How to write Personalised Emails that convert on your clients!

Nothing like something which recognised us has the power to grab our attention.

From our Vocal Assistant greeting us, to having our preferences automatically saved while browsing through eBay, seeing our name or nickname is a move that grabs our digital attention.

When digital marketers are thinking how to orchestrate a digital marketing campaign, they have two enemies to defeat: the spam folder and the annoyance a customer can feel seeing a commercial email in their inbox. How can this be solved?

There is a series of useful steps that can be taken to avoid both the problems above. Let’s see what a digital marketer can do to make customers feel valued when receiving emails:

• Collecting personal data: when someone signs up to our newsletter or fill a form to access the services we are selling, there are a few data we ask. Name, surname, date of birth are information that can help us to build a personalized email. It can appear an obvious step to take, but addressing someone with their indicated name or nickname is a fundamental step to welcome them. A simple “Hello, Frank!” has more appeal than a generic “Hello!”. Besides, make sure to include and write about content that your users already checked. It’s demonstrated that, when you sent an email containing suggestions about products similar to the ones the customers already purchased or searched about, more than 90% of potential buyers will feel more inclined to visit again your website. Due to the new norms of privacy — but it should be standard practice — we want to be careful with the data we collect and use to write a customized email. A competent digital marketer doesn’t want to make the brand that hired them to appear like a creepy spy. And that brings us straight to the second point.
• Monitoring users’ activities: you want to know what users on your website search mostly for, and you can use it to forge emails based on that information. While monitoring which parts of your website and digital campaign are working in bringing you more new users, it’s also useful to investigate which part of your website appeals to users less. You can take this chance to discuss and strengthen those parts of your digital campaign that aren’t working as you wish. Collecting this type of data about traffic, target and so on, is a specialized task and you should have professional taking care of it. The reason is straightforward and not at all different from the one of the above points: you want to know what your customers like therefore you can be able to offer them content as pertinent as possible. At the same time, you don’t want to make your potential buyers feel spied or stalked. Customizing an email means knowing that Mrs. Smith is searching for a book that you want to sell and send her an email about deals and sales about that book or the author, not letting her know you saw her having a look at every section of your website. Flooding Mrs. Smith’s email box with tons of emails for every research she did is just going to label your brand as a nuisance and win a place in the Spam folder.
• Pay attention: as you know, the devil is in the details. When reaching out for a customer to promote your product, you want to tell them you have the perfect product they’re searching for. It’s important to start in the right way. We said addressing the buyer with their name/nickname is a good move to engage with them while offering a deal or more information on the sale you hope they want to conclude. However, one of the most important things is to proofread the emails you’re going to send and to make sure that they don’t content any mistake. Hire a copywriter who can make sure your emails are going to look personalized and not merely automated. You can — and should — use automation tools to send emails, but you are going to want to avoid that the sentences appear robotically written.
• Clarity is a virtue: nobody wants to open an email from a brand or a business and being hit by a stream of words. Your message must be simple and clear. Why are you writing? What are you promoting? You have less than a minute to grab potential buyers’ attention and let them know you thought content for them. You can’t include everything you want to say about your product, so pick its most reliable quality, its affordability, or whatever it makes your business unique. Speaking of clarity, you might find the need to split your usual target into different groups — let’s say age, Country, interests, and so on. This operation can be particularly helpful while trying to write multiple emails for different customers. You know what these people have in common and how to speak to them.

There is another part of the digital marketing strategy in this field that you should keep in mind while discussing your digital campaign with your team of professionals. Until now, we have spoken about what you can do to communicate via email with your audience without annoying it.

How about what they can do when receiving your emails?

There are different things you can do to make your email more appealing:

• Ask them what they want to receive: when potential customers sign up for your mailing list, you can structure the form they have to fill giving them the option to select which type of content from you they would be more interested in seeing.
• You can make the emails interactive: include links that bring the customers in the area of your website they visited previously. You can ask for their opinions via survey or obtain feedback in the same way. Not only this is a useful method to understand if your message is being delivered in the way you want it to, but it also let your clients know you care for their opinion.

A group of professionals is also going to help you decide what frequency you should send your emails and what type of message can be more useful to deliver every time. They can also help you fix a realistic goal in terms of interaction and return of your investment.

