Now more than ever before, we have the ability to personalize our cold outreach. For small businesses, this means we can personalize a customer’s shopping experience or increase the probability of them buying a product from us.
80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a company that offers personalized experiences and marketers see an average 20% increase in sales when they deliver more personalized experiences.
This means your business could make more money and provide a better customer experience by simply altering their strategy marginally.
Unfortunately, most companies are not taking advantage of the crazy amount of data that is now accessible to them.
When creating a personalized experience for your customers, email marketing is a good place to start. It is affordable, easy, and effective.
There is no benefit in spending time and energy creating an email list if you do not create relationships with your subscribers.
Personalizing emails can help increase open rates and conversions, but this goes far beyond simply adding their first name to the body of the email.
So, what else can you do?
#1 Time Triggers
If you use an email marketing software like ConvertKit, you could set your emails to be delivered at a particular time, which means you could start your email with a simple ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Good Evening’ depending on when it is being sent out. This is a really simple way to add a personal touch to your email and let your subscribers know this is not a piece of text you have simply copy-pasted and sent out.
#2 Automated Behavioral Trigger Emails
Triggered emails are when a customer takes a certain action that prompts an email response. For example, Amazon uses it when you look for a particular product on their online store.
Sooner than you can second guess the money leaving your bank account, Amazon sends you a list of options they think might interest you.
This is a great way to capture a potential sale before they change their mind.
It is not just Amazon that uses behaviorally triggered emails though. You can trigger emails when a subscriber unsubscribes from your email list or if someone is looking for an item that is out of stock. The possibilities are endless.
#3 Event-triggered Emails
This is a trick that works particularly well for clothing companies because there is not a single holiday or season out there that does not have a particular type of clothing to go with it. If Easter, Christmas, the Super Bowl, football season, or Thanksgiving is coming up- recognize that within your email.
This is bound to get more interest than a generic email that is not event focused.
#4 Ask for the Right Data From the Get-Go
Names are an overused way of personalizing your emails. Frankly, most customers would not care if you addressed them by their first name within the email or not.
So, instead of simply collecting your customer’s name through your opt-in form, try collecting even more important data.
This could be their birthday (remember what I said about event-triggered emails?), the country they are located in, or even their city if you are a more localized business.
Down the line, you could use this information to send them more personalized emails that they will engage with.
#5 Personalized Landing Pages
There is no point in creating an awesome personalized email if the landing page you are sending your customers to is generic.
The landing page above pulled information from the customer’s email preferences to auto-fill the form and even mention her name in the headline. This impresses customers and makes the buying process easier as well.
#6 Social Media Action Triggers
If someone has followed the company Facebook page or Twitter account, it would be a good idea to send them a follow-up email like this one:
Hey John,
Our team here at company name noticed that you took the time to like our Facebook page. That is awesome and we are so happy you are enjoying our company’s product/services.
You know what? Just to say thanks, here is a 10% discount on your next purchase.
Thanks again!
Simple as that! The customer is going to be more likely to engage with your company again in the future, and you have a potential sale coming your way.
#7 Mention Their Plan and How Many Days They Have Left
If your company provides a digital service, you could send your customers a follow-up email alerting them of your premium package with a potentially discounted rate (for a limited period of time).
This works really well for online learning platforms that provide limited period trials. So, for example, if you are a language learning service like Duolingo or Preply, you could offer a 10-day trial of your services and email your customers when they are nearing the end of the trial.
The above examples prove that personalization gets customers interested and is worth the investment.
With personalized emails delivering 6x higher transaction rates, investing in a better email marketing strategy could do your business more good than some of the more expensive marketing options out there.
