The advantages of targeted emails, personalization and list cleaning

“One thing I often see companies doing is emailing to the same list, day after day, week after week without any idea if the emails are being looked at or giving the ROI they desire.”- Mike Pauer

If you’ve had an email address for any amount of time, and used it to sign up for accounts, I’m sure you will have seen the same emails you never open mentioning a flash sale or special offer for the hundredth time.

When you send out the right email, to the right person, it should feel more personal like it’s coming from a friend, rather than a mass marketing message trying to sell something.

Use personalization in the email and segment your list towards who is most likely to be interested.

An email subject that mentions the person by name and how it relates to their interests has a much higher chance of being opened or clicked. 

As a personal example from my own inbox: within the last few days I received emails with the subjects, “Massive 8×10 Live auction tonight!”, “Flash Sale—up to 60% off bedding, bath and more” and “Spark some happiness in your home from $4!” all of which just immediately went into the trash because I had no real interest.

On the other hand, email’s with the subjects “Michael, open this e-mail to load your offers!”, “Great escapes close to Toronto” and “Extra Discount on A Deal You Viewed” were all opened. Why? Because they were personalized for me and sparked my interest. The more interest the recipient has, the more chance they will open, read, and click the email.

When crafting your email, the other thing to keep in mind is the pre-header. It can be just as important as the subject. A brief description of just what’s inside the email and why it’s important to the recipient can go a long way towards increasing your opens.

Something to consider when bulk sending: How clean is the list you’re sending to?

Have you been sending to the same list of people for 5 years without any statistics on engagement? This can lead to very poor open rates, or even to having a spam trap in a worst case scenario. When it comes to list maintenance, the best practice is to always remove anyone that bounces, and consider pruning anyone that has not opened or clicked the email for a period of time. 

What if you are concerned about cutting prospective clients?

Run a campaign directly to them! Segment the list to those who have never opened an email in the past year, then send a campaign asking if they still want to receive emails, or offer a special discount. If you go with the first option then as people confirm they do still want your emails you can move them back into the main sending list. With the second option, you can see which email addresses are alive, and may still be interested in your product or services. Overall you are reducing the number of emails you send out, helping to increase your list quality and sender reputation.