Personalization Equals Engagement

There is a reason consumers enjoy that Amazon knows what new thing they might be interested in buying next based on their previous purchases and activities—we like having things tailored for us because we like anything that makes our lives easier.

There are countless sites now for setting up monthly shopping options based around personal preference, so that a woman who loves shoes can take a quiz about who she is and see examples of shoes ‘just for her’ that she can then consider purchasing each month. And it works! Because the consumer feels like that product is in some ways already theirs.

It should come as no surprise then why emails tailored to include the recipient’s first name in the subject line perform better than those that don’t.

Outsell Insights began a test in December on this very idea, comparing a Control without the recipient’s name and a Challenger with it. Everything else about the subject line remained the same.

The Challenger with a first name included in the subject line had an 11.5% lift in open rate from the Control—a clear winner.

Even a small increase in open rate can have a huge impact on conversions. For example, if we increased open rates for one of our partners by 11.5%, we would likely generate an additional 100+ linked vehicle sales in a given month.

Outsell Insights has been testing this subject line strategy again this month to confirm their findings. We’re excited to discover the results, and implement changes as needed to help dealers sell more cars.

Want to do the same? Remember to test, test, test, and learn from what you discover. For now, personalization seems to be an important step in winning over consumers.