Submitted by: denise cox on Wed, 15/02/2012 - 10:08

I recently conducted a webinar on personalisation. I really enjoyed taking everyone through the five steps that will accelerate your email ROI by implementing personalisation. And, as I always try to do, offering easy take aways for marketers, who are always short on time.

 During the presentation we asked attendees* 

“On average, what level of personalisation do you use in your email marketing?“

Here are the results:
35% – Name only      
18% – More than name
22% - Personalise content
12% – Dynamic Content
13% – Dont Know

This is in line with surveys we’ve conducted ourselves, as well as industry wide results. While using a name only can still be powerful in the right context, there is so much more that can be done to send an email that feels personal to the recipient (A key way to look at personalisation)

In this webinar I go in depth on the following areas: 

Why should you personalise? There’s loads of proof, but one example is the Aberdeen Group finding that marketers who personalise campaigns achieved a 57% higher rate of conversion.

What are the benefits of personalising? Personalising acknowledges relationships, which attracts engagement and interaction. All of this generates business intelligence – which helps you achieve better results.

What are the barriers to personalising? Lack of data is the most common reason marketers are not personalising.

So, how do I solve the “lack of data” issue? Individual attributes are generally what we think of regarding data; for example name, company, title, etc. But individual attributes depends on having these attributes for enough of the subscribers to make it worth personalising. The default of “Dear Reader” negates the idea of personalisation, as it implies you don’t know who you are writing to. Also, and this is essential, individual attributes depend on accuracy of data.  

My suggestion to marketers is that they should look at data within “group attributes” specific to a group. Not only is this achievable for marketers, it offers relevance to the reader – which is personal.

I go indepth into these areas and have some beautiful customer examples of personalisation. (You can watch the webinar here)

*NB: Of the 150 attendees, 51% answered the survey