The modern digital consumer not only wants but expects personalized service and communications that reflect their behaviors and interests. Think of it in terms of sports fans. Would you wear a baseball cap from your favorite team with your name stitched on the inside? Or would you prefer a generic hat with the logo of your favorite team’s main rival? We think we know the answer.

Consumers presented with products and offers tailored to their interests are far more likely to engage because the information is just more, well, interesting. And when engagement means purchasing, personalization becomes a catalyst for increasing revenue from every channel, but especially email.

Why? Consumers prefer to receive promotional content via email, which also happens to consistently generate the highest ROI. Naturally when Sailthru surveyed 200 retailers, increasing revenue from email was the highest-priority metric for 66% of them. And the winning combination of personalization and segmentation is one of the straightest roads there. 

To accomplish that, email marketers must personalize in two distinct ways: Leveraging information about someone’s behavior and incorporating unique interest profiles created for each customer. Behavioral personalization uses a data stream composed of an individual’s purchase and browsing history, and all other interactions with a brand. Combining that with interest profiles, marketers’ emails can feature the most relevant product recommendations and content.

Personalization as a Growth Strategy

Personalization pays off. According to MarTech Advisor, 35% of Amazon’s sales are estimated to be generated through these personalized recommendations.

In order to bring that to email, incorporate dynamic recommendations in messages, personalize email sends based on historic engagement and segment customers according to broad interests. Those are foundational ways retailers can use personalization to increase revenue from email. Often the easiest to implement, these imperative initiatives represent the lowest-hanging fruit for return.

We’d also recommend going a bit deeper and mastering some more sophisticated strategies as well, like JustFab does. As customers engage more with the brand, JustFab’s email communications become more and more tailored. Eventually, subject lines and even email layouts have personalization. There’s a difference between a shoe buyer and a shoe lover. Everyone buys shoes, but if they’re the product someone purchases and browses above all others, JustFab will make sure they’re featured prominently in email communications.

Dynamic email — shoe lovers will see shoes in the subject line hero image; accessory aficionados will see something else — helped improve JustFab’s click and open rate by 6%. And JustFab is hardly the only retailer

This was just a taste. For more on how to make personalization work for you — and other strategies to increase revenue from email — download the guide today.