Personalization is about striking delicate balance. Using it as a marketing tool for gaining trust and encouraging further engagement requires strategically adding a human element to email content while still conveying an effective marketing message. This MarketingSherpa (www.marketingsherpa.com) webinar presentation will show you: -Creative ways to add a personal touch in copy and subject lines -How to get just the right amount of information from the consumer -Why you should extend personalization to the landing page -Tips on how to quickly personalize a template

1. FEATURING THE
LATEST RESEARCH
Email
Marketing
Five tactics to personalize your
message for better results
Sponsored by:

2. Introductions
Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content
MECLABS/MarketingSherpa
@DanielBurstein
Courtney Eckerle, Reporter
MECLABS
@courtneyeckerle

3. Join the conversation
#SherpaWebinar

4. Chart 3.30 Tactics utilized to improve email relevance and engagement
Which of the following tactics is your organization using to improve the relevance and engagement of email content delivered to
subscribers?
Automatically send email based on
triggers 39%
Segment email campaigns based on
behavior 37%
Dynamically personalize email content
Dynamically personalize email content (e
g (e.g. name in subject line, geo-…
first first name in subject line, geo-
location content)
36%
Segment email campaigns based on sales
cycle 28%
Allow subscribers to specify email
preferences via a robust preference… 21%
Include surveys, trivia or games 18%
Use loyalty / reward programs 14%
Dedicate resources to produce content
for each stage in the buying process 12%
Make use of animated GIF images or
video in design 11%
Source: ©2013 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
Methodology: Fielded December 2012, N=626 4

5. Chart 4.21 Email campaign element testing and optimization
Which of the following email campaign elements do you routinely test to optimize performance? Please select all that apply.
Subject line 86%
Call-to-action 62%
Message (eg greeting, body, closing)
Message (e.g. greeting, body, closing) 58%
Days of the week sent 48%
Layout and images 47%
Time of day sent 46%
Landing page 44%
Target audience 44%
Personalization 42%
From line 32%
Layout and images specifically for
mobile viewing 26%
Other 2%
None of the above 2%
Source: ©2013 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
Methodology: Fielded December 2012, N=264 5

6. Self- assessment…
How often do you test personalization tactics?

7. What you are going
to learn…
• Creative ways to add a personal touch to email sends
• Personalization in subject lines
• Why you should extend personalization to the landing page
• Tips on quickly personalizing a template
• How to get just enough information from the consumer

9. Not this…
The “batch and blast” approach
Many marketers fall into the pattern of sending
general emails to an entire database over and over
again – batch and blast – because they are unsure
of how to move to a more targeted approach.

10. But this….
Humanize content

11. Three key ideas:
To increase the odds that your emails will find
1 a receptive audience, add human elements
to your email.
These elements make emails seem more personal,
2 even if you don’t necessarily incorporate any personal
information.
3 With the rise of social media, your customers expect
more than information; they expect personality.

12. * Personalize your template
With an already created template, it is often easy to
personalize it with a few quick changes:
• Personalized with full name
• Comes from an actual person (“From:” field)
• Signed by an actual person
• Conduct A/B tests by sending different versions of
an email to different segments of your list

13. Chart 3.34 Subscriber segmentation attributes
Can you segment subscriber data into separate lists based on the following attributes?
Email engagement behavior 55% 29% 16%
Purchase history 53% 30% 16%
Location in sales pipeline 38% 43% 19%
User-declared personal
preferences 38% 43% 19%
Email viewing device habits 28% 49% 22%
Yes No Don’t know
Source: ©2013 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
Methodology: Fielded December 2012, N≥115 13

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15. Download your
FREE excerpt
Visit bit.ly/emailbmr for your copy!

16. Case Study
Challenge
• Marketing team was moving away from batch and blast in favor of
trying targeted marketing for the first time.
Campaign
• Chose a group of subscribers who were one-time big spenders
on the site.
• Sent this audience a one-time promotion to generate revenue,
as well as test the viability of the audience as an email segment
• Instead of the generic, vague messaging common to batch and
blast emails, they focused on a personal connection.
•Source: Email Marketing: 208% higher conversion rate for targeted emails over batch-and-blast

17. From: Devin
Kimura, CEO
Subject:
Exclusive 20%
discount just for
you, Cortney,
From Artbeads’
CEO Devin
Kimura

19. Case Study
Challenge
• Aweber knew that personalization in subject lines and
greetings improved results at other companies. However, they
were skeptical it could work with their audience.
Campaign
• Marketing team decided to conduct a test to find out if
personalization really made a difference.
• Rather than testing one email, the team chose to test seven
consecutive emails throughout the month.
• Team sent basic A/B test on each of the designated days. A
random half of its list would receive a normal, unaltered email
(A) and the second half would receive a test email (B).
•Source: Email Marketing: 17.36% higher average clickthrough rate in 7 personalized subject line tests

20. A/B subject line tests
Email A:
Email Marketing Advice From 2 Guys (Who Know What
They’re Doing)
Email B:
[First Name], Email Marketing Advice From 2 Guys (Who
Know What They’re Doing)

21. Results
higher average open rate for personalized
5.13% subject line over regular email
higher clickthrough rate for personalized
17.6% subject line over regular email
What you need to know: Focusing on a single change to a single
! part of the email across multiple sends allows a definitive
conclusion to be drawn from results.

23. What you need to know:
!
Never lose sight of keeping a compelling offer
and clear call-to-action when developing
creative, eye catching email content.

