The added value of personalising a message

Personalisation is more than inserting a first name into a subject line. Done well, it makes every email feel like it was written for the specific person receiving it, and that feeling translates directly into higher open rates, more clicks, and stronger long-term relationships with your audience.

Why personalisation works

Your contacts receive dozens of emails every day. Most are generic broadcasts. An email that mentions something specific about the reader, such as their name, location, purchase history, or expressed interests, stands out immediately. It signals that you have paid attention. That is rare and appreciated.

Research consistently shows that personalised emails generate higher open rates, higher click rates, and lower unsubscribe rates than non-personalised equivalents. The more relevant the personalisation, the stronger the effect.

Levels of personalisation

Basic: name and greeting

Using a contact's first name in the subject line or greeting is the simplest form of personalisation. It adds a human touch without requiring much data. The effect is modest but consistent, and it takes less than a minute to set up with the #firstname#  placeholder.

Intermediate: interest-based content

Using dynamic content to show different sections of an email to different interest groups has more impact. A contact who has shown interest in product category A sees different content from someone interested in category B, even though you send a single campaign. This requires slightly more setup, but improves relevance considerably.

Advanced: behaviour-based personalisation

Triggering specific emails based on what contacts have done, such as the products they viewed, the links they clicked, or the events they attended, is the most effective form of personalisation. This requires clean data, well-configured link tracking, and automation workflows, but the results in engagement and conversion are significant.

Getting started

You do not need to implement all three levels at once. Start with what your data allows:

• If you have first names: personalise greetings and subject lines with #firstname#  .
• If you have interests: use dynamic content to show relevant sections to each group.
• If you have set up link tracking: use click data to segment and target your next campaign more precisely.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Personalising the subject line but delivering generic content inside. The subject line creates an expectation. If the email content does not match the personalisation, contacts feel misled and trust drops.
• Failing to test the fallback for empty fields. A subject line that reads "Hello , here is your update" looks broken. Always test with a contact profile that has incomplete data.
• Regarding name personalisation as sufficient on its own. First-name personalisation is a starting point. The highest returns come from interest-based and behaviour-based personalisation.
• Setting up personalisation before the data is clean enough to support it. Personalisation on poor data creates poor experiences. Check your data quality before scaling up.

Next steps

• Add the #firstname#   placeholder to your next subject line and preview with both a complete and an empty test profile.
• Set up interest-based dynamic content for your next campaign, see "Dynamic content in the Email Builder" for instructions.
• Enable link tracking and assign interests to your most important links, see "Link tracking" for setup guidelines.