By: Wendy Greenwood, Contributing Author
Personalization in emails is critical when sending relevant marketing messages to your customers. According to an Epsilon research report, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a retailer that tailors offers to their preferences. But when it’s not done well, it can do more harm than good, leaving customers feeling unloved and misunderstood.
People rely on emails to stay “in the know” from brands that they trust and rely on. They share their personal information with you in exchange for getting the right information at the right time, otherwise they may unsubscribe.
Marketers use many tactics to customize emails when upselling, cross-selling and reactivating lapsed customers. Popular methods include personalizing subject lines to increase open rates, segmenting the email database to tailor content, and tagging subscribers who click on a link or visit a landing page to trigger an email or personalize CTA’s.
Unfortunately, these tactics can have their downside when looking from your customer’s viewpoint. Here are 5 examples of customer experiences gone wrong.
1. The Creep Factor
If you’ve ever visited a landing page and downloaded a whitepaper you may have experienced this. You immediately receive an email notification from the brand followed by a phone call before you’ve even read the information. Worse yet, several more emails follow over the course of the next week.
2. Sending Outdated Information
Good loyalty programs automatically send notifications to customers when points are redeemed, to verify the transaction and avoid fraud. But have you ever redeemed points one day and the next day’s sales flyer doesn’t have your points up-to-date?
3. Not Localizing Offers
During the pandemic, it’s critical to notify customers of temporary business closures and changes to operating hours, curbside pickup, and delivery options in their local market. Email is a fast and effective way to communicate. But there is nothing more annoying than receiving an email to book an appointment for a service that is not available.
4. Overpromising and Under Delivering
In an effort to regain lapsed customers and retain frequent guests, retailers and other service providers entice clients with deep discounts. And then this happens. Within minutes of receiving a free offer you click on the link, only to find that the website won’t load and has likely crashed.
5. Making Incorrect Assumptions
Women often purchase apparel for the men in their lives. Future email content is then adapted to menswear options, based on their last purchase. Unisex retailers are typically guilty of this.
If you’re going to personalize your emails, then be sure to make it personal. Delivering the right content is key to engaging throughout the customer journey. Combining behavioral data with real-time contextual data is the secret sauce to email personalization, so consider investing in a platform that uses machine learning.
Here are some best practices to check off your list:
· Capture relevant information during registration to develop customer personas
· Segment your list
· Personalize subject lines
· Target offers based on location, and purchase and browsing history
· Be sensitive to the timing and frequency of deployment
· Use automated behavioral trigger emails
· Leverage integrations available through tools such as MailChimp or Constant Contact
· Subscriber tags let you send personal CTAs based on customer choices
· Allow subscribers to set their own preferences to avoid unwanted emails
· Test, learn, optimize and monitor
The best performing campaigns are developed from your customer’s point of view. As a marketer you are ultimately in charge of your email strategy, not machines. But remember that you are not your customer. Let data and analytics be your guide to uncover insights and solve their problems.
When you choose to put the customer first, only then will you outperform against your business priorities.