Like me, you probably receive many personalized email marketing messages addressed to you by name. Messages like, "Caroline, Discounts on Spring Flights." While there are good reasons why businesses personalize email marketing campaigns, there are hazards too.

This article looks at the pros and cons of personalized email marketing, to help you decide if personalization will help or hinder the success of your own email marketing campaigns.

As with all marketing options, this should ultimately depend on whether or not personalized email marketing is right for your particular customers and your particular campaigns.

Higher response rates

Personalized emails receive higher "open" and "click-through" rates. That is, people are not only more likely to open the email, they are also more likely to clink links in the message.

For instance, MailerMailer's latest statistics (based on 200 million permission-based messages) show that personalized emails (subject line and message) received 47% higher open rates and 90% higher click through rates than emails that were not personalized at all.

Personalized email gets noticed

Getting noticed in the inbox is important, but it's not necessary to stand out like a sore thumb. Anything that achieves this is likely to get your email deleted as spam. Personalization is a safe, subtle and effective way to draw attention to your email.

Personalization indicates permission to send

Personalization is a simple way to indicate that your email is sent with permission - that it is not spam. Recipients may not remember giving this permission - joining your list - but the presence of their name in the email suggests that at some time they did.

Personalized emails are valued

People don't sign up for any old information by email. They request information that they expect to find of value and interest. So, when it is clear - because it is personalized - that an email is sent with permission and by request, the natural assumption is that it contains information of value and interest. In this way, personalized emails are not only less likely to be deleted, but more likely to be read.

Personalized emails help build relationships

Marketing aims to build relationships that lead to sales, today or at some time in the future. Personalized emails make a more personal connection by addressing customers one-to-one, as individuals rather than anonymous prospects.

Not everyone likes the personal touch

Not everyone likes the "best pals" approach from strangers. Names are very personal, known only by people that have some kind of relationship with us. Personalization backfires when marketers don't respect this and overstep the mark with overly-familiar emails. To avoid this, experienced email marketers limit personalization to just a few points in the email.

Personalized email is not always appropriate

Personalization can add a light, friendly and casual air to emails, but it's not always appropriate. For instance, consumers of highly-personal products and services may value anonymity and find Subject lines like, "Suzie, Clear Acne Forever," or, "Bob, No More Hemorrhoids" altogether too personal.

So, think carefully about the distance, or level of intimacy that your customers are comfortable with before opting for personalized email.

Bloopers abound

Personalizing email campaigns can be a tricky business. Get it wrong and you can end up with some real bloopers. Get it right, and you can also end up with bloopers. Email lists are not neat and tidy collections of first and last names. They are a hodgepodge of real names, nicknames, usernames, misspelled names and blanks.

It may flag your email as junk

Most people use a variety of names online, including bogus names designed to help them flag unwanted mail in their inbox. This is because it's often necessary to join an email list to get access to information - to the rest of an interesting article, to certain website pages, and so on.

As a result, legitimate emails lists have their fair share of bogus names. When you personalize your email campaign - including these names in the Subject line - you run the risk that your email will be flagged as junk, and deleted.

Personalized email is not guaranteed to succeed

As you can see, personalization may enhance the success of your email campaigns, or do more harm than good. Either way, it is not a magic wand. The success of an email campaigns depends on a variety of factors, such as targeting and relevance, without which a campaign is doomed to failure, personalized email or not.

Copyright 2007 Caroline Mackenzie