Emails are personal. Unlike most marketing channels, email is actually a one-to-one communication. This is your chance to reach people with a message that’s specifically targeted to them.
Email personalization Revolutionize the way we engage with our audiences, transforming generic promotional and transactional email programs into customized conversations that resonate with each recipient.
However, despite the proven benefits of email personalization, some misconceptions persist, preventing marketing teams from fully leveraging the power of email personalization.
That’s why we’ve teamed up with all-in-one email software Act-On and email personalization experts to bust these myths once and for all in a two-part series. Catch up on part one here.
Let’s debunk these myths and unlock the true potential of personalized email so you can reach the people that matter with the best message possible. Read on to learn about the biggest email personalization myth busted or watch the video.
Myth 1: Email personalization leads to email errors
Why does this myth exist?
We’ve all experienced the embarrassing moment of receiving an email from the wrong person or with the wrong message. These incidents have raised fears about personalization errors among marketers, who may worry that their emails will contain similar mistakes.
Myth busting
The implementation of email personalization seems to be a risky operation. After all, you can unsubscribe simply by sending a less personal email. Why poke the bear? In fact, personalization can be achieved simply, with the right tools and a little effort, and mistakes can be avoided. Imagine sending millions of emails, but each recipient received something just for them? This is how relationships are built. Here are some quick practices you can apply:
- Powerful Email Quiz: Implement thoroughly Email test Strategy is crucial. Tools like Litmus allow you to test emails across different clients and scenarios to ensure personalized content displays correctly.
- Data Hygiene: Keeping your data clean and accurate is critical. Only use data that you are 100% confident in, and update and verify your information regularly.
- Extra protection: Always have a fallback for personalization elements. For example, if a name is not available, it defaults to a more generic greeting to avoid embarrassing mistakes. You can also prevent errors when applying email privacy protections (for example, they can display a generic message or image if the images are cached and cannot display an accurate countdown timer).
Key points: Email personalization doesn’t mean you have to worry about emails filled with errors. On the contrary, email personalization often enhances the subscriber’s inbox experience. Just follow the steps outlined here to make sure you have clean data and test everything ahead of time.
Myth 2: Gathering data to create personalized emails is too challenging
Why does this myth exist?
Many people are afraid to pursue personalization due to the perception that data collection is tedious and complex. However, advances in data collection strategies have simplified this process.
Myth busting
Collecting personalized data is easier than you think. A great place to start is in your email preference center, which has a wealth of zero square data For your cooperation. As Google phases out third-party cookies, first-party and zero-party data will become even more valuable to marketers. challenge. Here are some things to consider:
- Preference center and zero-party information: This is an important part of any email marketing plan, allowing subscribers to share their preferences directly. An effective preference center in every email can be an important aspect in building and maintaining trust at any point in the customer journey (such as a new customer or a lapsed customer as part of a re-engagement campaign), prompting subscribers to provide valuable data .
- Implement data personalization: Successful preference centers provide user-friendly interfaces and clearly explain the benefits of providing information. Collecting zero-party data through interactive content like surveys and polls in emails can also be a fun way to learn more about your subscribers to enhance personalization.
Key points: Subscribers are encouraged to fill out the preference center during registration or through periodic prompts in emails. Use dynamic email content to personalize the experience and track user behavior to continuously optimize your email strategy.
Then, use the data collected to refine your segments and personalize future email campaigns.
Myth 3: Only B2C marketers use email personalization, and it’s only for promotions
Why does this myth exist?
Personalization is often associated with B2C strategies such as product recommendations and promotional offers, leading to the misconception that it does not apply to B2B marketing.
Myth busting
Marketers from all industries and business types can leverage data segmentation, automation, and dynamic content to achieve huge success with personalization. By employing these strategies, B2B marketers can create impactful, personalized email campaigns:
- B2B Email Personalization: B2B brands can take advantage of personalization by segmenting their email lists based on organization size or type, industry, and user preferences. Automated tools can customize messages with dynamic content based on these parameters to enhance relevance and engagement.
- example: Use cases may include personalized account-based marketing emails and segmentation based on company size or industry needs. Instant dynamic email personalization features such as countdown timer Can be used to promote events such as webinars, new product features, or announcements. Add to calendar link Helps you get better meeting attendance by allowing subscribers to add bookings to their calendars directly from email. Litmus uses live poll Understand better who our audience is and what type of email content they prefer.
Key points: B2B email marketing has no shortage of opportunities to personalize your emails. Use different strategies and email personalization features to your advantage to make your emails feel like a truly personal experience.
Myth 4: Instant email content just makes emails look cool; they don’t lead to business success
Why does this myth exist?
Some people believe that dynamic content is just a visual enhancement and has no real impact on business results. The assumption is that things like instant polls, countdown timers, and personalized images are just there to make emails look prettier, but they don’t provide an improved email marketing strategy.
Myth busting
Dynamic content goes beyond aesthetics to drive real business results by engaging subscribers to take action and ultimately increasing engagement and conversion rates. With proven success rates, marketers can trust dynamic content to be a valuable investment that can increase the effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns. Here’s what we know about dynamic email content.
- Engagement and conversions: Dynamic content significantly increases engagement and conversion rates. By leveraging fun, engaging email content that is personalized to each subscriber, email recipients will feel valued and more motivated to engage with your brand.
- Benefits of personalization: At Litmus, we see email teams leveraging email personalization through the Litmus Personalize driver These real results:
- Conversion rate increased by 45%
- Average order value increased by 49%
- Revenue grew 96%
Key points: Don’t create personalized emails just to make things “look good.” You have a real opportunity to build and nurture strong relationships by customizing content for your subscribers and customers. Data shows personalized emails have real business value.
