Increase Responses with Improved Message Personalization
According to Jupiter Research, inserting a person's name into an email increases open rates by as much as 10%. But higher action levels for messages can be attained when each individual listed in a database table receives a personalized message that includes relevant information about him or her. By effectively using information fields stored in the database, a mass email marketer can tailor an email message to the customer dynamically via merge fields. The higher the quality of information gathered during the subscription process, the more personalized the message can be to a given customer.
First name, last name, subscription date, and items purchased are just a few examples of the merge data which can be used to highly personalize email messages. Almost any information stored in fields within the database can be easily used to personalize an email message. The merge field is the basic tool for message personalization in both Campaign Enterprise email marketing program and Email Marketing Director email marketing program.
Merge fields work like this: when an email message compiles, the value of the field replaces the merge field placeholder, which is the field name surrounded by curly braces e.g. {First_Name}. When the recipient sees the message, they will see "Jim" and not {First_Name} in the salutation. Using Arial Software products, merge fields can be inserted in the message body, subject line or the destination URL of a click through link, to pass unique information back to the database.
Properly placed merge fields can remind the subscriber of the date they signed up, and what information they provided. Giving them a link to where they can manage their subscription is a good practice and is easily accomplished by adding merge fields to the destination URL, passing user information to login page links. The person receiving the email message need only click to go to the correct page, and automatically log in from the email message. The destination URL may look like this:
http://www.domain.com/userlogin.asp?uid{UID}?pass{Password}
There is no more fumbling, or struggling on the part of the customer to remember or retrieve their login information, they merely click from their inbox.
Case statements and other dynamic content use fields in the database as triggers. The trigger fields determine which information is included in the dynamic email message. For example when the following case statement is added to the message body:
{CASE WHEN OrgType=1 THEN "{Field1}" WHEN OrgType=2 THEN "{Field2}" ELSE THEN "{Field3}" END}
Then, the value of Field1, Field2 or Field 3 appears in the email message. Field1 and Field2 are additional fields stored in the database table. In this case if the OrgType in any of the records is equal to 1 the value in the table for the field named Field1 will appear in the message. If the ID is equal to 2 then the value in the table for the field named Field2 will appear. In all other cases, the value in Field3 will appear in the message. Large blocks of text are available in the fields when the message compiles. These fields can easily be populated with information gathered during the original subscription form. The subscriber might indicate that they want to receive coupons along with the monthly newsletter; the coupon field could be used as a trigger to append the newsletter with the coupons for those records in the database that chose to receive them. This is all done automatically for each individual in the email list.
The closer an email message mirrors a real two way conversation, the greater the chances are for the mass email marketer to obtain their desired results. Recently conducted research indicates that showing users a product they'd previously considered leads to immediate purchases by 60% of respondents, and deferred purchases by 58%. Engaging customers with previously obtained data is a good way to continue a productive relationship. And since the mass email marketer has hundreds or thousands of people to contact, dynamic message personalization is the key to increasing email message relevancy.