24. Case Study
Challenge
• Helzberg’s charms jewelry were such a strong seller that customers
were almost too familiar with the product.
• The online marketing team wanted to promote them, but needed
to find a way to make them catch customer’s attention again, and
speak to them directly.
Campaign
• The team designed a promotional campaign that addressed the
customer directly, by having the charms spell out their name as a
greeting.
•Source: Email Marketing: Helzberg Diamonds garners 288% sales lift with animated, personalized promo

25. Subject:
This free bracelet has your
name on it
Personalization:
Charms spelling out the
subscriber’s name were
animated to swing back
and forth on the chain

26. Results
increase in sales compared to the
288% previous week promoting the same collection
to the same audience
higher open rate than Helzberg's average for
55% promotional emails
higher clickthrough rate
85%

27. Case Study
Challenge
• Moosejaw wanted to find a creative way to insert a human element
that would help them stay relevant and sell an experience to their
customers.
Campaign
• Moosejaw used “madness” campaigns centered on things such as a
break-up service, a kissing service that helped customers kiss their
crush on New Year’s Eve, and a pizza bribe service that helped
subscribers motivate friends and family through food.
• They actually performed these services, and posted several videos
of their representatives on YouTube having these conversations.
•Source: Email Relevance: 8 tactics for leveraging timing, segmentation and content

28. Results
For Moosejaw, this
approach was both
human, and reflective of
the brand.
The tone of the
campaign mirrored the
personality of the
company.
The electronic
communications
were a translation
of customer As many disengaged subscribers opened the
interactions and
experiences in-
2X “100% madness” emails as opposed to those
featuring product information or special offers.
store.

30. What you need to know:
Once you personalize your email message,
you can see even more benefit by following
through with a personalized landing page.
!
Following through with personalization
from email to landing page can
distinguish even mundane sends.

31. Case Study
Challenge
• HP Education Services sent out print catalogs for their IT pro courses,
but began testing web and email as costs mounted.
• Needed to convey huge amounts of information in an email campaign,
and have a long life.
Campaign
• The team merged their most powerful resources – an online course
catalog at HP.com and a database of thousands of past customers.
• Instead of speaking generally, the email sent suggested one course
based off of one they had taken in the past, and the location was
chosen to be near to their office.
• The customer’s first and last name were in the URL of the landing page
they were directed towards.
•Source: HP Tests Personalized Web Landing Pages for Email and Direct Mail Campaigns -- Data & Samples

32. HP’s personalized email,
featuring:
• Call-to-action to go to personal
landing page
• A recommended course
• Information on that course
• Ability to browse full schedule
HP’s personalized landing
page, featuring:
• Recommended class
• Value proposition
• Location
• Registration
• Full course catalog

33. Results
email recipients went to their personal landing
16.5% pages.
of those visitors clicked again to either register
63%
or surf other course options on the site.
of those who visited the site converted into
31% purchasing courses

35. * Collect information gradually
It is a delicate balance for marketers to obtain
necessary customer information, without
asking for so much that it creates friction for
"
the customer.

36. Chart 3.24 Form data collection
Which form data do you collect in the registration process for your email program?
Email address 100%
Name 70%
ZIP code 35%
State 35%
Telephone Number 33%
Country 29%
Street Address 26%
Other 22%
Age 12%
Gender 12%
Salutation 8%
Fax Number 3%
Source: ©2013 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
Methodology: Fielded December 2012, N=347 36

37. Don’t Go Overboard

38. Don’t go Overboard
Effective email marketing goes back to relevancy
– catering to the needs and interests of
individual customers. This should be the
foundation of a marketing campaign.
• If you ask for too much information, you can kill the conversion rate on
the registration page. If you ask for too little, it can be difficult to
segment your database.
• One effective tactic can be to gradually ask for information from a
customer, as they become more comfortable with your company.

39. Case Study
Challenge
• Scotts Miracle-Gro, a lawn and garden products company, wanted
to use their email newsletter to deliver locally relevant content to
their subscribers.
Campaign
• Once a consumer registered on Scotts’ website, Scotts invites the
consumer to become a subscriber to their email newsletter, Lawn
Care Update, to receive expert advice and special offers.
• By using one simple request of a subscriber’s zip code, Scotts was
able to provide valuable product information based on that region’s
soil or climate.
• By providing specific links in the newsletter, the email can lead the
consumer back to website for further information and help.
•Source: Email Marketing How-to: 5 steps to improve your email newsletter

40. Case Study
Challenge
• Marketing team wanted to keep the barrier to sign up for their list
as easy as possible.
• Still wanted to capture all the information they needed, but they
only captured email addresses, so until a purchase was made and
they could begin targeting based on purchase behavior, they had
nothing else.
Campaign
• The marketing team bypassed the challenge of asking for too much
too fast through what they called “progressive profiling.”
• Launched a three part new series of welcome emails that would be
sent out over the space of seven days.
• Helped improve segmentation without hurting conversion rates,
increased revenue by 27%.
•Source: Email Marketing: New tactics for display ads, segmentation and discount promos

41. Freshpair.com welcome series
Email #1 Email #2 Email #3
Sent at sign-up Sent day four Sent day seven
Capture product Reassure subscribers Discount offer
preference This send emphasized the
If subscribers had not
New subscribers first value proposition
surrounding Freshpair’s
yet purchased, they
receive an email that
email program. received this third and
asks them to select
final welcome email
which types of
Noted that subscribers three days after the
products they prefer,
would receive: first notice second (seven days
men’s or women’s – of sales, product after the first) that
gave them a first information and expert offers them a discount.
datapoint for knowledge, first notice of
segmenting their list. new products.

42. Thank You!
Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content
MECLABS/MarketingSherpa
@DanielBurstein
Courtney Eckerle, Reporter
MECLABS
@courtneyeckerle