🌱 What is "Personalization" in Email Marketing?

What do people really mean when they talk about "personalization" in email marketing?

One of the big advantages email has over other platforms is that we can segment and divide our database any way we wish. Knowing this, instead of sending the same email to everyone, we should seek to send the most valuable email we can to each person.

This is the real reason why email is able to generate so much ROI compared to other channels. An email with great timing and relevance is not only much more likely to get opened and not result in an unsubscribe — it’s also much more likely to lead to a purchase.

Also, if your customer is ready to hear about your offer, the chances are much greater they’ll actually convert:

A fifteen percent discount on an irrelevant product is spam. Similarly, a well-designed solution to a problem your subscriber isn’t experiencing also has zero value to them.
On the other hand, an offer that solves an immediate problem has a lot of value. How much you’re willing to pay for a bottle of water will depend on how thirsty you are.

So in general, a great offer with poor timing and low relevance will convert more poorly than a mediocre offer sent with perfect timing. This means "personalizing" your emails is really just about improving their timing and relevance.

With this in mind, how can we possibly know who should get sent what, and when? What product exactly are they interested in? What category of products? We need to have a clear picture of who our subscribers are. We need to get a clearer understanding of their needs, wants and behaviors.

This is a big problem in marketing: what I call the Black Box problem. It’s also one that email marketing automation is uniquely able to help solve:

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