Should companies be personalising their email marketing?
‘Individualisation’ is used as an interactive feature within marketing communications, and allows messages to be tailored to each individual customer (Chaffey et al., 2009). This can achieved through ‘personalising channels, for examples through email communications, tailoring specific webpages and even personalising call-to-actions (Wert, 2004). Rather than sending one message to a broad market, messages can be sent to different targets to offer specific promotions. Personalisation supposedly increases click-through-rates compared to standardised emails (Postma and Brokke, 2001) and is currently used by 88% of companies.
In addition to creating better relationships, companies can also use email as a Knowledge Management tool (Lichtenstein and Swatman, 2002), whereby quality data on consumer trends and habits can be gained. This in-depth level of understanding can identify consumer trends and behavioural habits. Also, as a relatively cheap method, smaller companies are able to communicate to their segmented customers, of which success can be measured through A/B testing (Postma and Brokke, 2001).
This personalisation method has been widely adopted by many brands across various industries, with companies such as Amazon and ASOS excelling in personalised marketing. I’m sure we all have experienced the works of Amazon, where emails are populated with previously browsed products (but not purchased) and cleverly uses algorithms to provide future ‘response to buying suggestions’, leading up to 30% more revenue in the business (Srihari, 2015).
Despite the suggestive benefits from personalisation, research shows that only 5% of companies are adopting ‘extensive’ personalisation within their online marketing strategies, suggesting that personalisation is not used in a multi-channel approach.
If you are considering email personalisation or want to increase the level of customer interaction, here are 5 techniques to gain the most from personalised email marketing:
1) Gaining appropriate data
One of the most valuable ways to gain valuable data is by asking the ‘right’ questions, so companies should plan carefully when creating their forms. Information can be specific to product type, for example Montezumas (chocolatier) asking customers of their favourite chocolate to delver product-related campaigns. Though many companies remain relatively general, asking for information such as ‘date-of-birth’ in order to offer celebratory promotions. As you can see on the right, these companies have managed to succeed in doing this. If only it was my birthday all year round, right?
2) Distinguish different customer personas
Companies can utilise the new data gained, by creating customer ‘groups’ or ‘segments’. For example, with B2B companies, prospects can be categorised into having particular behaviours or personalities. From this, different email campaigns can be sent to each individual group to maximise the chance of gaining new clients. (I have actually experienced this when working for an energy consultancy, in using different imagery and copy-writing for educational organisations, compared to manufacturing for example).
3) Utilise location and time
Understanding when customers read their emails throughout the week can be achieved from monitoring activity through A/B testing or even making note of the original location and time when a customer filled in a form. You may be thinking, surely location and time doesn’t have a big impact on ‘open’ and ‘click-through’ rates? If you picture a global company, sending one email to all customers at the same time will have limitations in reaching particular geographical customers. However from understanding customer behaviours, these emails can be sent accordingly and have much better engagement. In fact, with so many email marketing services available, companies can easily automate ‘behavioural’ triggered emails.
4) Personalise your company
It’s no surprise that the ‘first name’ is one of the main forms of data companies gain from their customers, with many emails starting with ‘Dear [Name]’ and so on. But personalisation doesn’t just have to come from the customers. Businesses can also personalise themselves, creating a human connection with customers.
Note: A study carried out by Fox School of Business shows that new startups however, should avoid using personalised emails e.g. Dear [Name], as this receives negative responses from consumers with no existing relationship.
5) Joint-personalisation between email CTA’s and landing pages
If you want to be really smart and improve interaction even further, you can match ‘call-to-actions’ with landing pages to different target groups. This is highly beneficial, as promotions and email/web content can be tailored to individual behaviours.
