Message personalization: powerful methods to improve your response rates
Email marketing services like iContact have a powerful method of improving the open and response rates for your email newsletters: message personalization. People generally respond more favorably to marketing when you make them feel unique. On the other hand, they tend to respond differently to things when they perceive themselves as part of a larger group. To be successful with your email marketing campaigns, you must take some of these psychological factors into account when using individual message personalization techniques.
Message personalization can be done by inserting what is known as mail-merge fields into your message. For example, iContact has a tool that allows you to insert the first name of a subscriber into the message subject or body simply by typing the words “[fname]” (this stands for “first name”) in the appropriate place. If you would like to include additional personal information, such as the name of the product your customer purchased, you can create a Custom Field for this as well and call it something like “[productname].” These two messages illustrate the difference in appearance when you use mail-merge personalization in your email messages:
(No mail-merge personalization)
Dear Subscriber,
Thank you for purchasing one of our products in the past. Today we have launched a new online catalog that may help you in your future purchases. You can find this catalog at http://www.autobodycorp.com/catalog/.
We appreciate your business. Please know I am always here if you have any questions about your past purchases.
My warmest regards,
Frank Desean, President
Autobody Products Corp.
http://www.autobodycorp.com
(With mail-merge personalization)
Dear [fname],
Thank you for purchasing [productname] on [purchasedate]. Today we have
launched a new online catalog that may help you in your future purchases of
[productcategory] products. You can find this catalog at
http://www.autobodycorp.com/catalog/.
We appreciate having the business of [businessname]. Please know I am always here if you have any questions about your purchase of [productname] or any
[productcategory] purchases that you may make in the future.
My warmest regards,
Frank Desean, President
Autobody Products Corp.
http://www.autobodycorp.com
When done correctly, personalization can be a powerful way to reinforce the connection between your company and your customers. However, poorly personalized messages can just as quickly dissolve that connection that you have worked diligently to establish.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back in a few days to demonstrate how to further personalize your emails to your customers.
Cheers,
Ryan Allis
June 10th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Hey Ryan,
Awesome article. I appreciate the great content!Personalization is everything. Personalization goes in tandem with identifying your ideal client profile. While its simple to send a mass email, its more important to identify the pyschographic and demographics characteristics of your ideal prospect, and personalize communications with them based off the characteristics. I learned these tips from John Assarof’s new book “The Answer.” Have you read it yet? Its the most valuable entrepreneurial text I’ve ever read. Check it out. (http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?rta=blog)
June 10th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Thanks for the excellent insights — very timely for those just learning proven, simple techniques for boosting response rates.
Corey’s comment above regarding identifying psycho- and demographic profiles of ideal customers is a great exercise for creating the powerful, targeted messaging.
June 10th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Hi Ryan,
You make some good points. Along with personalization, I also think it’s important to keep your brand consistent. With this in mind, who should I contact at iContact for insight on the best way to create custom newsletter templates that correspond correctly with your services?
Thanks for your feedback and help!
God Bless,
Tyra
June 11th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Personalization is the only way to break through the email barrier. If people see something that is relevant to their needs, they are MUCH less annoyed by yet another email. Great post and recommendation of iContact. Is there a link to their site?
June 11th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Thanks for all the great comments!
Jay (and everyone else) you can reach us at http://www.icontact.com and sign up for a free trial on the spot!
Cheers,
Ryan
June 11th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Tyra:
Feel free to contact Chuck Hester, Corporate Communications Director at iContact. He can point you in the right direction.
chuck@icontact.com
Tell him I sent you!
Ryan