The last decade has demonstrated to the world of marketing that personalization is absolutely here to stay. Of all the recent marketing trends, personalization routinely shows some of the best results, helping to boost engagement and drive interaction. Another effective feature of personalization is that marketing teams can use it in any marketing medium, even email communication.
Emails are a leading form of connecting with a customer, providing a direct line to their inbox that you can then make use of. While emails have varied in popularity over the last few years, their effectiveness cannot be understated. Especially when combining the directness of emails with marketing personalization, you’re able to achieve compelling results without much initial hassle.
In this article, we’ll dive into the various forms of email personalization, demonstrating how to boost engagement by incorporating small yet compelling moments of connection with your customers. Let’s dive right in.
How to personalize emails to boost engagement
Considering how effective personalization can be in marketing environments, teams should focus on implementing it wherever they can. Of all contact points with customers, marketing emails are already one of the most productive, allowing teams to push this effective stream even further.
There are a number of ways that you can personalize emails to boost engagement:
- Naming and directness
- Personable copy
- Email signatures
Let’s explore each of these core techniques further.
Naming and directness
One of the most simple ways of increasing personalization within any communication is by using someone’s name. Names are inherently entirely personal. While they may not be unique, they are unique to us and allow us to form a sense of self. By using people’s names in an email when you send them out, you instantly play to this sense of personality.
When using a general opening like ‘Dear Reader’ or ‘Dear Customer,’ you start to group your entire audience into a singular category. For many, there will be a sense of hesitancy with this, not wanting to assimilate into the masses. Instead, writing using a person’s name will make the email seem like it was written directly for them, helping to create a sense of connection right from the first line.
While naming is a fairly obvious form of personalization, it is one that can have powerful effects when done correctly. What’s more, the vast majority of email tools and systems will have the ability to personalize outgoing emails, helping you to include this strategy as quickly as possible. As the most basic form of personalization, we recommend you use direct addressing in all of your marketing materials.
Although not everyone will even realize you’ve made this choice, it always feels better for the recipient when an email arrives directly for them, rather than the masses.
Personable copy
The copy of your email consists of many moving elements. From your CTA to the message you’re trying to convey, you can infinitely vary what information you include in your emails. However, some marketing teams argue that it is not what you say that’s important, but rather how you say it.
Creating a personable tone of voice and writing it in will help to demonstrate to the reader that your email is coming from humans, rather than some corporate machine. Throughout your email, engage with friendlier grammar structures and choices. For example, pronouns like ‘you’ and ‘I” will help to strike up a direct connection between the reader and the writer.
Second-person writing is not very common in English, with most writing falling into either the first or third person. Due to this, users will subconsciously notice when you slip into directly addressing them with ‘you.’
Using connective pronouns and other features of personable copy will increase how relatable you seem in your emails. If you’re looking to build brand loyalty and boost engagement with your emails, this is a wonderful place to start. Varying your tone depending on your audience will help to connect more closely to your ideal persona, streamlining all communication.
Email signatures
The first two elements of personalization are directed toward the customer themselves. By including their name in the email, you strike up a direct connection to them and suggest that this email was written with them in mind. Next, by fine-tuning your copy to create a more personable tone in your email, you’re able to relate to the recipient and strike up a more friendly dynamic.
However, this next form of email personalization goes in the opposite direction. Most of the time, when we receive emails from corporations, they are entirely faceless – lacking any discernable name or actual person attached to them. While this may work in some circumstances, it can often lead to your emails feeling alien and cold.
By including an email signature at the end of your marketing email, you allow the reader to directly see where this email is coming from. Especially with tools that allow you to generate an email signature in seconds, this can be a rapid change that has dramatic results for your email campaigns.
Include your name in the email signature and other core elements of information. Beyond just dumping details here, use this space as a way to show off your authenticity. People connect to emails more if they understand that they are coming from a specific person. Your email signature allows you to do exactly this without having to change much of your email at all.
Simply by including an email signature with your name and information, you turn an email from a faceless marketing material into something that appears to come directly from one individual into another’s inbox. This personable form of communicating with your audience will help to increase engagement and present a human front to your company.
Final thoughts
If you’re looking to boost engagement with your marketing emails, then incorporating personalization into everything you send out is one of the most effective ways of doing so. Although personalizing an email with names may seem like a small change, it can have a huge impact on click-through and engagement rates.
Over time, by fine-tuning your personalization skills within emails, you can transform how you engage with customers and ensure they feel connected to your brand. While you may not see dramatic change overnight, personalization has become a leading method in all other spheres. If you give it enough time, this strategy will radically change how you engage with your customers.
