Personalizing Emails Based on Location & Language: An Expert Guide

Where you live is who you are. That’s an anthropological fact.  

The language you speak, the people you meet, and the things you celebrate – all these make up so much of your psyche, your behavior, and your values. 

While most people don’t realize this, you, as a marketer, are privileged to be aware of it and to use it to benefit your audience. 

But how? There’s no doubt you’re leveraging customer data to send people what they want. You’re monitoring their behavior, how they engage with your emails, how much time they spend on them, and everything in between. Yet, it only makes so much of a positive difference to your bottom line. 

Maybe it’s time to marry your privilege as a marketer to intent. 

Maybe you need to identify with the cultural idiosyncrasies of your audience. Make your brand truly a part of their lives, not the other way around. 

Sounds hard, but you’re in good hands. We excel in hyper-personalized email marketing, and we know what it takes to evangelize people.

In this post, we’ll talk about location-based targeting, share tips and best practices, recommend helpful tools, and catch some great examples. 

So, let’s kick things off in the following order:
 

• Benefits of geo-based email personalization
  
• How to perform geo-based email personalization?
  
• Geo-based email personalization best practices
  
• List of ESPs with localization features
  
• Challenges in personalizing email content
  
• Recommended online tools for personalization
  
• 5 Email examples of geo-based targeting 

Benefits of geo-based email personalization

The benefits of geo-based email personalization include the following:

• Increased Relevance: Sending region-specific offers, event invites, or products that align with local seasons or holidays makes your email stand out. For example, promoting winter clothing in Canada and beachwear in Australia during the same month shows an understanding of your audience’s local needs.
  
• Higher Engagement Rates: When people receive emails in their native language or featuring culturally relevant content, they are more likely to engage. This builds trust and rapport with your audience, leading to higher open and click-through rates.
  
• Localized Promotions: Geographic targeting allows you to push promotions that work for a specific region. A flash sale during a local holiday, or a shipping discount exclusive to a particular country, makes your offer that much more compelling.
  
• Improved Deliverability: Sending emails that align with the recipient’s time zone increases the likelihood of your email being opened. By scheduling emails at times when recipients are most active online, your emails have a better chance of avoiding the spam folder.

How to perform geo-based email personalization?

Here are a few tips to get started on the right track: 

• Segment Your Audience: Use your email marketing platform’s segmentation tools to create lists based on location or language. Services like Klaviyo or Mailchimp allow you to filter your audience using geographic data like country, city, or even specific zip codes.
  
• Use Dynamic Content: Dynamic content blocks allow you to tailor parts of your email to specific segments without creating multiple versions of the same email. For example, show a different product selection or language based on the recipient’s location.
  
• Language Localization: If your email list spans different countries, consider using localized language versions. Tools like Mandrill and Braze support multi-language emails, which can help you better connect with your audience. If translation resources are limited, focus on key markets where language personalization will have the biggest impact.
  
• Leverage Geolocation Data: Many email service providers (ESPs) allow you to gather geolocation data based on IP addresses. You can use this information to create region-specific offers, such as highlighting the closest store location or promoting an event in a recipient’s city.
  
• Incorporate Local Culture and Trends: Research cultural trends and local holidays when designing your emails. Consider including region-specific greetings, local references, or even customer testimonials from that area. This creates a stronger sense of familiarity and relevance.

Geo-based email personalization best practices

Combine the tips we shared with the following best practices: 

• Data Accuracy: Ensure the accuracy of your customer data. Regularly update and clean your email lists to reflect the correct location and language preferences of your subscribers.
  
• Test and Optimize: Use A/B testing to see what type of personalized content resonates best with your audience. Whether it’s a time-sensitive offer, language variation, or cultural reference, measure the impact of each strategy to continuously optimize.
  
• Maintain a Consistent Brand Voice: While it’s important to tailor content for location and language, ensure your brand’s overall messaging and voice remain consistent. Localization shouldn’t compromise your brand identity.
  
• Compliance with Local Laws: Be aware of data protection regulations such as GDPR or CCPA that may apply when collecting location data. Always obtain consent and ensure your practices are compliant with local laws to avoid legal issues.

List of ESPs with localization features

Here are five email service providers (ESPs) you can use for localized email marketing.

1. Klaviyo 

Image source: Klaviyo 

Klaviyo is known for its advanced segmentation capabilities, making it ideal for personalizing content based on geographic location and language.

• Geographic Personalization: Klaviyo allows you to segment your audience by geographic location using the customer’s shipping address, billing address, or IP-based location data. This can be used to tailor product recommendations, shipping offers, or event invitations based on the recipient’s location.
  
• Language Personalization: Klaviyo supports dynamic content blocks and custom properties, which can be used to show different content based on a subscriber’s language preferences. For example, by storing a customer’s preferred language in their profile, you can send them email content in their native language without needing multiple email versions.
  
