In email marketing, studies have shown, time and time again, that consumers don’t want to be treated like a number. Instead, they want to be treated as the individual that they are. And when marketers take the time to personalize content, messages, and subject lines to their readers, consumers feel known and seen—ultimately driving up campaign engagement.
Readers are 26% more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines.
Personalized emails resonate better with readers, so taking the time to personalize your subject lines and deliver relevant content to each reader is essential.
What is a personalized subject line?
A personalized subject line inserts a detail relevant to that recipient. This can be their name, occupation, purchase, or other personal detail that you have stored.
How to create a personalized subject line
Depending on the email client your marketing team’s using, the steps to creating a personalized subject line for your email campaigns may vary. With Campaign Monitor, users can create personalized subject lines with the use of personalization tags.
These tags are created based on subscriber field data, which can be collected at the time a subscriber signs up or performs an action in your email or site.
Once you have your data, you’ll be able to use these tags to personalize your email subject lines.
For example, let’s take the name tag. Subscribers create this tag by entering their name when signing up to your list. There are different variations of the name tag that marketers can use:
[fullname, fallback=] – will show the subscriber’s full name
[first name, fallback=] – will show the subscriber’s first name
[lastname, fallback=] – will show the subscribers last name
Once entered into the subject line, readers won’t see the tag. Instead, they’ll simply see their name as part of the text, like in the example below.
How to measure the success of your personalized subject lines
Once you’ve taken the time to create and send out your campaigns with personalized subject lines, you should pay close attention to your open rates for these campaigns compared to others that aren’t personalized.
This should also naturally result in an increase in click-through, but that shouldn’t be the primary metric you measure success from. Opens are really what you’re going for here—a personalized subject line should inspire your recipient to open.
Do personalized subject lines really matter?
Personalized subject lines and emails absolutely do matter. Not only have they proven to increase overall open rates, but they’ve also proven to increase revenue, click rates, and transactional rates.
While this data is continuously changing, the pattern remains the same—personalized subject lines get your emails opened and read, and personalized content helps to increase transaction rates and revenue.
What now?
Although personalized subject lines are essential pieces of the overall puzzle, they’re only one piece. Your focus should now turn to personalize the rest of your email campaign. Check out our guide on the power of email personalization today for more helpful tips.