Email marketing remains a highly effective way to connect with your audience directly, but with increasingly crowded inboxes, personalisation has become more important. Personalisation involves tailoring emails—such as subject lines, content, or messaging—to better resonate with individual subscribers, cutting through the clutter and engaging readers more effectively.

What Exactly is Personalisation?

Personalisation isn't just about using someone's name. It's about creating emails that reflect what your audience genuinely cares about, based on their recent actions or past interactions with your brand.

The Basics of Personalisation

• Name Inclusion: Addressing subscribers personally.
• Behavioural Insights: Tailoring content based on browsing or purchase history.
• Contextual Timing: Triggered emails like cart abandonment reminders or follow-ups.
• Dynamic Content: Automatically adjusting content based on user segments or preferences.

Why Personalisation Can Be Effective

Enhanced Relevance

Research by Aguirre et al. (2015) highlights that consumers engage more with emails perceived as personally relevant. Genuine relevance, aligning content with users' interests, significantly improves open and click-through rates.

Recent studies further reinforce this. For instance, a 2023 study published in Marketing Letters indicated a nuanced perspective, suggesting that while basic personalisation (like using names in subject lines) may have diminished returns, deeper behavioural personalisation still significantly enhances engagement.

Stronger Trust and Relationship Building

Studies show that personalisation strategies, when transparently executed, can foster trust and lead to stronger long-term loyalty (Goes, Yeung, & Chan, 2019).

Reduced Email Fatigue

Emails that are meaningfully personalised help reduce email fatigue, by making the content feel targeted and valuable (Malthouse & Hofacker, 2010).

Limitations and Potential Pitfalls

Superficial Personalisation

Occasionally inserting someone’s first name without genuinely tailored content often feels insincere and can negatively impact engagement (Baek & Morimoto, 2012). Recent findings from Marketing Letters (2023) also suggest that subscribers are becoming desensitised to simple name-based personalisation.

Example: “Hi [FirstName], check out our generic products!”

Over-Personalisation

Excessive personalisation, revealing too much about what you know, can feel intrusive. Balance is essential—personalise enough to be helpful without overwhelming subscribers (Aguirre et al., 2015).

Diminishing Returns

Repeatedly using the same personalisation tactics without evolving your approach may desensitise your audience, ultimately decreasing effectiveness (Baek & Morimoto, 2012).

Practical Ways to Personalise Your Email Campaigns

Segment Your Audience

Segment your subscribers based on interests, past purchases, location, or demographics to ensure each group receives tailored, relevant content (Aguirre et al., 2015).

Example: Sending back-in-stock alerts to previous customers of a product category.

Leverage Behavioural Data

Use browsing and purchase history to send dynamic and relevant recommendations. A recent 2024 study emphasised the effectiveness of this approach, reporting significantly improved engagement levels when emails were tailored based on behavioural insights (ResearchGate, 2024).

• Recommendations: If someone buys a sports jacket, suggest complementary running gear.
• Abandoned Cart Follow-Ups: Remind customers of items left in carts.
• Past Purchase References: Offer complementary products based on recent purchases.

Personalise Timing

Send emails at times when subscribers typically engage, increasing the likelihood they'll open and interact with your content (Mero, Tang, & Jain, 2018).

Occasion and Lifecycle-Based Emails

Personalise emails around special milestones or subscriber lifecycle events.

• Birthdays/Anniversaries: Offer celebration discounts.
• Re-engagement: Send “we miss you” emails with relevant new offers.

Moderate Use of Names

Using names moderately can temporarily boost open rates, but ensure it’s paired with genuinely relevant content to avoid appearing superficial (Baek & Morimoto, 2012).

Example: “Good News, [FirstName]—Discover New Styles for Your Next Adventure!”

Best Practices to Balance Engagement and Trust

• Seek Permission and Transparency: Clearly communicate how you collect and use subscriber data (Goes et al., 2019).
• Deliver Real Value: Ensure personalised messages genuinely match subscriber interests.
• Test, Refine, and Evolve: Regularly test subject lines, send times, and content types to optimise performance (Mero et al., 2018).
• Mindfulness in Personalisation: Keep personalisation useful without becoming intrusive.

Wrapping it Up

Effective email personalisation means genuinely understanding your audience and delivering relevant, engaging content. By thoughtfully segmenting your audience, using behavioural insights, and adapting to subscriber preferences, you can achieve significant improvements in your email marketing outcomes.

Academic References

Aguirre, E., Mahr, D., Grewal, D., de Ruyter, K., & Wetzels, M. (2015). 'Unravelling the Personalisation Paradox', Journal of Retailing, 91(1), pp. 34–49.

Baek, T. H., & Morimoto, M. (2012). 'Stay Away From Me: Consumer Avoidance of Personalised Advertising', Journal of Advertising, 41(1), pp. 59–76.

Goes, P. B., Yeung, C., & Chan, K. (2019). 'Personalisation and Privacy Paradox', MIS Quarterly, 43(2), pp. 407–428.

Malthouse, E. C., & Hofacker, C. F. (2010). 'Interactive Marketing Trends', Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24(3), pp. 181–184.

Marketing Letters (2023). 'Personalisation Effectiveness in Email Campaigns', Marketing Letters, 34(2), pp. 101–110.

Mero, J., Tang, N., & Jain, R. (2018). 'Consumer Trust in Mobile Crowd-Shipping', Information & Management, 55(7), pp. 912–924.

ResearchGate (2024). 'Leveraging Customer Data for Enhanced Email Engagement', Journal of Digital Marketing Research, 12(1), pp. 55–67.

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