You’ve heard it a thousand times: you need to send personalized, relevant emails to your subscribers to get the best results. Makes sense. Who likes generic emails that waste time? There’s proof behind the theory, too. The MarketingSherpa 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report found that 99% of marketers surveyed reported that segmenting campaigns based on [...]

It’s the age old story of subscriber meets email campaign. Sometimes it’s love at first sight. Sometimes the relationship takes a little warming up first. And sometimes, it’s just one relationship buzzkill after another. Is your campaign irritating subscribers more than connecting with them? It could be if you’re making any of these mistakes. It’s [...]

Tomorrow’s Friday the 13th – a notoriously unlucky day when it’s wise to avoid black cats and walking under ladders. While AWeber can’t ward off any personal bad luck, we have some precautions you can take to make sure that no misfortunes befall your email marketing campaign. Direct from our Customer Solutions team, here are [...]

Sometimes it feels like a hassle to manage subscribers on more than one email list. How can you make sure that the right customers are getting the right information from the right list? Let me introduce you to automation rules. When you need to send the same weekly newsletter to more than one list or [...]

Consumers spend more of their online time on Facebook than on any other website. Social networking has always been personal and scheduled changes to Facebook profiles take the narcissistic focus to a whole new level. Profiles will turn into Timelines that chart a user’s lifetime achievements and milestones all the way back to their birth. [...]

Build better relationships. Keep subscribers engaged. Improve deliverability. Have these been hammered into your head yet? Probably, if you’ve been reading our blog for any length of time; it’s what separates the good email marketing campaigns from the bad ones. You can easily make you campaign one of the good ones by creating emails that [...]

Are birthday emails a good idea? There are a lot of good things about them: subscribers expect them, email marketers recommend sending them, and they’re pretty easy to set up. These things don’t mean they’re always a good idea though. Like most things in life, birthday emails can fall in a gray area. There are [...]

How do you think your subscribers would describe your emails? Do your emails focus on getting sales? Or do you make more of an effort to encourage loyalty to your company?

The key is balancing the two. You can personalize your email newsletters in order to build relationships, and this leads to developing a loyal subscriber base who are happy to hear what you have to offer.

Easier said than done, right? I found emails in my inbox that range from going for a hard sell to ones I love reading and interacting with. These examples contain valuable lessons that you can use for your own campaign to create messages subscribers love.

Mountz Jewelers: The Useless Announcement

This is a promotional email from Mountz Jewelers announcing a grand opening for one of their stores:

The problem with this email is that I have no use for it. This mistake could easily be avoided by segmenting based on the subscribers’ location. Announcing a grand opening in your email works only if the subscribers can easily get to that store.

Alfred Angelo Bridal: The Targeted Sales Pitch

This is a promotional email from Alfred Angelo about a bridal accessories sale:

Although still clearly a sales email, this one does a much better job:

• They are using the information I provided at sign up to send me information on accessories for brides, as opposed to something other wedding party members would need.
• They include a “Find a store” tool which is very helpful.

Neither Mountz Jewelers or Alfred Angelo do that much to get me to be a loyal customer. I don’t look forward to their emails nearly as much as the next two businesses that do make it more personal.

Active.com: Sharing Their Knowledge

This is a newsletter from Active.com:

Active.com makes it more personal by:

• Noting I’m interested in running and making sure that I get all running related information.
• Providing links to a wide variety of topics that could help me.

The only downside to their emails is their “Featured Events” section, which doesn’t have events near me. I use Active.com to register for all my races, so having upcoming ones near me would make a big difference.

TheKnot: Personal, Sharing, Selling…AWesome

This is a newsletter from TheKnot:

TheKnot newsletters I’m always excited to see. Why?

• They make it personal to me and what I’m doing.
• They use my name and wedding date, my location, and where I am in the planning process to deliver content that’s relevant to me.
• They make sure to include links to products and sponsored vendors in every newsletter, but the focus is on the personal content, which is a smart move.

How Can You Make Your Emails the Ones Subscribers Love?

