A newsletter from a Kittitian or Nevisian business may go to a honeymoon couple in Chicago, a regular customer in Sandy Point, a Citizenship by Investment applicant in Dubai and a veterinary student in Basseterre. Sending all of them the same email wastes the opportunity. Personalisation lets one campaign speak to each of them in the right way.
What you can personalise
With Mailpro’s custom contact fields, you can store and insert almost any detail you hold about a subscriber. Useful fields for a business in the Federation include:
- First name, for the greeting and the subject line.
- Island, so Nevis guests read about Nevis and St Kitts guests about St Kitts.
- Last visit or booking month, to say we last saw you in March or to time a return offer.
- Country of residence, for send times and for choosing EC$ or US$ in prices.
- Preferred language, if you serve Spanish-, French- or German-speaking guests.
- Interests, such as diving, hiking Mount Liamuiga, golf or festivals.
From personal fields to segments
Fields become more powerful when you group readers by them. Segmentation lets you send, for example, a Sugar Mas invitation only to local subscribers and a winter-sun package only to overseas past guests, from the same campaign.
A worked example
Imagine a small hotel on Frigate Bay preparing its September newsletter. The main story is the same for everyone: rooms for the December to April season are open for booking. But the details change by reader:
- A past guest in Toronto sees Welcome back, Sarah, a reminder that she stayed in February, prices in US$ and a send time of 10 a.m. Eastern.
- A local subscriber on St Kitts sees an Independence Day brunch invitation for 19 September, prices in EC$ and no travel content at all.
- A guest who told you they love diving sees a photo of the reef instead of the pool.
One campaign, three experiences, and each reader gets something that feels written for them.
Personalisation that feels helpful, not creepy
Use details that people gave you and would expect you to remember: their name, their stay, their stated interests. Avoid referring to anything they did not knowingly share. This is also good practice under the Federation’s Data Protection Act, 2018, which asks businesses to tell people why data is collected and not to use it for unrelated purposes.
Test and measure
Try a personalised subject line against a generic one on a small part of your list, then send the winner to the rest. Mailpro’s campaign statistics show the difference in opens and clicks. For subject-line ideas, see the ideal email subject, and use a clear call-to-action button in the body.
For the full process of building your issue, go to creating newsletters in St Kitts and Nevis.