• Time Zone Optimization: Klaviyo also allows you to send emails based on the recipient’s time zone, ensuring emails land at the most effective times.
  

2. Mailchimp 

Image source: Mailchimp

Mailchimp offers robust personalization features and is often a go-to ESP for businesses of all sizes.

• Geographic Personalization: Mailchimp enables you to segment your list based on geographic data, including country, city, or even zip code, using the customer’s IP address or address data. By leveraging these segments, you can create location-specific offers or regional product recommendations.

• Language Personalization: Mailchimp offers an audience tag feature, which allows you to tag subscribers based on their language preferences. Dynamic content blocks can also insert the appropriate language for each recipient within the same email.

• Geolocation Targeting: Mailchimp’s built-in geolocation tool provides insights into where your audience is located, allowing for improved location-based personalization.

3. Braze

Image source: Braze

Braze excels in real-time data processing and personalized messaging, making it perfect for location and language personalization.

• Geographic Personalization: Braze supports hyper-local targeting by collecting location data from user interactions, including app usage or website visits. You can create segments based on this data to send geographically tailored emails.
  
• Language Personalization: Braze has robust support for multi-language campaigns. You can set up campaigns that automatically adjust the content based on the recipient’s language preferences. Using APIs, Braze can pull in real-time language preferences and location data to personalize each email.
  
• Dynamic Content and Personalization: With Braze’s Liquid Templating, you can add dynamic content that changes based on location, language, or other real-time factors.
  

4. ActiveCampaign 

Image source: ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign focuses heavily on automation and personalization, making it ideal for location- and language-based campaigns.

• Geographic Personalization: You can segment contacts based on their location using data collected from IP addresses or manually entered address fields. This enables localized email campaigns, such as region-specific promotions or localized service offerings.
  
• Language Personalization: ActiveCampaign’s advanced conditional content feature lets you show different content blocks based on the recipient’s language. You can store language preferences in custom fields and use them to deliver personalized emails.
  
• Automated Workflows: With ActiveCampaign’s automation builder, you can create personalized workflows based on a contact’s location or language. This ensures that subscribers receive emails tailored to their local culture and language.

5. HubSpot

 

Image source: HubSpot

HubSpot combines CRM functionality with email marketing, offering excellent tools for personalization based on location and language.

• Geographic Personalization: HubSpot’s segmentation tool allows you to create lists based on geographic data such as country, state, or city. Using this data, you can send highly localized content, such as region-specific offers or events.
  
• Language Personalization: HubSpot enables you to create multi-language versions of your emails and select the appropriate version for each contact based on their language preference. This can be done manually, or you can store a contact’s preferred language as a custom field.
  
• Smart Content: HubSpot’s “Smart Content” feature allows you to dynamically display different email content based on a recipient’s location or language, ensuring that the most relevant version is shown.

Challenges in personalizing email content

1. Data accuracy & availability 

Personalizing emails requires accurate data on the subscriber’s location and language preferences. Many businesses lack precise or up-to-date data, leading to ineffective segmentation.

Solution: Implement data collection best practices, such as using location-based IP tracking, asking users for their location or language preferences during sign-up, or encouraging users to update their preferences periodically.

2. Managing multilingual versions 

For companies operating in multiple countries, managing different language versions of the same email can be complex and time-consuming.

Solution: Use email service providers (ESPs) that offer dynamic content blocks, allowing you to create one email with personalized content based on the recipient’s language. Automate language selection using segmentation and customer data. Tools like Klaviyo, Braze, and ActiveCampaign allow you to send emails in the recipient’s preferred language using custom fields.

3. Segmenting & targeting the right groups

Creating highly segmented lists based on location and language can become overwhelming, especially with large or global audiences. 

Solution: Use automation and dynamic content tools to create fewer email versions while still personalizing elements based on segments (location, language, etc.). Regularly clean and update your email list to ensure accuracy, and segment your audience into key groups; don’t micromanage small sub-segments.

4. Complying with data protection laws

Collecting and using location and language data for personalization must comply with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Failure to do so could result in fines and legal consequences.

Solution: Ensure that your data collection practices are transparent and compliant with local laws. Always obtain explicit consent for collecting personal data like location or language preferences. Get an in-depth guide on country-specific laws.

Recommended tools for personalization

Although we’re sharing translation tools, remember that localization and translation are not the same thing. Email localization is dynamic cross-cultural marketing of which language translation is just one part. Here’s how the journalist Natash Zack puts it, “To achieve that [email localization], you need to consider things like cultural references, traditions, audience preferences, design, and visuals.” 

With that distinction in mind, let’s explore these tools. 

