In this article, we will focus on the importance of personalization in mailing and help you with the first steps for collecting and using the right data.
Specifically, we will look at the following points:
1. What is personalization?
Sending campaigns to your entire contact list is a thing of the past. Use the data obtained from users to improve mailing results and send content to users "tailor-made". Reach out to email recipients, send them messages according to your chosen preference and frequency. Leverage the power of segmentation and automation to send personalized mailings.
2. How to collect data
The basic element for collecting contacts and data can be the form for collecting contacts. Take full advantage of it - email alone is not enough for effective mailing. Don't hesitate to ask contacts their name and use it in your mailing to make it more customized.
TIP: Do you know that you can give users the option to choose which message they are interested in or how often they wish to receive your newsletter when filling out the form? The preferences serve this purpose.
If the contacts are already in your database, don't be afraid to prompt them to edit their preferences in a campaign or automation. This gives users the feeling that they can better control their inbox and message content. This increases the likelihood that recipients will actually open the emails they receive and click on provided links, for example for new products.
You can add preference adjustments under the button within the main message, see PrntSc:
Or in the footer of each email you send:
The data is automatically transferred to the database in Ecomail and you can create sub-groups of users, so-called segments, and send personalized messages.
Another option for data collection is webtracking, which you can use to monitor users behavior on the web. In the contact details, you can find information about visited pages, as well purchases (if you have active integration with the eshop).
You can then send users an email based on their purchase or web browsing info:
3. What type of data to collect?
It is very important to adapt the settings to your own use. In Ecomail for example, we recommend that you collect the user's name, which can be used to address the subject of the email or mention it in the content of the mailing. Do not forget to ask users about the desired frequency of newsletter or the preferred content through preferences.
If you own an eshop, you need data on purchases and movement of users on the website. Thanks to webtracking, you can work with advanced automations such as abandoned basket in Ecomail.
You can also add other fields to your contacts that are relevant only to your business - eg. language level (if you sell language courses), pet's name (if you organize events for pets and their owners). You can upload all this added information to custom fields.
4. How to use the data in practice
Did you obtain basic user data through a form or purchase? Let's incorporate them into your mailing.
An important element is addressing users in the subject of the sent email, both from a regular campaign and automation - thus increasing the possibility of opening the e-mail.
While creating a campaign, you choose the subject in the second step of creating the campaign using merge tags, see PrntSc:
The address appears in the user's mailbox as follows:
In Automation, you set the subject of the email in the Send email step:
The name can also be used in any template. You can send a discount on a purchase or just a greeting card:
You can segment users based on the data obtained from preferences. For example, some users want to receive a weekly reminder with new collections:
Thanks to your custom fields, you can create individual personalized mailings for recipients. For example, do you organize language courses in Prague? Simply create a segment with a condition for the language and city, see PrntSc:
In Ecomail, you can also work with user activity in already submitted campaigns. Before you decide to reduce your database (eg. unsubscribe inactive contacts), try to recapture their interest, for example by reactivation campaigns or automation. When creating a segment, you can choose from several options - one of them is that the contacts have never opened any email:
If you have any further questions regarding personalization in Ecomail, you can contact us at support@ecomail.app