Every day, you send and receive an average of 121 promotional emails. But can you remember one you’ve seen recently that stands out in your mind?

For today’s email marketers, that’s the challenge. Sure, breaking through inbox clutter to reach the right person at the right time is a big deal. But there’s no substitute for memorable email messages that move your audience to action.

To maximize the value your real-time personalized marketing efforts deliver, that means first-party data. And not just lots of it, either—your insights need to be used in a way that personalizes content at the moment of engagement to deliver the most relevant, interesting, and valuable interaction possible to every recipient.

After all, you spend a ton of time making sure your ESP’s customer data profiles are accurate. Why not use them to drive your customer experience forward and step up your email marketing game at the same time?

Results may vary, but here are four real-world examples prove the combined power of first-party data and real-time personalization make your messages stand out. So you can grow engagement and revenue with every send—no matter how much competition you face.

Know exactly how to say hi the second someone signs up

Users who have just offered up their email address are likely expecting a welcome email. So, why not take advantage of this opportunity by using the most up-to-date information possible in your brand interactions?

Real-Time personalization taps into your customer profiles to not only serve the freshest, most interesting messaging available at the moment of engagement—but dynamically updates, hides, and/or replaces content in case anything changes between the time you send your email and someone opens it.

The Washington Post created a personalized email onboarding experience for its paid subscribers that not only introduces them to the brand, but prioritizes the collection of specific first-party data points about their preferences and news interests through fun, interactive embedded polling features.

That way, The Washington Post can recommend highly targeted email newsletters and content to every follower and track trending topics in real-time—ensuring a connected, loyal audience of everyday newsletter readers that are much more likely to convert into paid subscribers down the road.

Make your customers convert with unforgettable email experiences

For many customers—especially those who are shopping primarily online as a result of the pandemic—the internet is awash with abandoned shopping carts. But just because a buyer lost interest doesn’t mean you should call it quits.

Abandoned carts, previously browsed items, or even items your subscribers have clicked in previous emails all provide future opportunities for email communication and potential conversion. Especially if you can bring first-party data insights like purchase history, brand preferences, and recently browsed categories into these messages to give shoppers timely, hard-to-ignore product recommendations and offers.

When online retailer JustFab adopted dynamic recommendations based on the abandoned cart and previously browsed item data stored in its ESP into its real-time email personalization elements, it achieved a 50% increase in email conversion rates. Not to mention a 46% decrease in customer churn on top of that.

Explore the potential for cross-promotion

The original Morning Brew email newsletter has long been the gold standard when it comes to email engagement rates. So when the brand wanted to promote its niche newsletters, such as Marketing Brew, Morning Brew maximized its two best assets: The newsletter subscribers already open and love every morning, and the first-party data they’ve already submitted to Morning Brew.

To promote Marketing Brew to its nearly two million subscribers at the time, Morning Brew included a personalized plug that sat in the newsletter’s top spot and dynamically changed based on each subscriber’s individual story preferences, newsletter subscriptions, and recent website browsing behaviors at the moment of engagement—making Marketing Brew’s launch impossible to ignore regardless of interest.

Add flexibility to your first-party data

All-too-often, brands spend too much time and energy focusing on personalization and what they know about buyers on their emails instead of what happens afterwards. Think about it: there’s nothing more disappointing than being served a ‘just for you’ promotion only to find a generic store page staring back at you through the screen after you’ve made the mistake of clicking.

Real-Time personalization is a commitment that goes beyond any single channel, meaning the data you collect across every interaction makes your next message even more engaging. Your content needs to be tailored to individual needs and preferences at every step, and by adding first-party customer data profiles directly into your ESP’s template and campaign builder experience you ensure that occurs. Otherwise, your followers won’t see the value of submitting their personal information or increasing their engagement level with the brand going forward.

That’s why Food Network uses past behavior and a wealth of info collected across digital channels to deliver trending recipes, articles, programming recommendations, and more directly to its subscribers’ inbox. Every email adds value to their audience interactions by using first-party data to deliver exceptional user experiences.