Creating a genuine connection with your customers via email can sometimes be difficult. Messages sent on such a large scale often feel cold, impersonal, and ill-timed. 

Fortunately, email marketers now have the resources at their disposal to create purposeful communications that meet contacts at each stage of their journey and provide content tailored specifically to their needs. 

These personalized email marketing tactics will help you elevate your email marketing and develop a more meaningful relationship with your audience.

What Is Email Personalization?

Personalized email consists of more than just inserting someone’s first name at the beginning of your email message. Your goal should be to create a personalized experience – a customer journey that feels organic and responsive. 

The first step in this process is to understand how prospects and customers interact with your business specifically and develop a strategy accordingly. Every brand is different, so knowing the needs and expectations of your contacts is essential for successful personalized email interactions.

The Benefits of Personalized Email Marketing

Looking for evidence of how effective these personalized email marketing tactics can be? Here are some eye-opening statistics to consider:

• 71% of consumers expect companies to offer personalized communication, and 76% get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. (McKinsey & Company)
  
• 90% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. (123FormBuilder)
  
• 90% of U.S. consumers find personalized marketing content somewhat to very appealing. (Statista)
  
• Segmentation of email campaigns can increase revenue by up to 760%. (Hubspot)
  
• Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. (Campaign Monitor)

4 Highly Effective Personalized Email Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using

Leveraging the strategies outlined below will help you deliver more meaningful content and product offerings to the people who’ve entrusted you with their contact information and personal data.  

1. Segmenting

Before you hit send on your next email campaign, ask yourself: Is this relevant to everyone on my list? 

Segmenting is a powerful tool used to create niche subgroups you can then target with more relevant messaging. It is essentially the opposite of the outdated “spray and pray” email marketing strategy (sending each message to everyone on your list regardless of a contact’s likelihood to interact with it).

The segments you create might include those who have (or have not) opened an email, clicked a link, or made a purchase. The beauty of segmenting is that unlike static lists of contacts, segments will update automatically in real-time based on your subscriber’s behavior.

Segmenting is also important for creating a clean and well-maintained email list, which is an integral part of effective ongoing email marketing.

2. Timing

Sending the right message to the right person at the right time is the key to successful email marketing, but the timing aspect of that winning formula often isn’t given as much thought as it deserves. 

Here are some examples of common drip campaigns and when they should be scheduled (of course, every business is different, so you may need to make adjustments according to your own customer base):

• A welcome email should go out immediately when someone provides you their email for the first time.
  
• An abandoned cart message should be sent while your offering is still top of mind. Reaching out less than an hour after they leave your site is probably too soon, but more than three hours after may also be too late.
  
• An email asking someone to review a product should be sent a few days post delivery/installation so the consumer has time to evaluate their purchase.
  
• A re-engagement email should be sent 3-6 months after the last time someone opened an email from you. 

Automated emails like these that trigger based on a contact’s actions almost always result in dramatically higher open dates than a typical monthly newsletter. 

Anniversaries and birthdays are also ideal times to reach out to customers via email and offer them coupons, discounts, or promotions.

3. Personalized Content

Personalized content is created using the data we store on our contacts, from first and last names to their pronouns, job title, or geographic location. 

Having accurate information about your contact is key to creating personalized messaging. It’s also important to gather this data in a straightforward and transparent way. (See this article explaining why you should never rent or purchase an email list.)

You can ethically acquire information about your potential and current customers in the form of newsletter sign-up forms, interest surveys, contests, quizzes, or gated coupons. 

Including this information in your subject line, preview text, or email body is fairly simple and straightforward. It typically consists of using a placeholder like %FIRSTNAME% or %LASTNAME% that will pull in the data dynamically for each individual. 

The more challenging task? Using those personal details in a way that feels natural. 

Below are a few examples of personalized subject lines I’ve received. Some were excellent and engaging, while others felt clunky and forced. 

Good example:

Welcome, Danae! Here’s what you need to know.

