When asked how email was personalized, 76% of respondents said they use a first name in the message or subject line. Just over half recommend products based on audience segment, while one-quarter suggest products on an individual basis.
According to a May 2018 survey by Fresh Relevance and YouGov, 28% of US internet users would be more loyal to a brand if email messages were personalized. But they have high standards as to what counts as personalization. Fully 35% don't think marketers using their first names is important.
What do consumers want in an email? The Fresh Relevance/YouGov study found one-quarter like product recommendations based on past purchases or items viewed online, while 26% want marketers to recognize when they buy an item for someone else to prevent unrelated recommendations. Generally, 41% would consider not patronizing a retailer that routinely emailed irrelevant information.
Bazaarvoice found that attitudes around email marketing differed very little by type of retailer, according to a January 2018 survey. Roughly one-third of US digital shoppers across product categories said they would avoid shopping at retailers that recommended nonsensical items, which is in line with findings from Fresh Relevance/YouGov. For example, 32% might think twice if an apparel and accessories retailer recommended hats when they were interested in shoes. That percentage held true for auto parts retailers (32%) as well as health and beauty (31%), home improvement (31%) and sporting goods (30%) retailers.
The number of US digital shoppers who said it's somewhat or very important that retailers don't send too many emails was also consistent, ranging from a low of 88% for sporting goods and apparel and accessories to a high of 91% for auto parts.
Just 25% of digital shoppers in the Bazaarvoice survey said emails suggesting products based on past purchases are useful. This speaks to the difficulty in surfacing relevant recommendations. According to the Evergage/Researchscape study, only 12% of marketers said they were "very" or "extremely" satisfied with their level of personalization. And 77% said personalization should be a bigger priority within their company, up 5.5% from 2017.