Here’s a surefire way to break through inbox clutter: Put the person’s name in the subject line. That tactic will boost clicks even when the content is “not particularly
informative,” according to research conducted by a team of academics, as summarized by the Chicago Booth Review.
Excuse us, but that statement seems to defy all known logic
about email personalization.
The research was conducted by Stanford University’s Navdeep S. Sahni and S.
Christian Wheeler and Chicago Booth’s Pradeep K. Chintagunta.
That team tested emails from a major online test-preparation company, MercadoLibre, a Latin American online marketplace, and
Stanford University. They split the emails between those personalized with the person’s name in the subject line and those that were not.
It’s not clear whether this
personalization consisted of first names, last names, nicknames and suffixes. But here are the results.
Putting the name in ““increased the probability of the addressee opening the
email by 20 percent, from about 9 percent to about 11 percent of emails,” Chicago Booth Review reports.
In addition, this maneuver drove a 30% boost in sales leads valued at
$100 apiece. And there was a 17% decrease in unsubscribes.
This practice also boosted engagement for MercadoLibre and Stanford.
Here’s one caveat: Discounts only worked
when the email was personalized.
Here’s another: These findings are not necessarily supported by other research.
For example, a InMoment study found that 75% of consumers
find most forms of personalization at least somewhat creepy. And 22% will dump a brand after being creeped out.
In addition, Adobe reports that almost one-fifth of consumers are turned
off by the creep factor, a pertinent finding in an age when people are afraid of phishing attacks and identity theft.
What bothers them the most? For 33%, annoyance builds when
recommended items fail to match the person’s interests. And 17% are irritated when their name is misspelled.
More importantly, when asked how they would change the emails
they get from brands, 39% said they would “make them less about promotion and more about providing me information.” Moreover, 27% say they want content that’s better personalized to
their interests.
These studies suggest that effective personalization starts with sending with relevant offers based on past behaviors — and with being informative.
“People want to feel important and valued,” says Bridgette Darling, product marketing manager, Adobe Campaign. “It’s frustrating to receive batch-and-blast emails that
haven’t been personalized based on their habits or interactions with you.”
Granted, comparing these results with those of the academic authors is comparing apples and oranges. So
we’ll give that team the last word.
“Our investigation of the mechanism shows that personalized content can be non-informative, but still be valuable in garnering a
consumer’s interest and increasing the likelihood of her processing and responding to the rest of the advertising message,” the researchers write, per Chicago Booth Review.