5 Tips for Creating Personalized Email Content

So, you have an email list. But how can you make the most out of it?

The answer is simple: personalized email content.

That’s the focus of our article today. We are going to share five tips for creating personalized email content in order to engage subscribers and enhance your brand voice online.

Why Personalize Your Email Marketing?

Generic email blasts are not enough anymore. People want messages that are relevant to them. It’s important to tailor your content strategy accordingly.

In fact, according to Hubspot’s “Not Another State of Marketing Report 2021”, email marketers are using hyper personalized messages.

When asked what are their company’s favorite email marketing tactics for email marketing, an overwhelming 83% of respondents referenced personalization.

(Note that we are using the term “personalization” in the broad sense, which is why we include tactics like segmentation, marketing automation, and dynamic content in it).

This isn’t surprising given that personalizing content is relatively easy, but it can produce incredible results.

For example, according to Campaign Monitor’s data, marketers have found that segmented campaigns led to a 760% increase in revenue.

It’s clear that creating personalized email content is one of the most effective content marketing tactics. It’s also a necessity for any business owner who wants to keep up with the competition and get ahead of the pack.

Tip #1: Ask For Their Name, Then Use It in Your Emails

There’s an ongoing debate between online marketers on the topic of whether you should ask for people’s names and emails addresses or only for their email addresses.

There’s a trade-off involved:

• Asking for both name and email address enables you to personalize each message by using the subscriber’s name, which is likely to increase open rates.

• Asking for just the email address typically leads to more sign ups, which means faster email list growth.

We believe that it’s best to go with the former approach, because it’s not the number of email subscribers that matters, it’s the relationship that you have with those subscribers. Personalization helps with that.

For example, Ramit Sethi, a popular personal finance blogger at I Will Teach You to be Rich and the author of a NYT best-selling book by the same name, asks for both the person’s name and their email address.

This helps him to connect with his audience via his down-to-earth, casual emails that feel like they were written by a friend.

Tip #2: Have Several Lead Magnets That Address Different Problems

A lead magnet is a freebie that online marketers use to persuade potential customers to sign up to their email lists.

Typically, small business owners tend to have one lead magnet. However, creating several lead magnets is one of the most straightforward ways to personalize your email content.

Why?

Because the fact that the person chose a particular freebie tells you what they are interested in.

You can then tailor your content accordingly by segmenting your list and creating different autoresponder sequences for each lead magnet.

Tip #3: Use a Quiz to Better Understand The Needs of Your Subscribers

Another great way to personalize your email content is to simply ask your subscribers what they are interested in, then segment your email list based on those answers and create different email autoresponder sequences for each segment. You can use marketing automation for this.

For example, Brennan Dunn, the creator of Double Your Freelancing, has a quiz where he asks each new subscriber to answer several questions that help him determine their needs.

Then he sends them personalized email content that addresses their specific situation, provides solutions to problems that they are struggling with, and helps them achieve their business goals.

Tip #4: Set Up Behavioral Triggers

You can also use marketing automation to set up behavioral triggers.

For example, you can send different email campaigns to people who:

• Didn’t open your product launch email.

• Did open your product launch email but didn’t click through to the sales page.

• Did open your product launch email, did click through to the sales page, but didn’t buy the product.

• Did open your product launch email, did click through to the sales page, and bought the product.

Tip #5: Personalize Your Emails Based on Their Purchase History

When it comes to e-commerce, Amazon sets customers’ expectations, then everyone else has to do their best to meet them.

One such expectation is product recommendation emails based on the customer’s shopping history.

Fortunately, major email marketing service providers like MailChimp now offer features that allow for this type of personalization, plus there are also e-commerce-specific service providers like SmartrMail that specialize in that.

This means that small business owners can now offer personalized product recommendations similar to those of Amazon’s.

In fact, in 2020, 60% of companies in the retail, ecommerce, and consumer goods and services industries were using personalization based on past purchases in their email marketing.

This is the best way to ensure that your product recommendations are relevant and therefore maximize your email marketing ROI.

In Summary

Personalization is the name of the game when it comes to email marketing.

The more relevant your messages, the more likely your subscribers will be to open them, click on your links, and buy your products.

We can help you create personalized email content that gets results. Get in touch with us for more information.