What is email personalisation, and why is it so important?
Email personalisation is one of the fundamental ways brands increase engagement and conversions with consumers today. So it is not surprising that over 71% of consumers are frustrated when their shopping experience is not personalised. Personalisation is like calling my name in the centre of a market square; you are sure to get my attention. Compare that to screaming “Hey guys!” at the top of your lungs in a market square. You will surely attract a thousand unwanted stares when your intention was only to call me.
A more technical definition is data points to craft a custom and unique experience for consumers of a brand based on data points they have provided through their interaction with your brand. If all of this sounds new to you, I recommend that you read my earlier article on tips for segmenting email lists to increase engagement. It has some great suggestions on some data points you may need, and quite frankly, it is a prerequisite to learning how to personalise your emails efficiently.
Using personalisation significantly improves the open and click rates of emails. Subscribers also receive only relevant emails, and customers are more inclined to become repeat buyers after a personalised shopping experience. To be precise, “more than half (60%) of consumers say they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience with a retailer, up from 44% in 2017” according to Segment.
I have compiled these stats to show you email personalisation is actually worth the hype.
40 Email personalisation statistics you should know.
- Personalising email campaigns based on email segments has proved to be the most effective strategy for 50% of marketing influencers. That is a whopping half of marketing influencers using email personalisation as their most result-driven approach to reaching customers.
- 32% of consumers are likely to leave a positive review after experiencing a personalised shopping experience from a brand. How about providing personalised emails to your clients based on the purchase history or frequency? It tells them that you know them well enough to care about their preferences.
- 70% of brands fail to use personalised emails. Well, this is a bit shocking. Considering the power personalisation gives a brand to influence customer behaviour, you would think many brands will be using this strategy. However, only 3 out of 10 brands provide personal experiences tailored to consumers. Brands that can take advantage of this opportunity will thrive.
- Personalised emails deliver six times higher transaction rates. Brands have the opportunity to increase their transaction rate by six times! Who wouldn’t want that? If you are banging your head thinking of ways to increase revenue, here is a free tip you can experiment with.
- 91% of consumers are willing to purchase from brands that recognise, remember, and provide personalised offers and recommendations.
- Personalised emails increase open rates by 26%. Something as simple as addressing consumers by their first name has increased email rates by 26%. If you are conversant with industry email stats, you will know that a 26% increase is an impressive feat.
- [Brands get 17% more revenue via email campaigns using email personalisation](https://instapage.com/blog/personalization-statistics#:~:text=74%25 of marketers said that, deliver 6x higher transactional rates.) tactics than the average marketer. A touch of personalisation can do wonders for your revenue if you take the time to craft unique experiences for your customers.
- Over 20% of marketers say email personalisation enhances their engagement rates. But, let’s face it, who wants to engage with emails that seem like they were mass sent?
- 99% of marketers vouch that email personalisation amplifies their customer relationships. So if you plan to make customers feel a strong connection with your brand, email personalisation is a sure way to achieve this.
- In the US, 90% of consumers think personalised marketing is beautiful to them. Consumers are more likely to spend more with you when they realise you have curated and recommended products to them based on their preferences.
- There is an eight-time increase in click-through rates for some brands that have used personalised video against generic outbound emails. Both solicited and unsolicited emails flood consumers in the hundreds. Brands who want to stand out will have to consider going the extra mile to create personalised emails with media formats like videos.
- 50% of companies believe that email personalisation can increase subscriber interaction. Subscribers are interacting with emails lesser these days. Personalisation has proved to work for many companies in this regard.
- 94% of marketing and customer insights professionals agree that personalisation is crucial in meeting their email marketing objectives. Email marketing no longer works with a “mass send” strategy. For optimal results, it involves marketers to personalise emails carefully.
- Segmented and personalised emails are responsible for 58% of all revenues. This is huge! You should be asking yourself if you are paying enough attention to personalised emails.
- Birthday emails, a classic use case of personalisation emails, generate 342% higher revenue than the usual promotional email campaigns.
- 36% of consumers have shown interest in buying personalised products or services. This is because their need and wants are directly addressed, and it is much easier for them to consider purchasing.
- 55% of consumers have stated that they are drawn to email marketing that includes relevant, personalised products and offers.
- 80% of repeat shoppers purchase from brands that personalise their shopping experience. It is easier for consumers to shop with a brand that tells them the best products to match their needs.
- 63% of consumers are likely to stop purchasing from brands due to poor personalisation strategies.
- Dynamic content is one of the most effective personalisation strategies for 65% of marketers.
