When you open your inbox, you expect to see emails sent to you.
Not to some group of people you don’t know, to you.
You expect something you signed up for, something from an organisation of your interest, or an update you were expecting.
It’s a conversation between you and them.
A great way to ensure your subscribers feel like it’s a 1 to 1 conversation and continue reading the emails you sent them, is to personalise it.
What’s personalised content in email?
Simple personalisation in email can be in the form of a first name & content:
First name
Use their first name, if you have it. If you don’t have it, use a token replacement relevant to your audience. Check your email marketing system and make sure to update it.
Do not use a collective description like “guys” or “everyone”, because that crashes the illusion that you having a 1-1 conversation.
The best use of the first name is inline of your text, somewhere you’d naturally use a person’s name when telling a story. (It’s not possible on Substack, unfortunately.)
Content
Before you are able to personalise content for your audience, you need to learn what kind of content they want, ask them.
On the sign-up form: provide options for topics of interest.
When someone downloads a certain lead magnet from you, make sure to allocate a tag to them noting their interest in the topic.
You can also ask them in one of your welcome emails to reply and answer a question that will help you build different segments and groups.
Most of the tools also allow you to automate that by asking them to click on link a, b, or c and therefore automatically allocate them to that group.
Start personalising from the start
Once you have information about your subscribers you can send them content that is relevant to them – either in separate campaigns or as dynamic content part of a long newsletter.
Do not need to delay personalising your content, it’s best to build the habit from the start and therefore have more opportunities to maximise the impact of your email marketing efforts.
Make sure to personalise your next email marketing campaign, and if you need a hand, ping me an email at maria@malaniia.com or book a call on my calendly: https://calendly.com/maria-malaniia/30min
Happy Friday!
Maria Malaniia
Email marketing for nice people that run small businesses