Email marketing has become a trend, and it’s here to stay, thanks to the increasing number of email users. The large email user base has led marketing teams to advertise their businesses directly to their potential customers’ inboxes by sending educational yet promotional emails.
However, while it is cheap and easy for businesses to craft those emails, there is more to the marketing strategy for it to be effective. Most users are likelier to delete promotional emails or mark them as spam, especially if they are unrelated to their interests.
However, personalization of the emails can help brands pass the test of whether their target audiences will read the emails or mark them as spam.
Another secret of success in this marketing strategy is applying automation in email marketing. This way, the brand only sends the correct emails to the right audience at the proper time.
Personalization In Email Marketing
One way for brands to survive the stiff competition brought by email marketing is by personalizing. The business aims to spread the word about its brand to many humans, using educative yet helpful information.
Personalization in marketing aims at sending emails with the most relevant information to specific subscribers. For example, you can grab the reader’s attention by calling them by their first name, mentioning a product they recently bought or is in the cart, or saying their location.
Importance Of Personalization In Email Marketing
Email personalization is a proven way to achieve email campaign success. The method increases the open and click-through rates, positively impacting your ROI and revenue. Some reasons to personalize your marketing emails are;
- Establishes an emotional connection
Nothing feels good like someone addressing you by your name. An email that starts with the reader’s name will grab their attention and trigger them to read the message. If the entire message talks about something the reader is interested in, they could even take action.
Besides grabbing the reader’s attention with their first name, the brand can also create a connection by making the “From” name more conspicuous. For example, they can use a larger text or heavier font to make it visible. That builds trust between the company and the reader.
- Addresses the customer’s problems
An email recipient is only likely to read and respond to an email if it addresses their pain points. Therefore, when looking for the target audience’s name, ensure you also identify their problems from the analytics.
You can then use the problem to offer a solution. This way, the email becomes helpful to the reader, and they are even more likely to take action. The business’s email campaign will be more successful than the competitors who directly try to make people buy their products.
- Helps brands build trust with customers
With every business using email marketing, target audiences receive many emails daily. Most people don’t read these emails, especially those that scream “scam alert.” These generally address the recipient with a start line of “dear Miss/Mrs/Mr. Other readers even report the emails and push them to the spam box.
Sending a personalized email with the recipient’s name creates trust between the brand and the reader. Stating where the email is from also removes anonymity and assures the reader that the email is from a legit business.
- Improves open rate
One sure way to make people open and read your email is by personalizing it. Statistics show that a personalized subject increases the open rate by 26 percent. Marketing campaigns are also likely to increase their revenue by 600 percent higher with customized emails.
Different Methods Of Personalization
There are many ways of getting personal with your customers during an email campaign. It does not end at calling the reader by name or using images and audience-tailored information to grab their attention. Other methods of email personalization are;
- Segmentation
Segmentation is compiling your audience’s data in groups of things they have in common. It can be their location, gender, or role in their jobs. You can also use the customer’s behaviors and interests. The segments you choose depend on your industry and the campaign’s goals.
Segmentation helps to build an emotional bond and trust with the subscriber. The information makes them feel known on a personal level, increasing the chances of engagement and completing an action like Order Now at the end of the email.
- Dynamic content
The dynamic email content is content that changes depending on the recipient. It can be based on demographics like age, location, race and occupation, or preferences. It helps recipients relate to the brand’s email campaign, increasing open rates.
Dynamic content also helps the brand display the preferred content by the subscribers. When you match the content in the email with customer needs, they feel special and are more likely to give you attention.
- Use anniversaries
People like it when others remember special dates; brands can use this advantage to push their email campaigns. So while you might not know a person’s wedding anniversary, you can find their birthdays or other important dates, like when they started their journey with you.
Making the subscribers feel special for remembering their anniversaries will make them reciprocate by giving your email attention. They are also more likely to engage and complete calls to action, increasing revenue.
- Be humorous
While mentioning the reader’s names at the beginning of the email can be helpful, the tone of your email determines if they will continue reading. You can make the email copy more interesting by making it less formal.
Ensure the tone is friendly and personable and includes humor. It breaks the ice by making the reader feel like you are speaking to them as a friend, not a business. That also helps to grab the reader’s attention, prompting many people to read the entire piece and make purchases.
Automation in Email Marketing
Automation in email marketing is using marketing automation software to trigger email messages to customers depending on some actions. For example, you can customize a welcome email that all new customers get once they sign up for your email.
Other automated email messages are product recommendations to customers looking for a specific product or emails reminding the customer about items they left in the cart.
Benefits Of Automation In Email Marketing
Email automation helps the brand focus on more important tasks like responding to customer emails. The emails also help the customers feel welcomed and recognized, creating loyalty. Other benefits of email automation are;
- Improves customer retention and loyalty
Customers like getting attention and recognition from businesses. So brands can stay in touch with existing customers by scheduling update messages regularly. The updates can be about a product the customer bought a while ago or an improved version of an item.
