Over the past several years, industry thought leaders have done their due diligence to educate on why “batch and blast” campaigns simply do not payoff. They’ve encouraged personalized campaigns in place of sending a single message to the masses. Email marketers agreed and many brands have been able to implement personalization tactics into their campaign strategies, such as personalized birthday messages, shopping cart abandonment emails, or personally addressed emails.
However, consumers still get flooded with blast-style emails daily and it’s likely the email marketers behind them know they should be sending more relevant messages. In a recent Adobe and Direct Marketing Association (DMA) study, two thirds of marketers indicated they were less than satisfied with their email marketing efforts and in the next 12 months, many plan to focus on real-time engagement and content personalization. In the past year, I’ve spoken to many email marketers, often from large or enterprise organizations, that are struggling to execute personalized and real-time campaigns.
Start with complete a view of your customer
My advice to email marketers looking to kick off personalization efforts, no matter how large or small the organization, is to examine the quality and completeness of their data. Without a centralized view of customer data or with inaccurate data, it is nearly impossible to implement an effective personalization strategy. Many companies use platforms that give them an email-only view of their customer. Marketers need a solution that gives them a 360-degree view of their customer’s behaviors across all channels. Email marketers that can leverage data from all online and offline channels will be able to deliver more relevant personalized emails.
Avoid shallow personalization
Developing an integrated customer profile also mitigates the risk that the brand will leave its customers feeling jaded when they receive “personalized” emails. Nothing is more annoying to a consumer than receiving a personalized message that is inaccurate or not relevant. For example, I recently received an email from a specialty sporting goods store that read, “These offers just for you!” yet featured men’s clothing. I’m a fairly loyal in-store and online customer of the retailer and I’ve never purchased men’s clothing. When I opened the email, I was hoping for offers for some of my favorite brands, but instead found offers for products and brands I’ve never bought in the past. It was confusing to receive such an email, as the company asks for my email at point-of-sale and online checkout. In theory, it should have been able to analyze past purchases to understand which spring sale offers to best target to me. Although this email was likely supposed to be personalized, it felt like a batch and blast message.
Track KPIs closely
Although it may seem fairly basic, many email marketers lack insight into key success metrics, such as open, click-through, and conversion rates or do not keep these metrics front of mind. It’s important to have access to these metrics to execute A/B and multivariate testing. It’s nearly impossible to drive engagement and implement a successful personalization strategy without knowing what is resonating and what is not with the targeted audiences.
Moving from sending classic emails to dynamic, personalized emails will often mean an organization has to reevaluate its current solutions and make an upfront investment in new technology. However, trying to send personalized campaigns with a legacy service provider or solution that is unable to meet its needs could result in wasted efforts and diminished brand loyalty.
Find out more about the latest email marketing best practices and studies from Adobe Campaign, here.
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