Perfecting personalisation

Personalisation is more than simply inserting someone’s name into your emails, although this is an easy place to start. Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, said in his book, “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

As a marketer you are surrounded by data about your customers, who they are, what they do and what they are interested in and all of this can be used to inform sophisticated personalised campaigns that really hit the mark.

Aberdeen group found that personalized email messages can improve click-through rates by as much as 14% and conversions by 10%.

Email is the perfect medium to personalise as you have the unique ID (email address) which enables you to personalise to the individual. What’s more, the granular reporting that is possible means you can really get a handle on what is working and what needs to be reviewed.

There are so many possibilities, it can be daunting to begin with, but by focusing on small incremental steps you can soon build personalised experiences for your customers and prospects. Looking for inspiration, try these as a start point….

Personalised product recommendations

By using your subscribers browsing or purchase history you can develop a personalised campaign to capitalise on their preferences. The masters at Amazon have raised consumer average expectations, with many consumers expecting this level of understanding from all retailers they shop with. So don’t disappoint them.

Personalised promotions

Why not go a step further and use personalisation to determine specific promotions for your customers. Again, by leveraging browsing and purchase history you can boost conversions, by offering tailored promotions unique to the individual. By increasing the relevance of your message the increased conversions are bound to follow.

By using dynamic content blocks you could amend your content in relation to the size or loyalty of your customer, for example, giving them a personalised experience. With Advanced Dynamic Content in e-shot™ the world is your oyster, you can tailor any element within your mail with rules to determine what your recipient sees.

Personalised post-purchase emails

A great way to improve customer post-purchase experience is by sending them emails relevant to what they just bought. Whether it is related items or useful advice, your contact is highly likely to engage with anything linked to their shiny new purchase.

Review Requests

People like to be asked their opinion and reviewing or rating their recent purchase is no exception.

 It all depends on the data that you have at your disposal and how you can leverage it best – are you a hairdresser that collects data on hair colour or a clothing retailer that has gender information on their customers – you can use the data that you already have to your emailing advantage.

Personalisation gives you the possibility to present your subscribers with a 1-2-1 email experience and act like their personal shopper, offering them tailored products, promotions and recommendations in line with what they are looking for. Taking this to the next level, by including this detail on your website can provide a seamless customer experience.