When sending automated emails, you can also offer a sale or discounts to customers if they use a code. Messages like these will likely return old customers, which is easier and more cost-effective than winning new customers. You can end with a call to action of “pay us a visit” or “order today for free delivery.”
- Increases scalability in marketing strategy
Automated emails increase the brand’s ability to send more emails to potential customers. That would be different if you manually sent the emails because the staff would take more time to write and send them.
Besides, manual email delivery means the need for more employees if your customer base doubles or triples. Automation also ensures workflow efficiency and consistency. In addition, the team can use the extra time to reply to customer complaints and requests.
- Encourages individuals who are losing interest
Through email automation, brands can create a one-size-fits-all message for users with common behavior in their mailing lists. For example, you can remind customers who put goods in the cart and left without checking out their orders.
You can also use email automation to send a re-engagement email to customers who are about to unsubscribe or lose interest in your brand. It saves you the time you would spend checking the disengaged users who need one email to remember you and your good services.
Different Types of Automated Email Campaigns
Companies automate their emails depending on the goals of the email marketing campaign. Some types of automated emails are;
- Welcome emails
A welcome email sends a welcome note to new email subscribers. Sending a personalized automated welcome email to new customers makes them feel special.
You can tell them about the company, and any offers and special deals. You should also include a call to action on welcome emails, but ensure the emails don’t look too promotional.
- Reminder-based email
Customers feel taken care of when reminded about expiration dates or deadlines. These can be easy to forget, but automated emails will help your customers stay notified.
Remind them about ending offers on sales or the deadline for payment for online courses. You can also notify them about a subscription that requires renewal.
- Abandoned cart emails
If you run an e-commerce organization, you will likely deal with abandoned carts. Many potential customers only go through the purchasing process to leave the site without checking out.
You can use personalized automated emails to remind them to check out the items in their cart.
How Automation Can Help Businesses Save Time and Increase Revenue
Email automation is becoming a helpful technology in email marketing, and it helps brands achieve more. For example, automation can save your business time because you don’t need a team for data entry.
Automated emails show if a potential customer opened an email, engaged with a post, or tapped a provided website link. Customer Relationship Management automatically updates the contact record depending on how prospective customers engage with the provided content. Lack of engagement can also lead to the automatic closure of dormant customer accounts.
Email automation also increases overall sales for businesses. For example, sending automatic emails to prospective customers about a deal that is about to close can trigger their course of action, like purchasing items.
Reminding the customers about upcoming deadlines on the price of an online course or free delivery can prompt them to click the “Buy Now” button, increasing sales.
Challenges and Opportunities of Personalization and Automation in Email Marketing
While personalization and automation are perfect email marketing strategies for many businesses, they have pros and cons.
Challenges of Personalization and Automation in Email Marketing
- There’s more to personalization than mentioning names
Addressing potential customers with their first or last names draws their attention and can compel them to open and read your emails. However, getting the names wrong or emailing the bad person can be a big deal.
You should also find the right voice and tone to connect with your customers. When creating a message, consider what your potential customers want to hear. What problems would they like you to solve? You can get this information from their past actions and searches.
- Low engagement rate
Many businesses use email marketing to push brand campaigns, meaning email users could receive hundreds of emails daily. Besides, internet scammers have also mastered the skill, making many email users more aware. Unfortunately, this has led to low engagement rates, as most people delete or send promotional emails to the spam box.
Another reason for low open rates which leads to low engagement is using a subject line that does not trigger your audience to read or flooding your customers’ inboxes with too many emails. You can use more captivating subject lines and send targeted information for higher engagement.
- Lack of real-time interaction
Generic automated emails lack real-time interaction, affecting interaction with your customers. In addition, people are less likely to read such emails, meaning low-rate conversions will occur.
Besides, there is a noticeable inconsistency in brand communication when you send automated emails and when replying to questions, which is unsuitable for business.
The Opportunities That Arise from The Use of Personalization and Automation
- Improves customer experience
While some brands have a terrible perception of Artificial intelligence reducing email personalization, you can get one that aligns with your brand to enjoy personalized experiences. Also, email automation ensures 24/7 availability, meaning customers won’t forget about you.
Consistent customer engagement makes them feel seen and cared for, increasing loyalty. Besides, low response rates with automated emails make clients feel like they matter, which is good for business.
- Increases return on investment (ROI)
Automation and personalization enhance customer satisfaction, which can trigger the completion of calls to action like Buy Now or Order Now. When more consumers feel heard and taken care of, they are likely to shop in your business, increasing ROI.
Besides, creating good customer relationships through personalization and engagement can bring long-term benefits. For example, old customers are likely to return, recommend their friends and spend more than new customers.
Conclusion
Email marketing has grown over the years and is continuing to grow. Personalization and automation are the best ways to stand out from the crowd. When personalizing, ensure you call the email receivers by their names, use relevant information to them to pass your brand awareness, and use a friendly and humorous tone.
Automated emails help brands save time sending obvious messages like welcome messages and can use the time to engage with customers. When using automated emails, ensure there is personalization for consistency. Brands considering email marketing for campaigns can try the techniques mentioned above for a successful campaign.