This example is both friendly and straightforward. The addition of the first name and emoji usage is the perfect way to offset the overall frankness of the message.

Bad example:

Danae, create crazily effective content!

Simply tacking on someone’s first name at the start of a subject line you’ve already written will always feel forced. Personalization needs to be used deftly to have the desired effect. 

Good example:

Wondering where to begin, Danae? We have a few ideas

This subject line addresses the fact that I may be looking for guidance, and the inclusion of the first name here implies the information provided will be relevant to me specifically.

Bad example:

Marketing insights for Danae

This makes me feel as though I’m being spoken about, not spoken to. It also lacks the conversational tone I’m looking for when a subject line includes my first name.

Here’s a quick rule of thumb to follow: if the person’s name can easily be replaced with “you” without drastically changing the tone of the sentence, it’s worth considering a rewrite. 

Another personalization tip to keep in mind: People like being spoken to like a person and by a person. Instead of sending emails from your company name with a no-reply address, use the real name and email address of someone in your business (you can then set up email filters to avoid replies flooding the individual’s inbox).

4. Dynamic/Conditional Content

Conditional content (also known as dynamic content) can consist of images, text, or any other element in an email that is shown to (or hidden from) a contact based on actions they’ve taken or their personal data.

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, this simple diagram shows the framework of an email with conditional content.

However, we do not recommend sending only image-based emails. With HTML emails, you can create more dynamic content.

Conditional content is ideal for messages that contain wording and images applicable to most recipients, in addition to interchangeable elements that enhance the experience when selectively chosen for smaller groups of individuals.

By combining the tactics and technology behind segmenting, timing, personalized content, and dynamic content, you can build hyper-personalized marketing emails that leave a lasting impression.

The world of email marketing has changed since the days of blindly blasting your email list with company updates and promotions. We’re learning to work smarter, not harder, by using new tools and customer data to make sure our messages get to the right people at the right time. 

This is where email drip campaigns come into play. These campaigns save you time and allow you to connect with your audience when it matters most. These campaigns do not have to be complicated and work for a variety of business sizes, industries, and marketing goals.

What is an Email Drip Campaign? 

Email drip campaigns (also known as automated email campaigns, lifecycle emails, autoresponders, and marketing automation) are email campaigns that go out on a schedule or deploy based on a trigger event or customer action. 

As a consumer yourself, you may have received a welcome email when you signed up for updates from a company or if you put an item in your virtual shopping cart and left the site before purchasing. Both are examples of drip campaigns in action. Others may include emails with specific information when you visit a website without taking action or follow-up emails after a purchase or event registration. 

How Are Drip Campaigns Different?

What sets these emails apart from campaigns of the past is the ability to send them at a point in time that matters most to your customers or prospects. Rather than manually sending an email to confirm a purchase, we can now set up an automated email that triggers when a purchase is made. 

Instead of scheduling time during your busy day to send a welcome email to all contacts who signed up in the past week, we can create a welcome series that starts as soon as the form is submitted. When your customers are thinking about you, you are getting a front-row seat in their inbox. 

Beyond the time savings and convenience, targeted emails can impact your ROI and overall email performance. Popular email platform Emma did research showing that relevant targeted emails produced 18 times more revenue than non-targeted, batch-and-blast emails. They also showed those who opened targeted emails are more likely to click links in them, with a 119% increase in click rate. 

When to Use a Drip Campaign? 

The versatility of drip campaigns makes them valuable for a variety of businesses ranging in size, industry, target audience, and goals. The following email drip campaign ideas may be applicable to your business. 

Welcome Series 

For some subscribers, their first interaction with your email marketing program could be through a drip campaign commonly referred to as a welcome series. This series introduces the new subscriber to your company, giving them more background on who you are and what you do. 

It can also help to validate their subscription, build your email reputation, and verify them as a strong, engaged contact. Typically, they are triggered by a user filling out a form on your website opting in to receive updates from your company. 

