The average person receives an astonishing 121 emails a day. For marketers, it has become increasingly important to find ways to rise above the noise and get noticed in the inbox. As a result, email personalization has emerged as a key strategy in modern marketing. Customers are looking for connections with the brands and the organizations they interact with and they have come to expect the “personal” touch. Marketing is the nurturing of these one-to-one relationships, and personal greetings by name have become standard practice across most industries.
Personalization fields in email marketing are there to create the illusion of a personal conversation and to create those sought-after connections. The ability to call your contact by name, greet them with a personal greeting, or introduce tailored content is key in targeted marketing. While “Subscriber” may be applicable for a newspaper, subscription box or magazine, in an email campaign it points to the fact that your reader is one of many, the exact opposite of the emotional connection you want to create.
Nothing fills an email marketer with more pride than seeing a highly customized email released to their contacts’ inboxes — until that heart-sinking moment when you realize you have the first name of only 35% of your contacts. I think most email marketers have run into this at least once, and the realization can take all the air out of your sails. After all, who wants to spend hours carefully crafting the perfect email just to send it off with that oh-so-impersonal greeting – “Subscriber” – in the salutation?
So how do you approach those contacts when you don’t have their full name? Is there a better alternative, or do we write these valuable contacts off and settle for “Subscriber?”
The short answer is: “Yes, there is a better option!” To create a personalization field customized to your audience, you need to think about your relationship to the subscriber. Below are five not-so-personal greetings that can still feel personal.
- Ambassador – Do you run a nonprofit or are you leading an educational fundraising campaign? Introducing language like “Ambassador” allows you to clearly identify the relationship you have with your subscribers; more importantly, it shows you value their importance as influencers who can attract attention for your organization or cause. Here, the nonprofit group, Vote Smart, gets personal with subscribers who can be ambassadors for the group’s voter education mission:
- Friend – You need to be careful with this one. For close networks, or when you are promoting a cause that people are really connected to, the word friend could be a great fit and is one of the most personal relationship words you can use. That said, if you are selling just about anything, then your readers are likely not your friends and they won’t appreciate a phony approach. Ensuring the word “Friend” is used in its correct context is key. Below, the nonprofit organization Encouraging Words, Inc. is reaching out in a very personal way to share with their subscribers its commitment to fighting poverty across the world:
- Smart Shopper – Retail can be one of the hardest areas for bulk personalization. Asking yourself what the relationship is will land you with words like Customer, Buyer, Client, Consumer — none of which resonate as truly personal or show your brand values the relationship. So how do you generate the warm fuzzies for this generic group? Use adjectives! What is the demographic of your customers? Are they Savvy, always looking for a deal? So maybe you use “Deal Seeker” or “Savvy Shopper” in your greeting. If your subscribers value high-end merchandise, maybe “Fashion Expert” is the right term to use. Using descriptive terms lets your shoppers know you understand who they are and value what sets them apart.
- Pup Parent – If you are in a niche industry, like pet-care for instance, you can use that to your advantage. You already know exactly who your target audience is. If you send a 50% off dogfood offer addressed to the “Pup Parent,” it shows you know to whom you’re talking, and it will resonate with how your subscribers identify themselves.
- Connoisseur – Wine subscription? Instead of using Subscriber, call your clients by the label they love to wear. Appealing to a contact’s elite status is always a great way to strengthen the relationship and further encourages them to identify with your brand, as this example from the Gold Medal Wine Club illustrates:
These personalized greetings are not just for those stragglers who didn’t sign up for your emails with their first name. In some cases, testing labels that show the specific relationship between the contact and brand can be more effective than using a contact’s first name. If your email personalization sounds too forced or forward, your readers may be put off by the use of their name. A/B Split Testing is a wonderful tool to test out new greetings and monitor how they can increase your open rate.
What creative greetings do you use to build relationships?