Kevin George
May 16, 2023

9 Advanced Email Personalization Techniques to Woo Your Subscribers

Advanced Email Personalization Techniques

Personalizing emails using your subscriber’s first name? Great. But did you know that it’s not enough anymore? Visualize yourself in the shoes of your subscriber –

You are surfing through your crowded inbox, looking for the elusive email meant for you. Amidst the ocean of generic subject lines and monotonous greetings, one email stands out like a beacon of light! Your interest ignites, and you click on the email.

The email is not just addressed to you but goes beyond. It resonates with your interests, preferences, and past interactions. You feel a sense of connection with the sender, as they know you on a personal level. How did they do it?

In this post, we will delve into the world of email personalization that goes beyond the first name, unlocking secrets to crafting emails that engage and convert.

Let’s begin with some basics:

What is email personalization?

Introduction to Email Personalization

True to its name, email personalization refers to the practice of customizing and tailoring email messages based on the recipient’s preferences and behavior.

It involves collecting data about the individual to create highly targeted and relevant email content. Email personalization aims to make emails more meaningful, increasing open, click-through, and even conversion rates.

Let’s now move on to learn how you can use advanced personalization techniques in your emails to win over your subscribers.

9 Tips to Personalize Your Emails Beyond The First Name

1. Include Location-based Personalization

Apart from using the subscriber’s first name, you can personalize emails based on their location. It includes referencing their city or region in the email’s subject line or email copy. The email can consist of exclusive offers or deals relevant to their location.

For instance – If you have subscribers from various countries and cities, you can customize the email content to highlight news or promotions specific to their area. It showcases that you have made an extra effort to understand their geography, making your emails more relevant.

2. Nurture Repeat Customers With Purchase History Personalization

If you are an eCommerce business, analyzing the purchase history of your subscribers can help you create targeted email campaigns that offer cross-sell and upsell opportunities, personalized recommendations, and discounts on related products.

Take this as an example – If a subscriber has recently purchased a pair of jeans from you, you can email them about how to pair them with the perfect shirt for a stylish look or even recommend shoes that would go well with the jeans.

Quickly look at how this loungewear brand has curated emails to cross-sell to its customers.

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3. Celebrate Your Subscribers’ Special Occasions

Who doesn’t like freebies? So do your subscribers! Be it their birthday, anniversary, first purchase, or anniversary of their subscription, sending personalized emails on these occasions show that you value them and appreciate their support.

You can send a birthday email with an exclusive discount or anniversary emails congratulating them on their milestone and offering them reward points!

Here’s how Busuu celebrated the anniversary of one of its subscribers. They even offered an exclusive discount to make the recipient feel special.

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4. Analyze User Behavior To Target Recipients Effectively

Behavior-based personalization involves analyzing your subscribers’ purchase history, engagement patterns, etc. By getting such insights, you can create personalized email campaigns that align with their preferences and interests.

For example – If you are an eCommerce brand and a subscriber abandons their shopping cart, you can send them a personalized email to incentivize them to complete their transaction. Offering additional discounts will spark curiosity and the subscriber will be compelled to take immediate action.

Here’s how Saatchi Art gave an additional 10% off to one of its cart abandoners to complete the transaction.


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5. Ask Your Subscribers For Feedback

Asking for feedback and conducting surveys are two valuable tools for collecting data from your subscribers. By sending feedback forms to your subscribers, you can get information about their needs, requirements, and what they expect from your brand.

Survey-based personalization not only assists you in collecting information but also shows how much you care for your subscribers and are ready to tailor the emails based on the feedback received.

Here is how Slight Glass Coffee asked its subscribers for feedback to work on the areas that need improvement.

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6. Email Your Subscribers About Loyalty Program Updates.

If a subscriber is a part of your loyalty program, you can personalize the emails highlighting their balance points, loyalty status, or upcoming rewards. In addition, it will push the recipients to engage more with your brand and leverage the exclusive benefits.

7. Try Industry-Based Personalization.

Suppose you have relevant information about the subscribers’ job titles or industries; you can personalize emails by discussing their professional backgrounds.

The email can include giving industry-specific content, addressing significant pain points, or offering relevant solutions to their industry challenges.

Take this as an example –
‘Attention Digital Marketers – Boost your productivity with our latest product update!’

8. Leverage Social Media For Personalization.

If your subscribers also follow you on social media, you can personalize emails for them by referencing their social media profiles, interactions, or posts.

It will create familiarity and make your subscribers feel more connected to you. Additionally, it will reflect that you have done your research.

9. Include demographics to personalize your emails.

By leveraging demographic-based data like age, gender, or occupation, you can create content that resonates with your email recipients.

For instance – If your target audience is Gen Z, you can leverage a fun, casual tone while addressing them in your emails. You can use trending and funky visuals in the content of your emails and even add pop culture vibes to convey the message. On the contrary, if your audience is mature, you can have a formal tone and have more serious content in the email.

Over To You

In this fast-paced and ever-evolving world of email marketing, it is crucial to go beyond the basics of first-name personalization and broaden your horizons.

By crafting a conversational email with a human touch, you can successfully create emotional connections with your subscribers, sparking their curiosity and inspiring them to take the action you desire.

Leveraging the personalization techniques mentioned above, we’re sure you can elevate your email marketing game and deliver memorable experiences that will keep your subscribers eagerly anticipating your upcoming emails!

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Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion and free responsive HTML email templates in addition to providing email automation, campaign management, and data integration & migration services. He loves gadgets, bikes, and jazz, and he eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.