Personalized email marketing software is a fantastic advance in both technology and marketing that benefits everyone, both business and consumer alike. It’s one of the few ways that a business can see exactly what a user was looking at, and it means that when a user receives an email with a notice about products, those products are actually specific and relevant to what they are interested in. Everybody wins.
But personalized email marketing software is still just that; software. It is code that will do what you tell it to, and nothing else. Code can pick out names, and it can remember what an individual was looking at, so while code can personalize and send out an email, it can’t make the email itself personal. And it’s when the email is personal that a consumer will respond more positively, because they will feel like they are remembered and cared about.
So how do you go about creating good emails to use with personalized email marketing software?
Voice Is Everything
Even if it’s software that is compiling the information and sending the email out to potential customers, someone still needs to write the actual email. And that someone should be good at their job. When possible, have a professional writer with a flair for personable marketing write the templates that you will be using with your personalized email marketing software. Ensure that the voice suits the tone of the product or service that you are trying to promote. Recreational items should have a more fun, breezy, informal approach, while legal or medical services are better off avoiding this tone entirely.
Ensure that the voice is encouraging, not aggressive. People don’t like to be cornered or coerced into things, so sending an email demanding a person buy something is likely going to result in not just no sale, but that same person never returning to your website. Keep it short, keep it simple, and keep it friendly.
Address Different Motivations
People will come to a website offering products and/or services for many different reasons. Some may simply be browsing the website because an acquaintance mentioned it, and they want to see what it’s like. Others may be looking at specific products because they are interested in making a purchase, but want to do research first, either on the different brands or range of products and services, or the pricing compared to other similar websites.
Still others may seem like they are committed to making a purchase, and have even gone so far as to add items to a shopping cart and then stopped the process before completing the purchase and leaving. Different people will have different reasons and perform different actions while they are at a website, and personalized email needs to address that. Just putting a person’s name on the email isn’t enough to make it feel personal, that email must acknowledge, to some degree, why that person came to the site, and then left.
This isn’t to say that emails must know personal details about the person, which would probably be more unsettling and repellant than encouraging. But these emails should address the shopper with an understanding of the possible concerns that may have been present when the decision to leave the website came about.
Engage Browsers
If someone visits a website but is hopping through a lot of different categories, looking at new arrivals and visits frequently, this is probably a browser.
You have a few options, here, one of which is to attempt to engage them to create an account so as to better serve their interests. In general, if you have details such as name and e-mail address, it’s best to direct new product recommendations based on their browsing history, and send notification of special sales, offers and other promotions.
Convince Researchers
Someone that goes straight to a particular category, goes through the products available there, and looks at different user reviews (if you provide such a thing) is most likely a researcher with a specific interest who is trying to find out more about the product and whether you are the website they should make the sale to.
In cases like this user generated content such as referrals and reviews can be important factors, and you may want your personalized email marketing software to include these in the email you send out. It’s also a good idea to include user recommendations for products, especially if the researcher didn’t happen to look at that particular recommended product, even though it was in the category he or she was searching. Sales counters may be another device you want to use as an indication of the desirability or quality of the product. If stocks are limited or dwindling, but people keep buying it, let that user know.
Almost Ready
People that go so far as to actually add an item to a shopping cart but then fail to complete the transaction also deserve a special form of personalization. There may be a number of reasons why they didn’t complete the transaction, whether it was difficulty with the website, or wrestling with their own conscience about whether they should really buy the item at the time.
Emails directed at people that are almost ready to buy should remind them of the product they have sitting in the cart, as well as add a sense of urgency, especially if this is a popular item and stocks are dwindling. If you have any discounts or promotions that relate to the specific product, or products in that category, now is also the time make these available. If you make a special discount voucher available from within the email that can return a shopper back to the cart, with discount applied, that might just be all it takes to push them to complete the transaction.
There’s a lot of power in personalized email marketing software, but that power is only as effective as you’re willing to make it. Some effort still needs to be made to craft specific emails at specific types of shoppers, but when done right, it can make all the difference.
