From Scott Gallagher's video on Target Email Marketing
Of all the online marketing techniques out there, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to turn prospects into customers. It’s not as flashy as Twitter or Facebook, but stats show that email marketing “converts.”
Too much email and people aren’t interested, you say? In fact, data from MarketingSherpa shows that 58% of those surveyed unsubscribe not because they receive too many emails, but too many irrelevant emails. The answer is targeting.
Target Email Stats
In a table from my earlier post on ROI from online marketing techniques, email marketing and search engine optimization are the most effective in landing and selling customers. And according to an e-Marketer survey earlier this year, email performance is steady . This post quotes Kevin Mabley, senior vice president at Epsilon, as saying that “e-mail drove an average of $0.14 in revenues per delivered message, so e-mail still gets results.”
If you need further proof that targeting customer segments works, check the Email Stats Center’s segmentation stats.
Target Marketing vs Your e-Newsletter
So you’re a small business. You have emails of customers and prospects in various places. You can’t afford sophisticated database marketing, using expensive consultants or software.
You might even have a e-newsletter. If you have gone to all the work to create one, you likely send it to everybody — past clients, prospects and associates. That’s not target marketing.
What can you do?
Links on How To Do Targeted Email Marketing
17-minute, how-to video on Target Email Marketing Scott Gallagher, CCS Marketing Solutions.
The video covers target audiences, sample campaigns, campaign creation, CAN-Spam compliance, and metrics and testing.
How Can I Use Behavioral Targeting to Improve my Email Results? Kara Trivunovic, BtoB.
“Start with the information you have easily available, such as e-mail metrics like open or click data, and remarket against that information.” Kara says stats show that “getting the right offer to the right audience at the right time means that you have an 80% likelihood to convert—and those numbers are all driven by the data.”
How can an understanding of prospects’ web activity help marketers better understand their audience and improve e-mail marketing? Steve Woods, BtoB
His three steps: 1) determine where the prospect is in the buying process, 2) establish their level of interest, and 3) ascertain their area of interest, all using “digital body language.”
Target Marketing Linda P. Morton, StrategicMarketSegmentation.com
The link above includes her posts on “Why is target marketing important?” “How to conduct target market research,” “Predicting characteristics of your potential customers,” and “Why some small business owners don’t use target marketing.”
Relating to Contacts — Targeting OurCommunity.com
Written for nonprofits but basic techniques apply to small business, too. See especially links on “How to profile” and “How do you segment your database or contact list?”
PowerPoint on Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. Computershopsite.com
I liked these points on determining good segments:
- segment should have measurable purchasing power and size
- company needs a way to promote effectively and serve the market segment
- segment should be sufficiently large so as to be profitable
- segments should match your marketing capabilities
5 Essentials for Successful Microtargeting Chris Golec, IMedia Connection.
His 3 key recommendations: 1) focus on relevance and refining your audience; 2) leverage multiple channels and avoid all spam tactics; and 3) seek to constantly freshen your contact list.
Improving Email Marketing Through Segmentation Kelly Flint, Small Business CEO.
How to use signup boxes and online surveys in target marketing.
Where To Start?
If you’re thinking about a Facebook Page or Twitter account, but you have not made the most of existing client and prospect emails, it’s time to reorder your priorities.
And guess what? This is work, which is why so many of us don’t do it. It’s work to create and maintain the lists, work to craft the custom emails, and work to analyze and improve. But it’s productive marketing with a proven payoff.
To begin, bit off a small, obvious chunk. If you are doing this yourself, you don’t have to commit to reorganizing your entire database and developing a year’s worth of campaigns. Take just one product or service and think about how to create a list of those with an active interest in it, as determined by clicks, survey, signup box, recent inquiry, whatever. Create the list. Draft a short email. Send it out. Look at the results. Maybe try to do this once a quarter.
Email Marketing RX for My Small Biz Client
A small business owner with a telecommunications consulting company came to me to review copy for an expensive direct mail campaign. After I gave him my comments, I asked if he had emails of customers, and he said yes. I asked if he had records of what customers had purchased, and he said yes again, in their accounting records.
I recommended that he create an email database of customers, tagged for past product purchases and location. Then I suggested he send several emails to “up-sell” past customer segments. For example, for those who had purchased the basic communications install, send an email the following year describing the benefits of additional user stations.
I also advised him to think of cross-sell opportunities. If a customer had the basic package, maybe they’d like to know how they could improve their understanding of clients with call analytics software? Finally, I suggested an email campaign to advice past clients of how add-on products could make their work more productive. For example, clients who had purchased the receptionist module might benefit from a hands-free headset.
These focused email campaigns could be supplemented with non-sales emails sharing highly relevant industry information, tips, etc.
The client left with a new marketing agenda, much cheaper and potentially more productive than direct mail. I say “cheaper” because while free, it did require staff work to execute.
Comments?
What’s your biggest hurdle in target email marketing? How’s it working for you? Why not leave me a comment?
Related Posts on Email Marketing
Email Marketing: Intro, Videos and Links
Future of email by prominent web strategist Jeremiah Owyang Email the First and Largest Social Network
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