Seven tactics to make email marketing more personal

Research reveals that 78 percent of the top 50 online retailers in the UK do not personalise emails and struggle to engage customers with dynamic and relevant content. However, in today’s digital age and with a wealth of customer data available, marketers are expected to understand their consumers’ preferences and target them across interactive power channels with personal, relevant and timely communications.

Engaging potential customers with the right message, through the correct communication avenue is imperative to marketing success and as an established, ubiquitous channel email is perfect to provide customers with relevant and personalised content. Yet marketers are losing out on the opportunity to develop relationships with their customers. A fifth of online retailers fail to communicate with customers over email at all, even after they have actively signed up to receive emails. Only 22 percent of online retailers are frequent mailers, sending emails out every three to five days and just over a third send weekly updates. To help make the most of email in 2012, here are seven tactics to consider:

1. Using the welcome email
The initial contact is key to the foundations of a solid and personalised relationship with the customer. The first step in any direct-marketing programme is to welcome customers to your brand with a personalised email. When customers actively sign up, half the battle is won; they are already interested in your brand. Marketers must then welcome them to the brand by offering incentives. A recent analysis of welcome emails from the top 50 UK online retailers found that over a third failed to welcome, or even thank, customers for signing up.

2. Make use of personal preferences
Before marketers can begin communicating with customers they need to gain permission and establish customer preferences. Online retailers should develop a preference centre as part of the sign-up process to establish what is of interest to the customer and which channel of communication he prefers. It’s essential that marketers engage with customers on their terms; tailoring communications can strengthen the brand-customer relationship.

3. Tap into vital data
Retailers need customer data in order to personalise their email marketing campaigns. Currently, only eight percent target customers according to gender and just 12 percent make recommendations based on location. In addition, less than a quarter of retailers send emails that respond to individual customer behaviour such as abandoning shopping carts or browsing the website.

Customers’ behavioural data, such as age, gender, location, interests, can easily be collected through web analytics, ratings, reviews and recommendation engines. This data is crucial in order to realise individual consumer preferences and to generate accurate customer profiles that connect customer behaviour with successful marketing efforts. Understanding this information and using it to develop customer communications can increase engagement with the brand and improve conversions.

4. Use email to personalise other channels
The growth in other digital channels means that email should not be used in isolation, but as part of a cross-channel marketing strategy. It is important that every channel is used to its full potential. Brands have already begun using email to drive traffic to the interactive power channels that consumers are using today such as social networks, mobile websites and the web.

A fifth of etailers now include a mobile element, such as mobile enabled email, and 20 percent encourage users to share content by forwarding emails to a friend. Marketers should analyse their customers’ behaviour so they know the channels customers are using. For example, if a customer clicks through a link via a mobile they are likely to react positively to a mobile campaign. Likewise, if they access a brand via Facebook, they will respond well to a social programme.

5. Don’t be scared of social media
When it comes to personalised, real-time communications, social-media platforms are the heartland for marketers. Forty-six percent of retailers now include social media links in emails and marketers must realise that by following a company or tweeting a piece of news relating to a brand, customers are effectively giving marketers permission to get in touch and engage them in conversation. By including follow us on Twitter links and offering competitions over social networks, marketers can use social networks to continue building brand advocacy.

6. Moving mobile campaigns
Mobile now provides access to mobile websites as well as SMS communications. Over the last 18 months, the explosion of web-enabled devices has made the consumer more accessible than ever before and brought web communications to one place. Mobile is influential in targeting customers on the move and directing consumers to other interactive power channels. For example, QR codes scanned on a mobile are a quick and easy way of directing your consumer to a brand’s website.

7. This time, it’s personal
Ultimately, by failing to personalise, online retailers are missing valuable opportunities to engage customers, build relationships and generate sales. Most online retailers appear to base their communications on generalisations rather than individual preferences; 66 percent of e-retailers link emails to upcoming offers or brand events, and a further 14 percent use bank holidays and national events as a hook. It seems that marketers could exploit their access to customer data more.

Today’s online customers now expect to be treated as an individual by a brand. By personalising content across the key channels—web, email, social, mobile, display—brands can stimulate conversations and converse with customers on a personal level. This deep level of personal brand engagement builds a relationship and drives long term brand loyalty. No longer do customers search for products, rather they expect to be contacted with dynamic and personalised information. Customer loyalty, sales and reputation are why building and maintaining relationships with customers is so important for brands.

Simon Robinson is senior director marketing and alliances, EMEA at Responsys, a provider of cross-channel marketing systems.