Email may not have a very sexy reputation, so maybe that’s why email marketing doesn’t get the credit that it deserves. The fact is that email is one of the most powerful tools in your company’s arsenal. The applications of email are endless: drive more sales, generate leads, educate potential customers, funnel people to your website for remarketing, build a social following, set up appointments and calls, etc.
Yet, as powerful as email marketing can be, many businesses are not doing it properly. In fact, most companies overlook the most important part of email marketing – the list itself!
The Untapped Power of Email Lists
Too often, companies jump straight into the content of their email marketing, without doing their homework: analyzing their lists. Email lists are the foundation of email marketing – the secret sauce that will determine the overall effectiveness of your email campaign.
In many cases sending a one-size-fits-all email to your entire list works just fine, for example, newsletter subscriptions. However, in the majority of instances, this shotgun approach does absolutely nothing to help your marketing efforts. By examining your lists, you can actually determine what your email messaging should be AND dramatically increase your campaign’s effectiveness. The key: list segmentation.
Email Segmentation and Why You Should Love It
The more information that you collect about your email list, the more you are able to target your content to relevant, engaging messaging. Determining exactly who is on your list, how they got there, and their level of engagement with your brand should shape the type of messaging you send. Once you have categorized your list by type, create email blasts that are focused on the specific areas that they have in common. See the info graphic on the next page for some specific examples of ways to segment your list and the types of messaging that works best for them.
Think about your own inbox – what emails are you most likely to open? Ones that are from personal friends or people you know. Or ones that are written directly to you and about something you are interested in. That is basically what email list segmentation can do for your business – turn your emails into personal, relevant and, ultimately, opened messages to your customers.
Click here to see the 7 steps of email segmentation!
The proof is in the data. Compared to non-segmented emails, emails that are sent to segmented lists experience:
• Lower unsubscribe rates
• Lower bounce rates from your website
• Higher open rates
• Higher click-thru-rates
• Best of all – Higher conversion rates
So now you know why you should be segmenting lists. Let’s look at some ways that you should be talking to each segment.
Types of Email Segmentation
• Education about your category, industry or product
• Establish mindshare and thought-leadership and set your company up as a resource for when they are ready to buy
• Create incentives to eliminate buying hesitations or kick-start the buying process
• Explain why you solve a need
2. Existing Customers
• Send important company updates and news
• Unveil loyalty or frequency programs
• UPSELL! Did they buy your main product? Now sell them the accessories
3. Lost Customers
• Remind them who you are and why they chose you in the first place
• Offer incentives for a repeat purchase or becoming a client again
• Referral bonuses
4. Types of Customers
• Consumer versus business and different benefits associated with each
• Demographics/Psychographics
• Job Title
Click here to continue reading the 7 steps of email segmentation …
5. Position in Sales Cycle
• Drip email marketing – automate your communication plan to strategically contact customers at set intervals
• Follow up with customers based on predetermined actions, improving your customer service and upselling opportunities
6. Geography
• Events or sales by region
• Promote specific storefronts or office location
• Target based on regionally important current events (weather, sporting events or teams, e.g.)
7. Behavior
• Target investment levels by focusing on customers that have made big purchases. These high-spend customers warrant different communications than smaller purchasers
• Examining the type of products purchased in the past can help you focus in on most likely future purchases
Click here to find out how an email marketing company can help your business …
An Email Marketing Company Can Help Make Sense of Your Lists
Properly analyzing your lists and capitalizing on the wealth of information at your fingertips can be a daunting task for even the most diligent marketer. In addition to focusing on your branding, sales strategy, growth opportunities and revenue streams, development and other essential business areas, now we are telling you to send more emails, to less people – creating more work for your limited staff. What should you do? Take advantage of email professionals.
Consult with experienced an email marketing company and allow them to optimize your entire email marketing campaign by properly utilizing list segmentation. You’ll see better results, faster. An email marketing agency will not only be able to increase your conversions, but be able to identify ways to grow your email list, so that your performance continues to improve.
Stay tuned for more information about how to improve your email strategy, including the best times to hit send, key elements every email should include and tips to increase your open rate.
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Contact us today for more information about how we can make your email marketing campaigns more effective and work harder for you.