Does your product or service appeal to different people for different reasons? If so, personalized email messages may be the solution for you. Emails designed specifically for each audience and their needs are more effective than a one-size-fits-all email. Here are some simple steps you can take to develop personalized emails for your customers.

Step One: Identify your audiences

To begin, identify each group of customers based on why they buy your product. For example, let’s say you run a financial institution providing home equity loans. These loans, tied to the equity homeowners have accrued in their home, are used in a variety of ways for different people. The goal then is to create email messages to target individuals based on what motivates them to take out a home equity loan. You could say the same for segments of grocery shoppers who may use your new online ordering.pick-up shopping system.

Step Two: Use your CRM system to categorize customers

Use the information you’ve collected from your customer relationship management system (CRM) to place customers in the audience segments you have identified. For example, to market home equity loans you might group your customers into these categories:

• People who own older homes in need of remodeling. Home equity loans are often used to fund home improvement projects.
• Homeowners whose children are approaching college age. Depending on interest rates, a home equity loan is sometimes a good way to pay for some college expenses.
• Homeowners who have high-interest credit card debt. Interest rates on home equity loans vary but are typically lower than those on credit cards.

If your goal is to motivate people to shop online for groceries, you could use these segments:

• Mothers with young children who do not want to take children into the store
• Working adults who have a limited amount of time and energy
• Seniors or homebound elderly who are unable to visit the store
• Graduate students who do not want to spend time in a store

Step Three: Tailor your personalized email messages to fit customer motivations

Use subject lines and email messages that appeal to each of your audience segments’ different interests and needs.Communicate to each audience how your product’s features translate into benefits for them.  You can test and tweak these messages along the way based on how well they perform.Don’t limit this to copy, consider the design and visuals in your personalized email messages as well!

Step Four: Make your marketing an orchestrated campaign.

Remember, one email, even if it is targeted, is not a campaign. You must create a series of personalized email messages for each of your segments based on how they respond. Through these emails, you not only market to but educate and engage your audience as well. Providing these individualized benefits helps build a long-term and mutually-beneficial relationship.