- 32% of consumers expect that they should get an applicable discount within one hour of identifying themselves with a brand. So if you know them that much, you might as well give them a healthy portion of their most desired product.
- 25% of consumers expect to get a personalised newsletter from a brand within one hour of identifying themselves with that brand.
- 31% of consumers also expect to be shown personalised online ads after interacting and identifying with a brand.
- 27% of consumers expect to get personalised products or services recommendations within one hour on websites or apps of brands they interact with.
- 63% of customers say receiving a discount within an hour of interacting with a brand will drive loyalty. However, as I stated earlier, the best way to give relevant discounts to consumers is through personalisation.
- 28% of people do not prefer to be contacted by companies when they have not explicitly provided their details. Therefore, always make sure that your customers willingly give you their personal information.
- 32% of customers do not like to receive personalised messages as they feel like it is an invasion of privacy. As much as personalisation is excellent for creating unique customer experiences, some do not like the idea of receiving targeted messaging.
- 83% of consumers are willing to give their data to brands to allow a personalised consumer experience. Try asking your clients to volunteer some personal data for a better shopping experience. You would be surprised they were willing to offer some data. Please do not ask for too much else that might spook them off.
- 49% have made impulse purchases after receiving a personalised recommendation of a product from a brand.
- 16% of all impulse purchases were based solely on personalised recommendations from emails.
- In the US, 40% of consumers have bought a more expensive item than they had initially intended to because their experience was personalised.
- 84% of consumers who made impulse purchases via personalised email messages were satisfied with their purchases. So think about it, 84% of customers who did not plan to buy anything spent money and were satisfied with it because brands sent them personalised recommendations via email.
- 89% of businesses, including major brands like Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo, are investing in personalisation to create unique experiences for consumers.
- 66% of customers say they expect brands and companies to understand their unique needs and expectations through personalisation.
- Following personalised and segmented email campaigns, marketers have reported a 760% jump in email revenue. Segmented and personalised emails do significantly better than one size fits all email campaigns.
- Personalised email subjects have open rates at an average of 50% and higher. So, consider doing the same for your email subject lines, aside from personalising the message.
- 69% more sales are generated when brands send three personalised abandoned cart emails instead of one.
- 49% of consumers would like to hear from their favourite brand every week. Personalised promotional emails, new product features and announcements are great ways to stay in the minds of your consumers.
- Over 71% of consumers are frustrated when their shopping experience is not personalised.
- 52% of customers will find another brand if their emails are not personalised.
Email personalization tips you should apply to your campaigns.
Collect data from your clients
Data collection should obviously be done first. Don’t scare off customers by collecting too much data. Only ask for what you need.
Data collection sits at the very top of your personalization journey. To begin personalizing your emails, you will need to collect data points that interest you and your business. Do you need your customers’ name, email, date of birth or even purchase history? Then ask for it and tell them what it is for. Also, beware not to get too personal as it might spook them off. Another thing you should absolutely not do is collect customer data without their permission. It is often unethical and annoying to customers.
Use audience segmentation
Email segmentation is dividing email subscribers into smaller groups based on their demographic, interest, purchase history and how they have interacted with your emails previously. Through segmentation, you can send very personalised emails that your subscribers would like. Segmenting your emails helps you put the right messaging in front of the right people.
Craft a well-structured automated sequence for your new subscribers or send the women in your lists women-only products. You can also recommend complementary products to recent purchases of customers. There are a number of great ways to segment your customers into lists that you can personalize. Read through this article to learn 8 ways you can segment your customers for higher customer engagement.
Use personalization in email content
Email content is really where the juice of personalization is. Use dynamic content like merge tags to personalize the content to your subscribers. Merge tags are data points like first name, last name, emails, purchase history and dates, among others. When you see a promotional message in your inbox that addresses you by your first name, for instance, it probably was not sent specifically to you by a marketer who addressed you by your name. A first name merge tag was used to accomplish this.
Personalise who is sending your emails
Create a sender identity that presents a cordial face to your customers. It is often a good idea for the emails you send out to have an identity your subscribers can relate to or expect. It can be an individual identity in the company like “[email protected]” or a team identity like “[email protected]”. I would suggest you personalise who is sending your emails instead of using something like “[email protected]”.
Wrapping it up
As you dive into personalisation for your brand, it might seem daunting at first, but take your time to unearth its power on your marketing and sales. With 90% of consumers thinking personalisation is attractive, you stand to gain significant benefits through its implementation. Marketers are strongly backing the use of email personalisation. 99% of them say it amplifies their customer relationships, while others have reported a 760% jump in revenue.
