Getting the salutation right in personalized emails or marketing content can dramatically boost campaign performance and strengthen your brand’s reputation. However, crafting the perfect greeting becomes challenging when targeting an international, culturally diverse audience.
Mailchimp ranks proper salutations as the #2 priority in their Top 10 Email Etiquette list — and it’s easy to see why. A well-crafted salutation can make or break a campaign’s effectiveness, especially when dealing with diverse audiences. For more insights, check out Mailchimp’s full list of email etiquette tips to ensure your emails stand out for the right reasons
One key challenge is the vocative case—a grammatical case used in salutations that originated in Greek and Latin. Still in use today in many countries, it dictates how first and last names are addressed, particularly in personalized greetings. This case, essential to over 110 million people worldwide, varies significantly across cultures, adding complexity to creating globally effective email salutations.
| Language | Country/Region | Estimated First-Language Speakers | Usage of Vocative Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polish | Poland | ~38 million | Common in direct address |
| Ukrainian | Ukraine | ~32 million | Common in direct address |
| Greek | Greece, Cyprus | ~13 million | Common in direct address |
| Czech | Czech Republic | ~10 million | Common in direct address |
| Serbian | Serbia | ~7 million | Common in direct address |
| Slovak | Slovakia | ~5 million | Rarely used (nominative used instead) |
| Croatian | Croatia | ~4 million | Common in direct address |
| Lithuanian | Lithuania | ~3 million | Common in direct address |
| Latvian | Latvia | ~1.5 million | Common in direct address |
Beyond these specific countries, the vocative case has roots in Latin, which has heavily influenced many modern European languages. While it may no longer be prevalent in all major languages, traces of it still appear in regional dialects and smaller languages, further complicating global salutation strategies for marketers.
From simple Mr./Ms. titles in the English language, we have to think of localized titles (ie.e Herr/ Frau in German) and rapidly evolving grammar and rules around inclusive titles.
Some cultures are quite formal in requiring correct usage of academic titles. The most obsessed countries with academic titles seem to be Germany, Austria, Czechia, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, and the Middle East (audience of 300 million+ people without the Middle East).
The complication is that some of them are before and some after the name. A made-up example can look like this:
"The Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Ing. Mag. Phil. John Smith, Dr. techn., M.Sc., Ph.D., MBA"
Generally, when academic titles are present, they take precedence over Mr./Ms. titles.
After analyzing hundreds of HubSpot accounts, it’s clear that the use of the “Salutation” property varies widely, and there isn’t a standardized approach for utilizing this field effectively. Here are the common methods observed:
No Salutation: In personalization, this approach simply uses “Dear [first name],” applying the same generic salutation to all recipients.
Title Only: Personalization involves “[salutation] [first name],” such as “Dear Mr. John.” In this method, each recipient is assigned a unique title.
Full Salutation: This option uses the complete salutation, such as “Dear Prof. Theodor,” where personalization involves “[salutation].” This allows for precise and accurate salutations for each individual recipient, offering maximum control.
The Full Salutation solution seems to be the most reliable and precise way how to handle HubSpot Salutations.
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