Personalizing Your E-newsletters and Mailings

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Personalizing your e-newsletter, the process of adding someone’s name or contact information into the opening or a field of text, has, in most cases, proven to increase engagement. But it can also backfire.

I am sure that you have, at some point, received an email with your last name first or worse yet, something like “We really value your service (blank space) !” When you see something like that, it actually undermines the messages that are being conveyed. Writing effective E-newsletters can be challenging in and of itself. Personalizing your E-newsletters can be even more challenging and you need to make sure that your approach is effective. Your ultimate goal, of course, is to get a lower and lower bounce rate and to increase your E-newsletter distribution list going forward. You can learn more about Adding Personalization to Your Mailings and Dear First Name – When Personalization Doesn’t Work! Undoubtedly, you will find the information helpful.

Here are ways to use personalization to really engage your readers:

  • In the salutation: Whether you use a standard like “Dear Franklin” or a more informal “Howdy Malcolm” (like WordPress does in it’s interface), this is a quick way to set the tone of your mailing. Be sure that you are using an appropriate choice – “Howdy” may not be as welcome from a financial adviser (unless you are both in Texas – then maybe it IS appropriate!).
  • In the body of your email: Think along the lines of “Thank you, Gina.” However, you can also use something other than someone’s name. If you create team-related gear, you could consider adding their school’s team in the body or closing. Something like “Go Crimson!” or “Go Tigers!” – just be sure that you have an appropriate team name for each recipient and that you have it in the correct field.
  • In an award or certificate: You can also insert your personalization into a document, like a certificate for Customer of the Month. I would not suggest, of course, that you send something like that out to everyone, but it could be very effective for a smaller group. You could also send out birthday wishes to your readers (see the example above). If you have a pediatric dental practice, you could send something out at the beginning of the month to anyone with a birthday that month. Or, if you have the time and staff, you could create a “personalized” greeting for each one and schedule it, ahead of time, to arrive in time for his or her birthday. This could work well in a retail boutique as well, especially if paired with a coupon of some kind!
  • In a loyalty card: You can quickly and easily generate a series of “loyalty cards,” which your customers can then use in the bricks-and-mortar store. These are more difficult to redeem online but can be helpful in driving traffic to a physical location.
  • In a coupon: It is easy to add coupons to almost any template. You can also personalize into the coupon field. This can be useful if you want to keep track of who is redeeming your coupons and/or to ensure that they are only redeeming it once. I prefer to encourage people to share their coupon by asking them to forward it along to their friends. You can even incentivize sharing by keeping track of whose name is on the most coupons redeemed and offering an additional perk or discount to that reader!

Conclusion

If done correctly, personalization can help you engage your readers and encourage them to become your ambassadors! So, start personalizing and use all of the tools at your fingertips in your marketing efforts.

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Author

  • LisaMarie Dias

    LisaMarie Dias of LisaMarie Dias Designs works with business owners to leverage social media for profitable growth. Specializing in e-newsletter start up and introductions to social media, she also offers online webinars and live presentations on how to use e-newsletters and social media to grow a business and personal consultations to help clients determine the marketing tools and sites that are right for their needs and goals.

3 Responses

  1. Sofia Anadiotou says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Social Marketing Group

    Discussion: Personalizing Your E-newsletters and Mailings

    Nice article! From where I stand (the e-mail marketing service provider's point of view – Moosend.com) you have to trust the tool you are using. But you have to use it correctly, meaning that it has to include the necessary information in the right fields, orelse yes, it will backfire. Many customers do not include personalization tags in their newsletters, simply because they are afraid of the misuse of such kind.
    Posted by Sofia Anadiotou

     

  2. K.Vee. Shanker says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: The Content Wrangler Community

    Discussion: Personalizing Your E-newsletters and Mailings

    Thanks for your useful suggestions. One way we might consider rewarding the customers introducing others is to give them unique discount id and track it for reward. Additionally, this award should be allowed to be clubbed with other discounts/offers to make them more encashable!
    Posted by K.Vee. Shanker

     

    • Yes, Sofia, many are afraid to use this approach – but seeing how it CAN backfire, being cautious can be a good thing! Done well, it can be helpful but doing it poorly can cause un-subscribes!

       

      And yes, K.Vee, creating and including unique tracking id's for each recipient is fairly easy to do and can be a great help when trying to determine the ROI of your efforts. If using hard copy coupons (for example, if you have a brick and mortar location and you have them print out and bring in the coupons)  you can even just insert the recipients name in the coupon field, rather than a code, and use that to see who redeems.

      Thank you for your feedback!