Take a moment to think about the hundreds (maybe even thousands) of emails you’ve received over the past couple months.
Can you recall any of them? Odds are, neither can your consumers. In a highly saturated market, your emails must stand out.
According to Statista, consumers only spend an average of 10 seconds reading brand emails. Blasting emails en masse doesn’t create a memorable experience for your customers. And it won’t get you the results you want with your email marketing.
By leveraging a personalized, targeted email marketing strategy, you can go the extra mile to make your contacts and customers feel special. In turn, they will want to engage with your content and brand even more.
Explore a few of our favorite email personalization examples to inspire your targeted marketing strategy and get you the open rates, click rates and engagement you’re looking for.
What Is Email Personalization?
Email personalization is how businesses use customer information, data or behavior to make emails feel like they’re custom-made for each recipient. Sure, they can start with addressing you by your first name. But advanced personalization tactics extend beyond that.
Birthdays, anniversaries, recent purchases, product interests and website footprints can influence the components of a personalized email. By targeting your database based on their demographics or behaviors, you can send emails that your audience actually cares about, like a birthday coupon code or an alert for a product that’s in their cart but is about to sell out.
Studies show that contacts appreciate receiving timely, relevant messages and are more likely to engage with them. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened and deliver 6x higher transaction rates.
10 Awesome Email Personalization Examples
Need some inspiration for your targeted email marketing strategy? These brands are winning the email personalization game. Take a look at what they’re doing and how they’re doing it with these personalized email marketing examples.
1. WindWater Follows up Based on Website Visits
If you notice a contact repeatedly visiting a particular page, follow up! WindWater, a commercial real estate company, sends personalized follow-up emails urging contacts to revisit a property listing they’re eyeing.
These “browse abandonment” emails are also a great way to showcase other products, listings or offerings that your contact might miss but could potentially be interested in.
2. Canopy Recommends Products Based on Past Purchases
Browsing history and past purchase records are a gold mine of information for email personalization. Customers are more likely to purchase if they see recommendations tailored to their specific interests and needs.
Canopy creates emails based on their subscribers’ past purchases— in this case, cooking and baking gifts for a significant other.
3. Spotify Listens to Your Preferences and Interests
Here’s another example of a tailored recommendation email. Spotify analyzes the behaviors of their listeners to offer new song, artist or podcast recommendations.
Since Spotify’s catalog of music is so vast, listeners welcome the platform’s recommendations so they don’t have to go through the work of discovering new content themselves.
4. DSW Remembers Which Products Held Your Interest
DSW makes our list of personalized email examples because the company approaches customers at just the right time. They know which products you were close to buying, so they know to shoot you a message if that product goes on sale. Not only are you more likely to complete the purchase, but the email feels like an inside-scoop on a great deal.
5. Sephora Urges You to Restock Before You Run Out
Remind your customers that it’s time to restock their favorite products. These emails encourage immediate, repeat purchases and can also increase a customer’s lifetime value.
6. Anthropologie Celebrates Your Birthday
Consumers want to engage not only with brands they love but also with brands who care about them. Birthdays, anniversaries or special events are a great way to engage with your subscribers outside of typical promotional efforts and keep them happy.
Check out this great example of a birthday email from Anthropologie:
7. Lyft Tells an Engaging Story Through a Year in Review
Lyft does an excellent job of making their customers feel important by putting them at the forefront of this highly personalized, year-in-review infographic email.
Readers get to see the impact that Lyft’s services have on their everyday life, so this email might compel them to consider using the service whenever they need a ride.
8. David’s Bridal Sends Segmented Emails to VIP Members
David’s Bridal knows that not all of their customers are created equal. In order to show their best customers how much they appreciate them, they send VIP members segmented emails with exclusive offers and content.
This is a great way to keep your most valuable customers engaged with your brand while showing them that you care about their loyalty.
9. Toyota Sends Personalized Maintenance Reminders
Toyota sends their customers personalized reminders to get their car serviced based on the customer’s individual driving habits. This is a great way to keep customers coming back to the dealership for service and it builds loyalty over time.
10. Yelp Sends Updates From Local Businesses
Yelp remembers which restaurants customers have enjoyed and lets them know when there are specials for their favorite eateries!
By referencing what Yelp knows customers have enjoyed in the past, this email creates a call to action that is more likely to earn a click. This approach keeps customers coming back to their app for recommendations and updates on their favorite local businesses.
Elevate Your Email Marketing Strategy With Personalize
Crafting compelling emails that stand out in a crowded inbox can be quite an undertaking. But don’t worry! We’re here to help.
Check out Personalize, a dynamic, AI-powered tool that’s designed to help you squeeze the most out of your email marketing strategy.
If you want your emails to be unique, memorable and engaging, you need to be aware of what your customers or contacts are interested in at any given moment in time.
Your contact’s preferences change quickly, making it hard to keep up with the products or services they desire. Personalize provides real-time insights into your contacts’ top three interests, giving you the valuable data you need to jumpstart your personalized email marketing efforts and give your customers what they really want.
Ready to explore more of what email marketing has to offer your business? Learn more about how Human’s email marketing experts can help!