1. Use subscribers’ information- You should only ask for information you plan on using. If you’re only asking for name and email, you can still target subscribers in a specific area using their IP address.

Continue to learn about your subscribers so you can provide them with more personalized emails. You can set up new custom fields, or start off with looking at their click through history.

2. Provide useful information for the subscriber- Don’t be like Mountz Jewelers and send your emails to those that can’t use it. Build loyalty by making sure subscribers receiving your message have something to gain by reading it.

3. Don’t just go for the hard sell- Both Mountz Jewelers and Alfred Angelo could add more to their emails. For example, Mountz Jewelers could link up some good examples of coordinating Pandora charms and popular combinations. Try and include something fun and interesting that is relevant to what you’re selling.

4. Ask for more information for further personalization- While it’s nice that Active.com has a bunch of resources to share, I’m most interested in information that deals with marathon training. Active.com could ask subscribers why they are interested in a particular sport to narrow those resources down.

How Are You Personalizing Your Emails?

What have you done to make your messages more personal?

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To personalize, or not personalize? That is the question du jour.

Personalization – sending an email that contains the recipients personal information making it look the email was sent to only them – is an easy enough task in most email marketing programs these days. But should you use it?

Most experts waver back and forth between the answers yes, no and maybe so. Some vehemently protest: “No! It’s a thing of the past!” Others believe, “Yes, there’s a certain level of familiarity that can’t be obtained otherwise!” And still more fall into the “maybe, sometimes” category.

Even though we see an incredible amount of emails on a daily basis, our own team members are divided on whether or not personalizing email is a good idea. Find out what they think!

The Pros

The Cons

Weighing Your Options

Personalization tactics aren’t bad in and of themselves, but a truly personal email will address a subscriber’s needs, desires, fears and preferences.

Does populating an email with the data you already have available take those things into consideration? It’s not a question that we can answer for you – it’s, well…personal.

Let us know how you feel about personalization in the comments below. We’d love to discuss it further with you!

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Relationships are hard work. It doesn’t matter what kind; they’re all equally tough. Parents, spouses, friends, business partners, customers – all need to be treated kindly and with respect.

If you want to build a new relationship or keep an existing one strong, you need to open the lines of communication and truly make an effort to get to know the other person.

This Valentine’s Day, embrace email marketing and show subscribers how much you love them by using these relationship building tips with your next campaign.

Court Your Subscribers

If you have an email campaign that aims to promote and sell a product, remember that just because your visitors sign up to your list does not necessarily mean that they will purchase your product. Seduce them, entice them, educate them and above all be polite.

Don’t expect subscribers to buy after they receive your first email. Sometimes it takes a little longer to convert an interested reader into an advocate or a customer.

Flirt or Tease Them

You know how great your product is, and your subscribers will no doubt love it once they purchase. Subtly let them know what they are missing out on by including little bits of information about the product in your emails.

Be brief! Don’t spill the beans in your message, but rather provide enough information to make them want to click through to your website to learn more. The whole point of your email is to get subscribers to your landing page, which you then use to make the sale.

Personalize Your Love Letter

It’s not always appropriate, but personalization can make your email more conversational and friendly.

This doesn’t mean you should use the {!firstname_fix} variable ten times throughout your email.

Instead, include other readily available information, such as the website they visited when they signed up. This can validate the trust that they placed in you initially when they signed up to your list.

Send Some Conversation Hearts

Communication is crucial to any successful relationship. The easiest way to communicate with a friend or partner is to talk.

Conversation is personal, and often the best way to sway someone’s opinion. Use your messages to engage subscribers in conversation. Address them genuinely, like you would address a friend, and request their feedback.

Track Cupid’s Arrow

We all keep tabs on the ones we love. Always use click tracking in your messages to determine which links subscribers are clicking on.

Knowing which links subscribers liked and clicked on will help you communicate better. You can even segment your list based on their participation later.

They Love You, They Love You Not…They Love You!

Give your subscribers one more reason to love you by sending beautiful emails. Try one of our new Valentine’s Day templates!

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