Personalized Email Mentions Customer's Divorce

Rolling out a new personalization engine across its 40,000-name list, a Washington winery sent an email Monday that addressed a Spokane customer by her first name and referenced her divorce, sources confirmed.

The subject line read: “Kathleen, a lot has changed this year.” The body recommended a rosé described as a fresh start.

The customer had been sorted into a segment labeled RECENTLY SINGLE — ELEVATED LTV, built from a change in shipping address and a drop from two bottles to one.

“The entire point of personalization is that it’s personal. If it makes you a little uncomfortable, that generally means it’s working,” said marketing manager Devin Ostroff, adding that the segment had a 71 percent open rate and the strongest conversion of any campaign the winery has run. “We’re not reading anyone’s mail. We’re reading behavior. Kathleen changed her shipping address in March, she went from two bottles to one, and she stopped opening the Father’s Day sends. That’s not private information. That’s just paying attention.”

At press time, the winery was building a segment for members whose orders had stopped entirely, labeled DECEASED OR RELOCATED.