Personalize Your Email Subject
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2024 3:46 am
I've already noted that emails with a personalized subject line are more likely to be opened, so this is a no-brainer.
But don't think that simply adding a prospect's name or company to the subject line will magically do the job. You'll need to be more sophisticated than that.
When looking through my inbox, it’s easy to find examples of clever subject line personalization. For example, Wayfair personalizes their subject lines and all of their email content based on the types of products I’ve viewed:
While travel site Matador Network uses my content email data preferences (mostly food and culture) to send me super-relevant newsletters:
Again, it all comes down to knowing your audience.
Once you understand who they are and what they are interested in, it will become much easier to write personalized subject lines that will get them to click.
Technique #3: Personalize based on the recipient's time zone
This may seem obvious, but it's surprising how often brands get it wrong.
Of course, if you only serve a very specific geography covering only one time zone, you have nothing to worry about.
But if you have clients all over the United States—and even beyond—you don't want to be sending them emails at 6 a.m. with a message that begins, "Rise and shine, it's a beautiful morning!"
Luckily, many email marketing software platforms make it easy to schedule messages so they arrive in your audience's inboxes at the right time, no matter where they are.
Technique #4: Sending Abandoned Cart Emails
Cart abandonment is a big problem in the world of e-commerce, with research from the Baymard Institute showing that the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is nearly 70%.
Customers abandon shopping carts for a variety of reasons, from extra costs like shipping and taxes to poor return policies:
Bar graph showing reasons for checkout abandonment among US adults in 2021. Key reasons include high extra costs (49%) and account creation requests (24%).
But just because they abandoned you once doesn't mean you can't coax them back with a well-timed abandoned cart email.
Abandoned cart emails are a great example of personalization because they are tied to a specific action taken by the customer. They couldn’t be more relevant.
Let's say you gave up on an order because the extra fees were too much, and a day later the seller emailed you with a 10% discount code. There's a good chance you'll come back and buy, right?
It's no surprise, then, that these emails consistently achieve sky-high open rates of over 40% :
But don't think that simply adding a prospect's name or company to the subject line will magically do the job. You'll need to be more sophisticated than that.
When looking through my inbox, it’s easy to find examples of clever subject line personalization. For example, Wayfair personalizes their subject lines and all of their email content based on the types of products I’ve viewed:
While travel site Matador Network uses my content email data preferences (mostly food and culture) to send me super-relevant newsletters:
Again, it all comes down to knowing your audience.
Once you understand who they are and what they are interested in, it will become much easier to write personalized subject lines that will get them to click.
Technique #3: Personalize based on the recipient's time zone
This may seem obvious, but it's surprising how often brands get it wrong.
Of course, if you only serve a very specific geography covering only one time zone, you have nothing to worry about.
But if you have clients all over the United States—and even beyond—you don't want to be sending them emails at 6 a.m. with a message that begins, "Rise and shine, it's a beautiful morning!"
Luckily, many email marketing software platforms make it easy to schedule messages so they arrive in your audience's inboxes at the right time, no matter where they are.
Technique #4: Sending Abandoned Cart Emails
Cart abandonment is a big problem in the world of e-commerce, with research from the Baymard Institute showing that the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is nearly 70%.
Customers abandon shopping carts for a variety of reasons, from extra costs like shipping and taxes to poor return policies:
Bar graph showing reasons for checkout abandonment among US adults in 2021. Key reasons include high extra costs (49%) and account creation requests (24%).
But just because they abandoned you once doesn't mean you can't coax them back with a well-timed abandoned cart email.
Abandoned cart emails are a great example of personalization because they are tied to a specific action taken by the customer. They couldn’t be more relevant.
Let's say you gave up on an order because the extra fees were too much, and a day later the seller emailed you with a 10% discount code. There's a good chance you'll come back and buy, right?
It's no surprise, then, that these emails consistently achieve sky-high open rates of over 40% :