Learn why marketers must focus on email personalization for better customer engagement.
Email marketers have long upheld the adage that the best time to email is 10am on Tuesday. However, the current email landscape indicates that isn’t the case. To better reach subscribers, senders must implement personalization into their email program, shares, Kate Adams, SVP marketing of Validity.
We’ve all heard the old adage: the best time to email is 10 am on a Tuesday. But I’m here to tell you – that’s not true.
This mantra has been repeated for years and has reached the point where marketers across the globe put blind faith in the promise that Monday through Friday between 10 and 11am is the magical hour for email engagement. There is data (albeit from 2021, and now outdated given the upheaval from the past couple of years) to back up the claims that this is the time emails are most likely to be opened. Yet, opens alone don’t guarantee engagement. If everyone abides by this rule, inboxes are flooded, and subscribers are left fatigued, especially in a post-pandemic world where email volumes have spiked.
Since the onset of COVID-19, customers have been forced to flock to digital channels like email – making it a more important channel than ever. From 2020 to 2021, global email volume rose 82%, and it continued trending upward in 2022. In fact, it reached a 34% year-over-year uplift this December. This high sending volume puts added pressure on deliverability and increased competition in subscribers’ inboxes.
To truly engage with customers effectively, it’s not so much about when an email marketer hits send – it’s more about the content being sent.
People like it when experiences cater to their specific interests and needs. A staggering 86% said personalized emails influence their purchasing decisions. Even more so, a recent study conducted by Validity on the current state of SMS marketing found that 87% of consumers like seeing their name in messages from brands. While this particular study was focused on SMS, it further reflects consumers’ desire for personalized marketing that is relevant to them.
Senders can take these findings and put them into action to increase customer engagement by utilizing data to create targeted emails. This could go beyond mentioning their first name. Consider their last purchase – Validity’s recent study found that 76% like to see messages related to their previous purchases. When subscribers see content they have a real interest in, they feel seen, thus increasing the likelihood that they’ll actually follow an email’s call to action.
The point being: personalized emails boost consumer retention rates, conversions, positive engagement, and ROI. Email campaigns that neglect to implement customization strategies might miss out on key opportunities to establish engagement, build personal relationships with their audience, and drive revenue.
Instead of auto-scheduling emails for 10 am on Tuesday, try using these practices to capture your audience:
Splitting up your email lists entails dividing subscribers into various groups using a set of defined characteristics – like age, gender, location, or purchase history. This practice leads to major increases in subscriber engagement.
In fact, segmented email marketing generates 14.64% more opens and almost 60% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns. Besides higher email engagement, open, and click-through rates, brands using segmentation strategies can also achieve revenue increases of up to 760%.
The goal behind splitting your audience is to target them with relevant, personalized content better so that they’re more likely to engage with your brand.
Zero-party data is information customers share with a brand, including their name, age, location, and personal interests. When you include these items in emails, you deliver custom brand experiences to subscribers.
The best part about zero-party data? It’s free, accurate, and compliant with evolving privacy laws and regulations, which is top of mind for consumers. However, it is important to know that to use zero-party data for personalized email messages; marketers must ask subscribers to provide it. A great way to do this is through a preference center. Preference centers give subscribers the opportunity to provide information about themselves and make decisions about the emails they’ll receive. Not only can subscribers provide basic information like their name, age, and birthday, but a business can take it a step further by prompting them to share things like their preferred email frequency and level of expertise on a particular subject matter.
Validity’s study found that 96% of respondents wish companies were more transparent about how their data is used. By using a preference center, marketers can build trust with subscribers, which is crucial for gaining customer loyalty and engagement. This information gives brands everything they need to create custom emails that stand out to subscribers with their buy-in and consent.
When talking about email, dynamic content changes based on subscriber interests, behavior, or personal data. This can range from basic text like email copy and subject lines to visual aides like interactive polls or feedback requests.
Dynamic content enables senders to personalize emails to resonate better with individual subscribers. It makes the subscriber feel like the email has been curated especially for them and helps strengthen their relationship with your brand. Even basic information like subscriber names can be leveraged to present tailor-made product recommendations.
This is perhaps the biggest differentiator for email engagement. By leveraging automated email marketing, senders can use scheduled, pre-written and triggered emails, send reminders when product supply may be getting low, or automated emails encouraging the stickiness of a product or service.
While the former type of email marketing allows you to easily stay in touch with your audience all year long, triggered emails are a great way to respond to subscriber actions in real-time. Trigger emails are used when a shopper abandons their cart, a subscriber’s birthday, or a customer has reached a certain milestone. These types of personalized messages keep senders top of mind for customers, building customer loyalty and eventually boosting revenue.
Automated emails can also help brands reiterate the value a consumer found in their service or product. When email marketers go beyond merely adding a subscriber’s name and start dynamically adjusting the email body, they enter the next phase of advanced email personalization.
The email landscape is rapidly evolving, which means senders simply can’t assume old adages have the Midas Touch. Rather than relying on what was once believed to be true, it’s time to uplevel emails with personalization to give customers the message they want and truly stand out among the crowded inbox.
Do you think email personalization is key to increasing customer engagement? Please share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
Image Source: Shutterstock
SVP of Marketing, Validity
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