One of the quickest, easiest and most impactful elements you can implement in your email is a Data Canvas personalised image Element. This is a personalised image which displays information personal to the recipient, pulled from your CRM and overlaid on the image you’ve created in our UI. Data Canvas provides much greater design capabilities than can be achieved with live text; you can use custom fonts, spacing, positioning, skews and curves are all achievable. You can also add animation into the personalised image to really make it standout!
To get started, all you need is a design or background image to start your canvas off and the merge code for the data field you want to pull the data from. Login and click on the ‘Data Canvas’ tile and follow the steps to design your element in our UI, add the merge code (or it will be pre-populated if you’ve added it during set up) and then copy and paste the element code into your email. The result? A beautifully personalised email experience for every recipient.
Here’s some ideas that you can steal to add some quick and easy wow-factor to your campaigns!
A personal welcome
Let’s start at the first touchpoint. You’ve got a new subscriber or customer, they’ve given you their name during the initial interaction (sign up or transaction) so use it to create a meaningful experience from day one. Include the recipient’s first name over an image that represents your brand and wish them a warm welcome. This can help to create an instant connection and create a strong foundation to build a loyal customer.
Post-transaction
On a similar note, you could use the recipient’s name to thank them post-transaction. A name over a receipt-type creative is a real nice touch.
Name over a product
One of my favourite use cases for Data Canvas is name personalised imagery. Integrate the recipient’s name into something meaningful – like a football jersey, a plane ticket, or a credit card. This type of personalisation stands out and really captures attention – people love to see their name on stuff.
Personalise Calls to Action
A lesser used strategy, but a very powerful one, is to personalise important calls to action in your email. If there’s one particularly important CTA, consider including the recipient’s name on the button. Instead of saying ‘Sign up now’ think how much more powerful it is to say ‘Jordan Sign Up Now’ – a clear, personalised instruction.
Birthday and Anniversary
These campaigns are perfect opportunities to include Data Canvas personalisation. Birthday cakes with names on and personalised cards are a couple of ideas. For an anniversary themed email, you may wish to include additional data points like the number of years the person has been a subscriber – think how powerful it is to say ‘Jordan it’s been 6 years since you joined us, thank you!’.
Loyalty Programs
Any CRM data you have can be used to personalise a Data Canvas image. Loyalty points and card/bank balances are popular use cases, and are often paired with progress bars and additional functionality to create clear visual representation of loyalty tiers or spend. (Keep your eyes peeled for Progress Bars – they’ll be launching soon!).
Event, location & other data points
You can use other data points to personalise too. If you know you recipient has a trip booked to a specific location, show the location name in the image. Or if they drive a specific car, show the make and model and the registration number.
An epic end of year story
A hugely popular and powerful way to use personalised Data Canvas images is to create an end of year roundup or ‘story’ type email. Use all the data you have about a customer and turn it into a totally personal image that looks stunning. For example, if you’re a retailer, you could do something like this:
How it works
Jordan, it’s been 4 years since you signed up.
You’ve shopped 11 times.
We know you love dresses.
You’ve purchased 23 items and returned 7.
You have 337 loyalty points.
To say thanks, we want to give you 20% off.
Here’s your unique code.
What integration is required?
None! Creating Data Canvas images is delightfully simple. There’s no integration required, you only need to know the merge code for your ESP.
Login and click on Data Canvas, configure your canvas, upload your background image, design as required and complete the remaining steps to generate your element. Copy and paste it into your HTML. The element will include your ESP’s merge code. The rest as they say is magic. Or just technology. You can decide which.
If you need more convincing…
Not only do Data Canvas images look great, they’re very easy and quick to implement making them a go to element to add some standout content to your email.
They’re a useful tool to make your customers feel connected to your brand, they build loyalty and drive clicks and conversions. And, well, we all like to see our name in lights sometimes!