From the way I see it, personalising your marketing communications (whether it’s through email, desktop or mobile) has proven to be a win/win situation for companies and customers. BUT, companies need to also be aware of the risk involved with personalisation, as not all customers are welcoming the new age of personalisation…
Potential risks:
1) Privacy concerns
One of the main ‘risks’ with personalised communications is that customers feel that companies are being invasive of their personal information (Lee and Cranage, 2010), as it is suspected that data is collected and tracked without their knowledge or consent (Phelps, Novak, & Ferrell, 2000; Sheehan & Hoy, 2000), which leads to negative responses. This should be addressed by including Terms & Conditions on the form.
2) ‘Dis-trust’ in a brand
Customers receiving personalised communication may perceive this relationship to be ‘fake’ (Kaniewska-SĊba and Pilarczyk, 2004), and in some cases lead to a loss of trust in the brand. Even though there are many positives from personalising marketing communications (as discussed earlier in this blog post), companies should be prepared that some customers may change their perceptions in a negative way.
3) Invalid Data
Living in a multi-channel world with numerous devices constantly being used by consumers, some of the data gained by companies may experience mistake. This will of course impact the effectiveness of campaigns using personalisation. Also worth mentioning is that there are some customers who ‘beat the system’ by purposely manipulating data through providing false details.
How to avoid these risks and avoid upsetting customers?
Research and understand your customers
The most simplest way is by not utilising personalisation in your marketing strategy in the first place. If it was identified that a particular customer segment will negatively receive personalised emails, companies should be cautious and avoid sending out personalised emails to maintain customer satisfaction, brand reputation and on-going relationships, with this particular segment (Email Marketing, 2016).
Set Defaults
If you’re going to personalise emails, you need to make sure this is done properly. To combat any invalid or missing data, companies should enable ‘set defaults’ to replace any gaps in data. For example, where first names are missing, this can automatically be replaced with ‘there’. This means that emails are able to read “Hi there,” instead of what would have been “Hi ,”. If you wanted to be REALLY picky, rules can be created to ensure that names start with a capital letter, for example May Ho instead of may ho. This also contributes to the professional approach.
Safeguarding Form Fields
When gathering data through forms, the data fields can be set to ensure that data must be entered otherwise the form is invalid. Most forms use an asterisks to inform customers what data is required. In some software, it is possible to safeguard against misspellings and bad data too (HubSpot, 2013).
All in all, the level of interaction and success of personalised email marketing will vary between the quality of research conducted to gain customer data. My advice for all companies considering personalising emails is to avoid rushing into it and only implement once all the necessary data is gained. From understanding different target markets and customer behaviours, there’s no doubt that these emails can be strongly executed and be the start of something rewarding for both companies, and customers!
REFERENCES:
Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Mayer, R and Johnson, K. (2009). Internet Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Email Marketing. (2016). Personalized Email: Whether to Get Personal or Not? [Online]. Available at:
HubSpot. (2013). The Dangers of Premature Marketing Personalization. [Online]. Available at:
Kaniewska-SĊba, A and Pilarczyk, B., (2004). NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF PERSONALIZATION IN DIRECT MARKETING. International Journal of Arts & Sciences. Vol 7(02). 89–98.
Lee, C. H and Cranage, D. A., (2011). Personalisationeprivacy paradox: The effects of personalisation and privacy assurance on customer responses to travel Web sites. Tourism Management. Vol 32. 987-994.
Lichtenstein, Sharman and Swatman, Paula M. C. 2002, Sustainable knowledge management systems : intergration, personalisation and contextualisation. Deakin University School of Information Systems, Geelong, Vic.
Phelps, J., Novak, G., & Ferrell, E. (2000). Privacy concerns and consumers willingness to provide personal information. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Vol 19(1), 27-41.
Postma, O. J and Brokke, M., 2001. Personalisation in Practice: The Proven Effects of Personalisation. Journal of Database Marketing. Vol 9 (2). 137-142.
Sheehan, K., & Hoy, M. (2000). Dimension of privacy concern among online consumers. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Vol 19(1), 62-73.
Srihari, R., (2015). Amazon and the age of personalised marketing. [Online]. Available at:
Wert, C. V., 2004. Email and Customer Loyalty. Circulation Management. February 2004. 34-37.
May Ho • April 18, 2016