The most effective marketing emails you send are the ones that are personalized for your target audience. Rather than have a one size fits all message, you can craft your messaging to an individual person. Campaign Monitor, an email marketing platform, organized a bunch of stats around how much personalization matters for email. Here are some of our favorites:
- “Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates.”
- “74% of marketers say targeted personalization increases customer engagement.”
- “50% of companies feel they can increase interaction within email by increasing personalization.”
You can see the full list here.
Now sure, these relate to email, but the reality is they’re just as, if not more, important for direct mail. With direct mail, you only have one chance to make an impression so personalizing your mailer to the right segment is crucial. Today, we’re excited to announce a few new features to help you personalize every campaign.
Personalize with merge tags
Merge tags are here, and we have to admit, they’re pretty cool. Merge tags let you take the existing data you have for each recipient and then use it to personalize their mailer. So let’s say you want to address someone by their first name. Easy! Simply use {{firstname}} where you want their first name inserted. Merge tags follow the format {{mergefield}} where mergefield is the attribute you want to use. We now offer a whole bunch of them and will continue to expand the list over time. Some of the ones you can use right now include first name, last name, city, and sender name. To learn more and see the full list, check out our help center article.
Code a template with HTML
The good news is that’s not the only exciting thing we’re launching with this release. When you design your mailers, you now have the choice of either uploading a premade design using our template, or coding one directly using our new HTML editor. We’ve figured out how to make coding a direct mail template in a way that’s even easier than coding an email template. You can even do a hybrid where you upload a mailer design, and then use HTML to include merge tags on top of it. This is perfect for unique promo codes per recipient. On the design page, you’ll now see a new button that says HTML editor. Clicking that will take you to the HTML editor where you can start coding away. You’ll be able to switch between the editor and a live preview by simply flipping the toggle on the right side.
To get started, read our new guide on How to design HTML postcard templates.
Both of these items open the door for unique things that just weren’t possible with direct mail until today. We’ll be writing up plenty of content about it in the near future. Until then, give it a shot on your next campaign and feel free to reach out if you have any questions or feedback.
P.S. – We love feedback!
