Email is personal. Unlike most marketing channels, email really is communication at a 1:1 level. It’s your opportunity to reach people with messages just for them.
Email personalization has revolutionized the way we engage with audiences, turning generic promotional and transactional email programs into tailored conversations that resonate with each recipient.
However, despite its proven benefits, several myths persist that prevent marketing teams from fully leveraging the power of email personalization.
That’s why we partnered with Act-On, an all-in-one email software—and experts on email personalization—to bust these myths once and for all in a two-part series. Catch-up with part one here.
Let’s debunk these misconceptions and unlock the true potential of personalized email so you can reach the people who matter with the best messaging possible. Read ahead to see the biggest email personalization myths busted—or watch the video.
Myth 1: Email personalization leads to errors in emails
Why this myth exists
We’ve all experienced the cringe-worthy moment of receiving an email addressed to the wrong person or with incorrect information. These mishaps create a fear of personalization errors among marketers, who might worry that their emails will contain similar mistakes.
Busting the myth
Email personalization may seem like a risky operation to implement. After all, you’re one poorly personalized email away from an unsubscribe. Why poke the bear? In reality, personalization can be implemented simply and with the right tools and a little elbow grease, errors can be avoided. Imagine sending millions of emails, but each recipient got something that felt catered just for them? This is how you build relationships. Here are some quick practices to apply:
- Robust email testing: Implementing a thorough email testing strategy is essential. Tools like Litmus allow you to test your emails across different clients and scenarios, ensuring that personalized content appears correctly.
- Data hygiene: Maintaining clean and accurate data is crucial. Only use data you are 100% confident in, and regularly update and validate your information.
- Extra protection: Always have a fallback in place for personalized elements. For example, if a first name isn’t available, default to a more generic greeting to avoid embarrassing errors. You can also defend against errors when Mail Privacy Protection is applied (ex. if the image is cached and an accurate countdown timer can’t be displayed, they can show a generic message or image instead).
The takeaway: Email personalization doesn’t mean you have to worry about error-filled emails. On the contrary, email personalization often leads to enhanced inbox experiences for your subscribers. Just take the steps outlined here to ensure you have clean data and have tested everything ahead of time.
Myth 2: It’s too challenging to collect data to create personalized emails
Why this myth exists
The belief that data collection is cumbersome and complex deters many from pursuing personalization. However, advancements in data collection strategies have simplified the process.
Busting the myth
Collecting data for personalization is more straightforward than you might think. A great starting point is with your email preference center, which boasts a wealth of zero-party data for you to work with. With Google’s phase out of third-party cookies on the horizon, first-party and zero-party data will become even more valuable for marketers .. Marketers can efficiently collect and use this data to enhance email personalization without facing significant challenges. Here are some things to consider:
- Preference centers and zero-party data: An essential part of any email marketing program that empowers subscribers to share their preferences directly. An effective preference center living within each of your emails can be a valuable aspect of building and maintaining trust at any point along the customer journey—e.g. new customers or to lapsed customers as part of a re-engagement campaign— prompting subscribers to provide valuable data.
- Implementing data for personalization: Successful preference centers offer a user-friendly interface and clearly explain the benefits of providing information. Collecting zero-party data through interactive content like surveys and polls within your emails can also be an engaging way to learn more about your subscribers to enhance personalization.
The takeaway: Encourage subscribers to fill in preference centers during sign-up or through periodic prompts in your emails. Leverage dynamic email content to provide personalized experiences and track user behavior to continually optimize your email strategies.
Then, use the collected data to refine your segmentation and personalize future email campaigns.
Myth 3: Only B2C marketers use email personalization and it only works for promotions
Why this myth exists
Personalization is often associated with B2C tactics like product recommendations and promotional offers, leading to the misconception that it doesn’t apply to B2B marketing.
Busting the myth
Marketers from all industries and business types can achieve significant success with personalization by leveraging data segmentation,automation, and dynamic content. By adopting these strategies, B2B marketers can create impactful, personalized email campaigns:
- B2B email personalization: B2B brands can harness personalization by segmenting email lists based on organization size or type, industry, and user preferences. Automation tools can tailor messages with dynamic content based on these parameters,enhancing relevance and engagement.
- Examples: Use cases could include personalized account-based marketing emails and segmentation based on company size or industry needs. Live dynamic email personalization features like countdown timers can be used to promote events like webinars, new product features, or announcements. Add-to-calendar links can help you garner better meeting attendance by allowing subscribers to add bookings directly to their calendars from the email. Litmus uses live polls to gain better insight into who our audiences are and what types of email content they prefer.
The takeaway: There is no shortage of opportunities to personalize email in B2B email marketing. Leverage the different tactics and email personalization features to your advantage to make your emails feel like truly personal experiences.
Myth 4: Live email content just makes an email look cool; they don’t lead to business success
Why this myth exists
Some believe that dynamic content is merely a visual enhancement without substantial impact on business outcomes. The assumption is that things like live polls, countdown timers, and personalized images are just there to make emails look pretty, but they don’t offer improved email marketing strategies.
Busting the myth
Dynamic content goes beyond aesthetics, driving real business results by enticing subscribers to take action and ultimately increasing engagement and conversions. With proven success rates, marketers can trust that dynamic content is a valuable investment that enhances the effectiveness of their email campaigns. Here’s what we know about dynamic email content.
- Engagement and conversions: Dynamic content significantly boosts engagement and conversion rates. By leveraging fun, engaging, email content that is personalized to each subscriber, email recipients feel valued and more driven to interact with your brand.
- Benefits of personalization: At Litmus, we’ve seen email teams who leverage email personalization with Litmus Personalize drive these real results:
- A 45% increase in conversion rate
- A 49% increase in average order value
- A 96% increase in revenue
The takeaway: Don’t just create personalized emails for the sake of making things “look good.” You have a real opportunity to establish and nurture strong relationships by customizing content for your subscribers and customers. The data shows there’s true business value in personalized email.