So, we have seen that emails should be appealing to the customers, customized, not a cold sale, friendly but professional.

Is there anything else you should know?

It’s worth adding that the best way to obtain a response from the emails you sent is to tell a story. People have a little interest in talking with a seller, but you can appeal to them giving a content that explains something. It’s up to you deciding if you want to narrate about your business or a topic that is spreading online. The important thing is not forgetting that nowadays people want more than information. Customers — or potential ones — visit your website for specific about your products, but you need to direct them there giving them more than just a product. You want them to enjoy an experience — and speaking of this approach, you can read more in this article.

For example, let’s have a look at how an email shouldn’t be written:

Hell#!

Thanks for your visit on Wednesday. We’re very sorry you didn’t buy anything — but we saww you searched a lot for that book Digital Marketing & New Media.

That’s a pity, we have tons of books we’re sure you can appreciate, how about these?

Storm of Love, by J.K Lovely
Will lady Kathy find the love of his life? From the author of Forbidden Love another story full of mystery and passion

How to Become Millionaire Selling Biscuits, by G. Man
In his autobiography, the millionaire G. Man will explain you how to reach success in both your professional and personal life.

How to Use Social Media without a PC, by A. Turing
Have you always wondered how self — made billionaires makes even more money with a witty post? Ask no more, this book have the answers.

We hope you’ll like our suggestions, see you soon on our website!!!

You don’t need to be an expert to feel a shiver running along your spine. Imagine opening your email box and finding this email. An email which tells you exactly when you searched for a particular item as if the Big Brother is communicating with the customer. No pictures, just words. Typos. A wrong character in the nameless greeting. No links the customer can use to be quickly redirected to a website. And, worst of all, barely one on three options from the list could interest the user.
Not only this email isn’t interactive or appealing, but it’s also won a special place in the Spam folder. This is just a made-up example, of course, but we all have received something similar before. A message written in this way doesn’t carry any value: it doesn’t speak about a product the customer could be interested in, it doesn’t offer deals or any useful information, and it doesn’t make any more accessible for a user to reach this fictional company. If someone had written it in reality, it would have been a waste of time and money.

How should this email being written to be more appealing?

Hello David,

Thank you very much for your subscription, we’re thrilled to have you with us!

We think you would like to know about our newest deals:

20% Less on all books purchased during this weekend

Free shipping for your first order

And don’t miss our new selection of Marketing books!

How to Become a Marketer, by S. Kido

Digital Marketing and More, by H. Crystal

Discover more at www.books4you.com

The difference is enormous, and this made up email has been written following the simple rules we talked earlier in this article.

If you want a real-life example, instead, have a look at Headspace’s advertisement. The message this app intends to deliver is clear, well — written and very pleasant to look at. All the information you need is in this single email

Credits: mailbakery.com

We have seen a couple of examples.

What else should you know? Well, let’s see:

• Personalizing emails can seem a lot of work to perform, but thanks to tools like AWeber and Cakemail, and the presence of media agencies your job is so much easier than in the past years. Just remember that online business is a business just like any other else. Better hiring professionals to have a return from your investment.
• The first email is important to engage with the customer, but you need to keep their interest if you want to keep their business. So, yes to sending them follows up after a purchase or reminding them about that sale that is going on, or a simple email letting them know how other customers solved their problems thanks to your service.
• Keep in mind that emails aren’t only a way to search for new customers, but also to let people know about the values and the qualities of your brand. So, use content marketing! Are you not sure what is it? You can find all the information in this article.

In the end, emails are just another powerful tool for you to expand your business, but with great powers come great responsibility! A person can’t merely improvise the workload required for organizing a digital campaign, and it’s not easy to manage a mailing list that keeps buyers engaged while avoiding to submerge them with undesired messages.
Worry not, at Targeto we got your back.

If you want to have a return from your investment — and we’re speaking both about money and time — our Media Buying Agency is the right choice. Putting your trust in a team of professional is the smart move, but this doesn’t mean you won’t have anything to say. We’re here because we want to help you to reach your goals and give visibility to your brand.

You can find us here or, if you want a taste of what we’re capable of, you can schedule a free strategy session here.