1. DeepL Translate 

Image source: DeepL

Type: AI-Powered Translation Tool

Features:

• Supports 31 languages.
  
• Known for producing more natural-sounding translations.
  
• Paid version offers API access and integration with various platforms (useful for automating email translations).
  
• Allows you to translate entire documents, including formatting.

Limitations: Fewer languages than Google Translate, and the free version has a character limit.

2. Phrase (formerly Memsource)

Image source: Phrase

Type: Translation Management System (TMS)

Features:

• Supports integration with email platforms and content management systems.
  
• Allows collaboration between translation teams and agencies.
  
• Offers AI-powered suggestions, as well as a memory feature to save translated phrases for future use.
  
• Can manage multilingual email campaigns at scale.
  

Limitations: It’s more suited for businesses handling larger volumes of content and may not be cost-effective for small-scale needs.

3. Smartling 

Image source: Smartling

Type: Cloud-Based Translation Platform

Features:

• Offers machine translation with the option for human proofreading.
  
• Supports over 150 languages.
  
• Allows you to automate translations across websites, emails, and mobile apps.
  
• Integrates with ESPs like Mailchimp and marketing automation tools, which is useful for scaling email localization.

Limitations: More complex setup, primarily suited for larger organizations with regular translation needs.

4. Crowdin

Image source: Crowdin

Type: Translation and Localization Management Platform

Features:

• Supports both automated and human translations.
  
• Allows team collaboration and crowdsourcing of translations.
  
• Integrates with marketing tools like Mailchimp and other platforms for seamless email localization.
  
• Translation memory ensures consistency across emails.
  

Limitations: Requires a bit of a learning curve and is more suitable for larger teams or projects.

Email examples of geo-based targeting

1. Targeting by language

Let’s start with the most obvious personalization tag: language. Per a survey of over 8,000 consumers in 29 countries, 70% said they would prefer buying products with information in their native tongue. 

Consider this example of language-based email personalization.

Image source: Milled

The emails are from Burberry. The first one is targeted at customers in the United States, while the second is for the brand’s French audience. 

2. Targeting by weather

Weather conditions vary greatly depending on where people live, making it an ideal factor for personalizing your email campaigns. By identifying the recipient’s location, you can segment your audience based on their region and customize your content to reflect the local weather. This approach allows you to deliver highly relevant messaging tailored to their current climate conditions. For example, check out this email. 

In this email from the clothing brand Uniqlo, they’ve added a personal touch by incorporating the recipient’s actual 7-day weather forecast. This extra layer of customization makes the email feel directly relevant to the customer. The content aligns perfectly, showcasing transitional outfits suited for St. Paul, Minn., as winter draws to a close. This creates the perfect context for promoting their techwear, designed to make these weather conditions more manageable.

3. Targeting by nearest store 

Another way brands can elevate personalization when they know a recipient’s location is by providing details about the nearest store. This information is easy to pull from your data and adds a thoughtful, personal touch, showing that you’re attentive to the individual receiving the email. Check out this email, for instance. 

Party City executed this effectively in a recent email, showcasing not just the store’s street address but also offering key details about that specific location. They included the store’s opening hours, full address, phone number, and services like curbside pickup and balloon delivery. This not only adds a personal touch but also saves the recipient time by providing all the relevant information upfront.

Targeting by holidays

In enterprise email marketing, it’s crucial to recognize that holidays differ significantly across the globe, and this should be considered during special times of the year. While you may not always know which holidays your customers observe, their location can often provide helpful insights. Here’s an example. 

Google, as a global brand, sends email campaigns to billions of people worldwide, but by using location-based segmentation, they were able to target this email specifically to U.S. residents. The email highlights how Google Assistant can assist with Fourth of July planning, making it a great example of how smart location-based segmentation can deliver more relevant and timely content.

Targeting by destination 

If you’re recommending travel destinations, staying relevant to all your email recipients requires acknowledging that travel preferences and currencies vary across different regions. The more you can personalize these emails, the more effective they’ll be, and location often serves as a strong foundation for customization. For instance, take a cue from Emirates’s personalized email.  

These emails from Emirates feature the same image but offer different destination recommendations tailored to recipients in various regions. 

For instance, a customer in Europe is suggested flights to Vietnam and New Zealand, while a recipient in Switzerland is shown options like Thailand, Vietnam, and the Maldives. The currency is also customized to each recipient’s location. 
This demonstrates how the same email can feel entirely unique with location-based personalization and a touch of preference data.

Get local, get real!

Personalizing email content based on geographic location or language offers a tremendous opportunity to connect with your audience on a deeper level. By leveraging geographic data and cultural nuances, your email marketing agency can deliver more relevant content that resonates with different customer segments, leading to higher engagement and better conversion rates for brands.

Speaking of, read our post on hyper-personalization in email marketing, as covered by our experts.