Your audience is human with egos and needs, whether BtoC or BtoB. Shannon Aronson, Group Audience Development Director at Everything Channel, a division of United Business Media, talked about how to get personal to boost e-mail response at a seminar sponsored by the National Trade Circulation Foundation Inc. in New York City earlier this year. Her message:

1. The recipient has been singled out as someone very special in a select community.
2. The sender’s job is on the line if the recipient does not respond.

Other suggestions from audience development pros:

1. Change the message or price in an online order form and track the returns via the links from an e-mail blast. Cambey & West clients are using dynamic Web order pages to make special offers. The pages change on the fly based on the url extension. An e-mail blast or a personalized message on a magazine cover wrap can direct the reader to a custom page that might say “Because you were at the XYZ Conference, you are eligible for…”
2. Address the recipient by name – simple, yet effective.
3. Add a personal touch that takes away the mass produced image, such as a commemorative stamp, larger closed envelope or “personal” note in script. Direct marketers Tyson & Associates included these and other tips in their October podcast.