Target Your Email Marketing - For Free
Part 2 of 2

In the first part of this tutorial, we discussed the preparation required to create targeted email marketing campaigns.

In part 2, we describe the process of applying your customer research data to deliver relevant content to your different customer segments.

Building Customer Profiles

Once you have gathered your customer data, you should determine whether or not your email campaigns will target (a) each customer segment or (b) each customer at a one-to-one level.

Targeting Each Customer Segment

This should be the strategy if your customer data applies only to a small sample of your customer base. (Most web surveys, telephone interviews, focus groups etc. are conducted with a group of customers who speak on behalf of the masses.)

Using your customer data, you should now identify different customer segments to which you can market differently, in an effort to increase the response to your email campaigns. However, the segments you produce may not be completely representative of your customer base. This is because the original research may not have asked the right questions. While you can still target your email campaigns even though the customer segments you produce are not completely representative, the effectiveness of your marketing efforts may suffer slightly.

If your customer research is being conducted on an ongoing basis, you may be able to modify the survey to capture the segmentation data you need, at no additional cost. Alternatively, if you have the budget available, you may wish to capture new research data that allows your segmentation efforts to be more representative of your customers, which is the ultimate objective of a well run email marketing campaign.

Here are a few examples of how marketers might segment their customers:

•  How recently a customer has purchased
•  How often a customer purchases
•  Amount of money spent per transaction
•  Type of products typically or recently purchased
•  Type of products of most interest to your customers
•  Amount of wallet share given to you vs. your competitors
•  Level of brand loyalty and satisfaction

One-to-One Email Marketing Campaigns

If you have transactional point of sale (POS) data and can link it to individual customers in your email database, you can create even more targeted, one-to-one campaigns. While this strategy requires more effort, delivering hyper-targeted emails will yield more profitable results.

In addition to the segmentation examples above, you could apply the following criteria to your segmentation model:

•  Amount of profit a customer contributes per transaction (or per year)
•  Specific brands typically or recently purchased
•  Predicted sales cycle (likelihood to re-purchase based on date of the last purchase)
•  Uptake on past promotions or coupons

Creating Targeted Email Marketing Messages

Once you have produced your different customer segments, it’s time to create your targeted emails.

Some segments may require entirely different messages (to motivate them to buy). Identify these first and make sure your content is compelling from their perspective (not yours). A third party can be consulted to help you think outside the box.

For other customer segments, you may only need to change one small phrase or word to make your message more targeted. For example, you may wish to use a standard paragraph across all segments but change the offer, product or brand mentioned. This can be done by creating a variable field.

Here are three examples of how variables are used to customize email content:

•  Print the coupon below to receive <%coupon_offer%> during your next purchase.
•  Now is the time to visit and see our wide selection of <%product_category%>.
•  Come in to our store to see our entire selection of <%brand_name%> televisions.

Your email marketing software may allow you to build these variables into each person’s profile. Or, you may need to include these fields as part of each list that you upload. Targeted email marketing like this can be very effective in both the short and long term.

Launching Your Email Marketing Campaign

Once you have developed your email content, it’s time to deploy.

Be sure to benchmark your previous email marketing statistics against your new ones so that you can demonstrate a return on your investment. You should see an immediate increase in the following:

•  Open rate
•  Click-thru rate
•  Conversion-to-purchase rate
•  Coupon redemption rate
•  Referral rate (e.g., tell-a-friend)
•  New email acquisition
•  Email retention rate (e.g., % who remain active subscribers)

To further demonstrate that you care about the interests of your customers, you can ask them to complete a simple profile. This will tell you how often they wish to receive your email and which topics are of particular interest (e.g., sales / promotions, new products, contests, etc.).

Also remember that sending email on certain days and at certain times is more effective than others. This trend is continuously changing, so it’s best to consult
a recent email marketing report every few months.

In Closing

Please contact us if you would like to discuss this tutorial or any other aspect of customer strategy.

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