Personalized Email Marketing Between Myth and Reality
What is a difference between a spam and an email, the most important one? Well, it turns out that we get annoyed about spams not because they're offering us something we don't want, but rather because they don't address by our name. The depersonalization is the biggest problem in email marketing, which you can't solve so easily. There were a couple of brainiacs who thought that putting my email's name is enough to hit the personal note. That's both ridiculous and stupid, wouldn't you agree? If I use a "marketer.warrior@gmail.com," for instance, how do you think it's a win-win when someone decides to address me with "Dear Marketer?" This is an extremely simplified version of the problem, but this doesn't make it be too far from the truth.
Tip of the email iceberg
According to the theory the more personal you are with your email campaign, the more likely is that you'll push the desirable number of right action buttons. If you can write ten different emails, each approaching a different person in a direct way, then you're very likely to succeed. Right? The trouble is you are very likely to lose so much time for research and writing. It's just like writing an email to all of your friends, but not a single one of them doesn't want to be included in an email list. They would like you to write them an email directly and personally. Otherwise, your email is going to be gone in a blink of an eye.
Again, this was nothing more than a theory, or to be more precise pure email marketing science fiction. Can you hire and support an army of flesh and blood email writers? So instead, we desperately try to compensate our faceless wave of emails with the overwhelming numbers. I just need one or two emails to hit the target, and I'm good to go. Is this the best thing we can do and expect?
The last wave of emails headed to Omaha beach
Whenever I think of email marketing, I end up with this apocalyptic image of countless emails that are doing their very best to survive and get through the Omaha beach. This D-Day isn't the most appropriate and happiest comparisons I could come up with, but it helps a lot to address the slim chances of success. At the same time, I am not suggesting in any way that you should treat email recipients as enemy lines you need to break through. Yet, I believe there are quite a few email marketers who feel exactly this way.
So, what is the solution? Is personalized email marketing doomed to be nothing more than a dream? Obviously not, if we can manage to put an engaging personalized line here and there. Yet, there has to be something better and more efficient than that. I just don't know what it is. Guess, we have to keep trying, and more importantly writing.
Tip of the email iceberg
According to the theory the more personal you are with your email campaign, the more likely is that you'll push the desirable number of right action buttons. If you can write ten different emails, each approaching a different person in a direct way, then you're very likely to succeed. Right? The trouble is you are very likely to lose so much time for research and writing. It's just like writing an email to all of your friends, but not a single one of them doesn't want to be included in an email list. They would like you to write them an email directly and personally. Otherwise, your email is going to be gone in a blink of an eye.
Again, this was nothing more than a theory, or to be more precise pure email marketing science fiction. Can you hire and support an army of flesh and blood email writers? So instead, we desperately try to compensate our faceless wave of emails with the overwhelming numbers. I just need one or two emails to hit the target, and I'm good to go. Is this the best thing we can do and expect?
The last wave of emails headed to Omaha beach
Whenever I think of email marketing, I end up with this apocalyptic image of countless emails that are doing their very best to survive and get through the Omaha beach. This D-Day isn't the most appropriate and happiest comparisons I could come up with, but it helps a lot to address the slim chances of success. At the same time, I am not suggesting in any way that you should treat email recipients as enemy lines you need to break through. Yet, I believe there are quite a few email marketers who feel exactly this way.
So, what is the solution? Is personalized email marketing doomed to be nothing more than a dream? Obviously not, if we can manage to put an engaging personalized line here and there. Yet, there has to be something better and more efficient than that. I just don't know what it is. Guess, we have to keep trying, and more importantly writing.
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