails resulted in a boost of revenue by 760% and of open rates by 26%.
An online jewelry vendor makes its customers fill a survey form that gives them insights on consumer preferences. Armed with the idea about which customers prefer which style, they segment users into groups and send a personalized recommendation to each customer of the particular segment. Customers thus feel special to receive an email tailor-made for them, and more often than not, they decide to buy. According to Mailchimp’s user data, segmented email marketing campaigns had 14.64% of higher email open-rates, while 59.99% of higher click-rates when compared to campaigns that were non-segmented.
Just like the right message cannot be comprehended in a noisy environment, the Big Data age makes it impossible for your communication to be useful if your content is generalized. Cut through the noise with email personalization where the customer gets a relevant message based on their data that you have segmented. In a study conducted by Econsultancy, it was found that for more than 1000 marketing, digital, and e-commerce professionals, customer segmentation was the top priority. Further, 72% of them created segments using customer data.
Takeaway: Apply User Segmentation to your advantage. You can divide your audience into groups and sub-groups, and then send emails to each customer segment that seems bespoke emails.
2. Dynamic Content
A fashion retailer, quite early in their campaign, understood the fact that recommending baby products to millennials or senior citizens is a waste of time and effort. They then employed dynamic content in their email marketing to recommend products based on gender and age groups.
Spending your resources in tweaking each email for each customer is not a good idea, especially when your campaign is constrained due to time and capital. Virgin Holidays used personalization via dynamic content in their email marketing during the times of uncertainty caused due to the Brexit referendum. The result: open rates increased by 70% and click-rates by 65% compared to their previous year’s records. Overall, personalization increased its revenue by 49%.
Takeaway: Use dynamic content in your emails, content that changes its behavior based on the data points that were collected when you had segmented your users. Draft a single email and customize portions of it based on age, location, gender, preferences, weather, and other parameters.
3. Product Recommendation
Infosys says 96% of customers expect retailers to help them in discovering the latest products to a certain point.
No one can beat Amazon when it comes to offering personalized recommendations. They use it in such an immaculate way that you are forced to buy products of your choice. Keeping track of your purchasing or even browsing, they send you personalized recommendations based on the data they save. Businesses, small and large, look up to Amazon to learn how to trade.
Recommending customized products and services to your customers and showing them that you are not just another vendor churning out a profit, but you care for them as well is a great way to enhance your sales and revenue. According to Salesforce, 76% of customers want businesses to be aware of their requirements, out of which 51% of customers believe that companies fail to do so, while 54% of customers believe companies are only in the quest to make profits keeping customers’ interests on the backburner.
Takeaway: Based on customers’ past purchases, send them recommendations about similar latest products or complementary products. People prefer to buy a collection of items. Make a list of such collections, and if a customer has purchased an item that is a part of that collection, send recommendations on other products, making them understand how these new products complement the item already purchased.
4. Special Offers
An American multinational ride-hailing company utilizes the strategy of personalization based on the frequent trips a customer makes. They send these customers personalized offers and discounts upon segmenting them. As a frequent flyer, therefore, you will receive offers and discounts on your trip to the airport, making you feel special.
According to Dynamic Yield study among the North American residents, 62.27% of the people agreed to respond positively to an offer that they felt was created exclusively for them. 55% of customers expect to receive targeted discounts and promotions, and 37% expect offers tailor-made to their preferences.
Who does not like to be pampered? Your customers more than anyone else if you are a marketer. Generic discounts and offers have become mundane. Making your customers feel special with special offers, tailor-made only for them has tremendous benefits that will be discerned in your sales revenue.
Takeaway: Personalize your offers based on the segments of customers that you have created and target the segments accordingly with “Special Offers.”
5. Predictive Analytics
Amidst Industry 4.0, Big Data, and AI facilitate using powerful analytics. Predictive analytics utilizes big data on customers’ activities and behavioral patterns and predicts results.
On realizing that generic promotional offers do not yield the desired result, a business employs AI and predictive analytics to determine customers’ behavior and buying patterns to provide different offers to different customers and records an increase in sales and revenue. PetCareRx, an online retailer of products for pets, utilized predictive analytics to determine their customers’ probability of purchasing and accordingly offered discounts—greater discounts to those with less probability and vice versa. The result: 2x campaign response rates, 38% of increase in quarterly sales, 24% increase in profits.
Takeaway: Leverage Predictive Analytics in your email marketing campaign to have an insight into the future based on the patterns noted from customers’ activities.
6. Video Content
Video isan engaging way of promoting your brand. It surpasses the information that we receive via text or images. Overall, video content enhances the human experience and builds trust and reliability in the customers about your products and services. Experts believe that the open rate increases by 19%, while the click-through rate by 50% if an email contains a video.
Takeaway: Include a video in your email. The attention span for video content is much higher than for the text and images. And also, it establishes your reputation as a sophisticated and solemn business.
Conclusion
Personalization must be one of the topmost priorities in your Email Marketing strategies. The one-size-fits-all strategy does not work today. Emerging technologies like Machine Learning and Artificial intelligence, Deep Learning, Big Data and Analytics, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), etc. are transforming the technology landscape. These technologies can be leveraged to accommodate customizations and personalization in any system to greater depths. Marketers, therefore, need to capitalize upon giving a personal experience to the customers for the success of their campaigns. With the six methods mentioned above, you will be able to personalize your email marketing and achieve success. Happy Marketing!
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