There’s a persistent rumour that price is the most important factor in email marketing. Make your product cheaper and the customers will flood to your door. Don’t believe it. It’s nothing more than a comforter for those who don’t really understand what email marketing is all about. It’s not that easy.

You don’t pick a restaurant on price, or at least the cheapest one, if you are going out for a celebration, trying to impress someone or looking for an emotional response. You don’t go for the dearest you can afford. You select for the experience you are likely to enjoy, and helpful staff and the restaurant encourage this by personalisation. Who doesn’t enjoy the maître d’ greeting you with a, ‘It’s lovely to see you again, Sir. We’ve missed you.’

Being told that as you enjoyed the fish dish so much the last time you came, the bass would be a good choice. ‘Or you might like to try something just a little bit different.’ Your local pub can provide personalisation on a plate you might say. The experience is everything.

There’s research which suggests around half of consumers said they became repeat customers after personalised experience with a company. The only conclusion to draw from this is the remaining 50% didn’t really understand what personalisation was. The report went on to suggest that consumers experiencing personalisation spent about a third more. Although the figures were not published, one might assume that signups for email marketing lists would have increased as well. Personalisation is everything.

It’s easy to suggest that you should personalise all your email marketing campaigns to a greater degree, but without knowing what it means to your customers, how can you change? There’s other research which gives us a clue as to what to do. Customers react positively when it is apparent to them that they are being offered something different to what everyone else is. It seems they feel more in control.

To an extent, their experience is false. After all, you segmented your email marketing list and merely put this customer in a smaller group. However, it is personalisation.

It’s more than merely offering them a product which they want at a price they are willing to pay. We need to personalise the whole of the marketing email. Many consider one vital aspect is not to flood them with information they don’t require and, importantly, don’t want. Your email should be just enough for them, with click-throughs for those you’ve misjudged slightly.

You will know from previous email marketing campaigns which subscribers click through for further information, and what information they are looking for. Just enough is borderline too much. This aspect, research shows, is the vital one of personalisation. Don’t stop personalising the email after offering them what they want.

You need to stand out from your competitors and the best way, and easiest, is by personalising. Still not sure about personalisation in email marketing? See the number of people to take pains to put their own name in the phone list in their car.