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Using Personalization in Your Messages
Personalizing
your messages in Email Automator is simple. You can use whatever
customization fields you want, as long as they also appear in your
mailing list, which should be a CSV (comma delimited) file. Since
having your list formatted properly is the most important part of
sending a personalized email, let me show you how that works. Your
list should look like this: EMAIL,FIELD1,FIELD2
you@you.com,something,somethingelse
me@me.com,something,anotherthing EMAIL
is the only required field. All the other fields you can name
whatever you want to. The first row of your file contains the
field names. That's why it looks different from your other rows.
If you wanted to mail
to a list of people and you had their first and last names, for
instance, your mailing list file could look like this.
EMAIL,FIRSTNAME,LASTNAME
support@emailautomator.com,Bram,Smith
john@yahoo.com,John,Doe
jane@yahoo.com,Jane,Doe
You can use as many
custom fields as you like. I could add phone number to this list
by adding an extra field called PHONE.
EMAIL,FIRSTNAME,LASTNAME,PHONE
support@emailautomator.com,Bram,Smith,979-739-7509
john@yahoo.com,John,Doe,111-111-1111
jane@yahoo.com,Jane,Doe,222-222-2222
To easily create a
mailing list that will work properly for personalization, use a
spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. Just put your custom
fields in the first row, one per column. Then enter all the other
information for your list in the appropriate column in the
remaining rows.
When you are done,
choose "Save As", and choose CSV as the file type. Excel
will automatically save the list and put a comma between each
column so you get a list that looks like what I have above.
Most email lead
providers will distribute your leads in CSV format anyway, so
those lists are generally ready to use in Email Automator. If
anything, you might have to open the list you get from lead
providers in Excel and enter the field names in the first row.
ACTUALLY
PERSONALIZING THE EMAIL YOU SEND
When typing the
message you are sending, you can use personalization in both the
subject line of the email and in the body. It is recommended to
put the person's name you are sending to in the subject line when
possible.
For instance, if I
was using the list above, I could use the following subject line:
Hi $(FIRSTNAME),
please open this email immediately!
Notice that I
enclosed the field name in parentheses and put a $ in front of it.
You MUST do that. After you've done it a couple times it will be
easy to remember.
So in the body of my
message, I might say this:
Hi $(FIRSTNAME),
How are you doing
today? I just wanted to verify that your last name is $(LASTNAME)
and that your phone number is still $(PHONE).
Thank you!
If I was sending this
message to the list above, here's what Jane Doe would see when she
received the email:
Hi Jane,
How are you doing
today? I just wanted to verify that your last name is Doe and that
your phone number is still 222-222-2222.
Thank you!
It's that simple...
There's nothing more to personalizing your messages.
The key is having the
list formatted properly and using the exact same field names in
your message as you have in your list, but enclosed in parentheses
and with a $ in front. Example: $(FIELDNAME)
You can use
personalization in HTML messages the same way as in text messages
- like I've shown you above.
I recommend
creating a short test list to use for testing your personalization
every time you send a mailing that uses personalization. Just
create a list that has EMAIL, FIRSTNAME, and LASTNAME as the
fields and use a couple of your own email addresses in it. Save it
as testlist.csv
Then send to that
test list to make sure your message comes out right before you
send it to your actual mailing list.
If your questions
about this function have not been answered after reviewing this help
page and you are a user or our ad-free version of Email Automator,
then you can watch the
video that shows how to do this task.
If you are not a
user of the ad-free version, click
here to upgrade for only $34.95 (one time). Our ad-free
version does not put the Email Automator signature file link in
your outgoing messages.
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