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When is personalization of email content not effective at boosting recipient engagement?  When it comes off as insincere, that's when.  When it's transparent to the recipient that you're only addressing them by name because that's less work than truly making your content relevant to them as an individual.

I was reminded of this while out to dinner with my wife last week.  When the check came, I paid with my Visa card, and when the waiter returned with my receipt, he said, "Thanks, Brian."

Now, technically, "Brian" is my given first name.   It appears on my birth certificate, on my driver's license, and on the Visa card I paid with that night.  But anyone who knows me also knows that I use my middle name, "Chris" (short for "Christopher").  Not even my parents, who gave me the name "Brian" have ever called me by it--unless you count my mom yelling my full name when I was in really big trouble.

My waiter thought he was being chummy and familiar, probably because he heard somewhere that's a good way to receive a bigger tip--read the customer's credit card and address them by name.  But instead, he struck a wrong chord.  Nothing says "I don't know you, and I'm not your friend" quite like addressing someone by the wrong name.  If he really wanted to personalize the dining experience for me, he should have, you know, remembered what we were drinking so that he didn't have to ask every time he came around to refresh our beverages.

Sadly, many email marketers take the same approach to personalization.  They deliver the same message to all recipients, but preface it with "%%FirstName%%, " in the subject line or as a salutation, and believe that they've effectively personalized their message.  But that alone isn't enough to make your message truly relevant to the individual.

True personalization means knowing your subscribers' interests and preferences--whether by asking them up front, or by tracking their interactions with your emails and web sites--and using that information to deliver content they're likely to want.  That scooter ad I received a few weeks ago wouldn't have gone over any better had they addressed me as "Chris," because I didn't care about their product.

Merging personal details into email content is only one step towards creating mailings that are relevant to the individual.  You can further divide your mailing list into segments based on their demographic data, subscription preferences, or past behaviors, and then target these different groups of subscribers with different mailings.  Or use Delivra's dynamic content tools to send one mailing, but vary the content of the mailing for each recipient according to their attributes in the database.

If your content is compelling enough that your recipients look forward to hearing from you, then you won't need to address them by name to get them to open, click through, and share your email.   And if you use their names anyway, they're much more likely to cut you some slack for calling them "Brian" when everyone else knows them as "Chris."

Chris Broshears | Product Development