tedster - 11:41 am on Jul 4, 2002 (gmt 0)

I'd like to take a closer look at the idea of personalizing mass emails: using the person's name in the subject, the greeting, and/or the body copy.

The direct mail industry has seen great success with personalizing their pieces - so much so that DM mail shops have expensive laser divisions that add all kinds of personalized touches from a database after the basic print run is finished. Many people assume that this success in snail mail will automatically transfer to email marketing. But there are many reason that this may not be so...as well as the possibility that it may.

First, this is a technique and NOT really a relationship. It's an electronic database trick and almost everyone knows that.

In fact, using a personal name in the subject line may be a flashing beacon that says "WARNING - MARKETING MESSAGE INSIDE!" Why is that? Look at your inbox. If it looks like mine, your real friends do not use your name in the subject line - almost never.

Similarly, it's just a bit more common, but still very rare, for someone to write sentences such as "You know, Ted, that we..." They talk like this, yes, but they don't write this way. So turning out copy that inserts a name somewhere has an oddly "off" feeling associated with it.

Finally, there's the greeting - a place where a friend or relation often will use your name. That is, they will use YOUR name, the one you are actually called by. A database trick needs a source for the name. If you use the data from credit card bill-to information, you run the risk of using a formal or legal name that no true relation would ever call that person. In my own case, I have always been called Ted -- that began even before my parents chose my legal name, Warren Theodore, to honor my Uncle Warren. So when I get an email that opens "Dear Warren" the experience I have is "Oh, here's someone who's after my wallet." There are many other people whose situation is parallel to mine.

Likewise, you can simply ask someone what their name is, through form input boxes. And then you risk using accidental typos, or even run-on versions of first and middle name where there was no space (I get lots of mail that begins "Dear Warrent," - which has an even worse effect for me than "Dear Warren" would.

Finally, there are technical issues in how to construct and send mass emails. For instance, I get emails that still have a variable in the position where my name is supposed to be.

None of this necessarily means that personalized emails won't get higher response rates in any particular application - they certainly might. If anyone intends to wade into these waters, I suggest they do split run testing and measure which approach is more effective for them.

Given the extra effort involved in every personalized emailing (and it doesn't get that much easier even with lots of practice), I suggest testing these waters rather thoroughly before committing to one method exclusively. A lot of the industry "information" that recommends personalization so very strongly actually originates with a company who sells personalization software!