Email marketing isn’t new, groundbreaking territory. And personalizing an email marketing campaign is even less of a breakthrough. But you would be surprised at how many businesses don’t take advantage of this very common and easy-to-use marketing tactic.

Fortunately, it’s not very difficult to start implementing a more personalized approach to email marketing. All you need is a little planning and you’ll be on your way to increased response rates.

1. Discover: Learn a little bit about your people

Start with your email list. Are you asking for your customers names? If so, great. If not, think how you can start. You should at least try to capture first names in your list.

*Remember, people are more likely to sign up for your email if you ask for less info. So the key is to balance what you want with what you need. Asking for a first name and email address is the safe zone of list growing.

2. Implement: Create a more personal email experience

Now when you send an email to a customer you can call them by their first name—personalizing the message and increasing the chances that they’ll click through or purchase your products / services. And it gives you the bare minimum of what you need to personalize an email:

Hey, Sam, take advantage of this week’s special offer.

3. Expand: Gradually rev up your email personalization

Addressing customers by name is the most basic level of personalization. Depending on your relationship with the customers, and the level of database information that you have on them, you can build even more personalization into your email campaigns through list segmentation.

Think about using previous buying patterns to ignite a related purchase. Or try sending an automated email to those customers who have abandoned their online orders.