I Take That Personally

I just received the email below from Square and it dawned on me why a personal greeting in an email is so important.

I thought this email was spam.

The email opens with Hello. They know my name. I’m a customer. Why didn’t they add my name after Hello?

If someone or a company doesn’t know who I am, I immediately associate the email with spam or a phishing email. This is why when Amazon and PayPal send you email, they explicitly make sure your name is included in the email greeting so you know the email is from a reputable source.

If you’re sending out emails to your customer base, let them know you know who they are. Make it personal. I can almost guarantee an increase in open rate.