Marketers can get so wrapped up in tactics and goals that they forget how far being kind and taking a genuine interest in someone actually goes. No matter what customer profile you're targeting, human nature and psychology (more or less) stay the same. Personalisation in email has been covered thousands of times with the argument creeping in that subscribers are getting standardised to seeing their names in subject lines and being bombarded with birthday emails, so is it really that effective? 

Whereas others might claim that including a name could increase your conversions by a “million percent”. We look at and analyse email marketing campaigns everyday and everyone likes to see their name in their inbox. It’s the sentiment right? Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Don't be put off just because it isn't considered 'innovative'.

Here are our 5 top personalisation tips for email. To help you connect and engage with your customers:

#1. Make the customer feel important

Be sincere, this doesn’t have to be a gimmick you chuck into your campaign, to make it look like you are utilising ‘big data’. Use this information with purpose, not as just another tactic. This works best when it isn’t just used to get someone to open a newsletter once in awhile, believe in what you are doing, believe in what you are saying and ultimately, listen to your customer.

#2. Use data wisely

There’s many ways you can weave data into your emails.

Segmentation allows you to divide your email list into different smaller groups. Once you have these groups identified you can begin retrieving data from them, and using this to send more targeted and personalised messages.

The easiest way of including personalisation into an email is through your subject lines. But try not to use it in every single email just because you can. Personalisation has been said to work best in transactional or triggered campaigns. Pretending your unsegmented campaign is uniquely designed for each subscriber, however this can be a little transparent - unless you’re using dynamic content.

Here are some examples of different tailored subject lines:

The re-engagement one:

Time is money, and that is why it works to include urgency when writing your email copy. FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is a real thing, and often a guarantee that you will get that engagement.

The (kind of) anniversary one:

Everyone likes a brand to recognise their birthday. So how can you top this? By celebrating a “half birthday” of course. An innovative technique some may find silly, but it caught my attention nonetheless.

The emotional one:

Everyone loves their pets, so using them to find the soft spot of your customer can get you where you want them. Providing readers with that warm, fuzzy feeling can be used to your advantage for getting more of your emails opened.

The intriguing one:

Brands only have a select few words to make that first impression. The best strategy is to tease them ever so slightly to intrigue them to read on. Letting them know that something great is waiting for them if they do click and open your email.

The commanding one:

Yes sir! Some readers will respond well to being told what to do. Find out what they want to know and word your subject line around that, commanding them to click to find out the answer.

Another great way of utilising customer data is through trigger emails. These are a brilliant way for you to understand your customer needs at their different maturity stages. Trigger emails can be sent once a customer has or hasn’t completed a specific action. These could be:

• A customer has become inactive and you’d like to send a re-engagement email

• You want to welcome a new customer who has just been onboarded

• A purchase has been made by a customer

• Someone interacts with your content or signs up to an event

#3. Be authentic

People respond to authenticity, so make your subscribers the focus, not you. Being authentic goes hand in hand with being relevant for your subscribers. ESP’s can sometimes make it difficult to collect data and/or optimise that data, if you are limited, there are other ways you can provide value. When planning your campaign calendar for the year, try not to just talk about 'your' products or 'your' event. Think about what your customer might be going through. Plan for the unexpected bad weather in June, for the last minute birthday gift before payday, there are lots of things that you could react to that isn’t in your database but could hit home with a lot of your customers.

#4. Add value

Remembering information as a brand might not be that impressive anymore. Yet this is still important to show subscribers of your community that you recognise them as an individual. Whether that’s using their name or personalising their communication journey. Listen to your customer, test the data insights you have, make product or content recommendations without making broad assumptions that could pigeon-hole or exclude segments.

#5. Double check for FIRST NAME

If you haven't used personalisation in your campaigns before, remember to update your QA check-list with a personalisation functionality check. Calling all your subscribers FIRST NAME isn't ideal.