Personalized marketing helps to capture a readers attention and can create a more engaged audience, but studies are showing, that if personalization is not used correctly it will actually decrease the value of your message for your target audience.

An “Email Metrics Report” found that when a person’s name is added into the subject line of the email that the email open rates actually were reduced.  The researchers speculated that this is due to the fact that people actually associate their name in a subject line with SPAM-like messages and won’t even bother opening them.

Using relevant content within the message is beneficial, but not necessarily using their name, but rather simply offering products or services that your database shows your target audience would be most interested in.

Personalized messages work best when they’re personalized, but not ‘too’ personalized.  What we mean by this is your messages shouldn’t include so much about a person that it makes them wonder how you got that information — because if a person feels uncomfortable with the amount of information you know about them, they’re not only less likely to purchase from you at that moment, but they also lose trust in your brand and therefore, being overly personalized with messages can ruin a relationship with a potential customer.

The study showed that the use of relevant messages only within the body of an email had the highest open rates and when the subject line and the email were personalized that showed the lowest open rates.

Personalization is a powerful tool and like any form of marketing it must be executed properly in order to get the desired results and response rates.

Timothy Freeman
President
Print & Graphic Communications Association