Lead Nurturing

Similar to the welcome series, a lead nurturing drip campaign can help introduce a potential prospect to your company, giving them useful information at different points in their decision-making process. 

A series like this is helpful for business-to-business applications where a potential client may request information about your company via an online form but maybe months away from making a commitment to work with your company. At key points along their journey, you can contact them with relevant information or prompt them to reach out to you to proceed with the next steps in the process. 

Cart Abandonment

If you have an online store, you may have run into this scenario before. Say someone is browsing the products on your site and finds one they like enough to add to their cart. Whether it’s an internal or external force, they leave your site, also leaving that product just sitting in their cart. 

A cart abandonment series is a powerful follow-up tool that reconnects with those potential customers. Messages could incentivize them to check out with a deal or coupon code, add urgency with an alert that the product is almost out of stock, or simply remind them of your brand and the awesome product that awaits them. 

Product or Content Recommendations

Marketing automation can be set up to keep in touch with your customers and recommend products, services, and content that may be of interest to them based on past purchases or site behavior. Emails in this series can be set up to deploy a certain amount of time after their last site visit or purchase date to help keep you in mind. 

Date-Based Touchpoints 

Want to wish your customers a happy birthday or mark an anniversary? Drip campaigns can be set up based on these dates when they are provided by the subscriber. This type of email can be sweetened with a coupon or promotional code to mark the occasion and encourage a purchase. 

Confirmation Emails 

When hosting an event or requiring customers to make a reservation, email drip campaigns can play a role in sending confirmation emails upon sign up. Much like a welcome series, these campaigns can work with website forms and deploy emails as soon as an event registration is placed. As the event approaches, automated emails can be sent with more event details and reminders. 

Reengagement Emails 

Subscriber habits change over time. There may be a time where a segment of your subscribers stops engaging with your messages. Their needs could have changed or content featured in your newsletters may not be relevant to their life at that moment.

Reengagement campaigns can help you reconnect with this segment of subscribers. These automated emails reintroduce you to that unengaged segment and can prompt them to either stay subscribed or unsubscribe. Encouraging people to unsubscribe may feel counterintuitive, but in the long run, this will help your list health and analytics. When you continue to send to inactive or unengaged contacts who continue to not open or click links in your emails, your open rates and click rates will fall. Sending to a smaller number of engaged contacts can result in increases in both open and click rates. 

Setting Up an Email Drip Campaign

Many email service providers, like MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, and Hubspot support automated campaigns. Each one may have a specific way to set up an automated campaign but across the board, it’s important to consider your goals and use a workflow to understand the steps needed to make your campaign successful. 

Before you get started, consider the following questions: 

1. What is your goal?
2. What action do you want your subscribers to take? 
3. Who will you be targeting with this automation? 
4. How does the user enter the automation? What is the trigger event? 
5. How will users exit the automation? 

By addressing these questions, you will get a sense of how the automation will begin and how many emails to include in your drip campaign. It will help to shape the workflow by creating a starting point and an ending point. 
Using a flow chart like Lucidchart or simply sketching it out on paper can help you create the steps and logic needed to move subscribers from start to finish. A drip email campaign workflow may look like this:

This automation begins with an applicant submitting an online form. After they submit the form, an automated email is sent thanking them for their submission and asking if they would like to opt-in to receive more information. 

If they click the opt-in button in the email, they are added to the master email list and receive a tag designating their interest in “career” information. If they do not click the opt-in button, the system waits for three months, then unsubscribes them since they do not wish to receive information in the future. 

Measuring Email Drip Campaign Success

When measuring the success of email drip campaigns, many of the usual email marketing KPIs will also be relevant as key indicators of success. Tracking both open rate and click-to-open rate on the emails associated with your automation can give you a gauge of how effective your message is. 

Also selecting an email drip campaign KPI that aligns with your main campaign goal will help you gauge if the campaign is performing well. For example, a cart abandonment automation goal could be to capture a percentage of those abandoned carts through the customer following through with the purchase they started.