More people use email than they do social media, making email one of the profitable digital marketing strategies for many businesses worldwide. According to Hubspot, 86% of business professionals prefer to communicate over email. The problem is that many businesses do not utilize it properly. They buy email lists and use those. The problem is this list of people didn’t seek out your business, so emailing them for business is like throwing a needle into a haystack and hoping something connects and converts people into customers.
When you’ve taken the time to segment your customers and create personalized and targeted emails that attract customers interested in what your tech or business provides, your company will see a far greater ROI for its email marketing efforts. In fact, the Direct Marketing Association states that companies that segment their emails experience a 760% ROI on their email marketing campaigns.
Email marketing goes beyond product marketing. It helps companies improve their lead generation and nurturing. This includes using emails to grow relationships with leads and convert them into customers, all the while assisting them in their goals. So how does a company begin to segment and personalize their emails?
Form Your Email List From Your Records
Your company should already have a starting list of emails from your customers who are already subscribed or are in your customer database. Now, when trying to find potential customers, many businesses make the mistake of trying to reach as many people as possible. If you’re consistently sending emails to people who never open them, you could find your emails being sent to spam at best, blacklisted at worst.
This is why you need to develop a profile of people who are specifically interested in your tech offerings and overall business culture. It will give your company a better idea of what kind of content to create to post on your website or social media to attract more of them. One such tool is called buyer personas, which help companies further define who your business attracts by their interest, challenges. This technique has been proven to drastically increase open rates and engagement.
Attract More Email Subscribers
Once you know who your customers are and why they’re interested in your business, there are a number of different ways to attract them to your email list. Your company could create blogs, videos, and more content that speaks to their concerns and questions as a buyer personas. Helpful content encourages people to give business permission to use their email, which makes a huge difference in whether your emails are opened.
You can also create offers to attract more of your buyer personas. An offer is a page where your company offers information or exclusive content that would be useful for your current and potential customers. The only requirement is that they fill out a contact information form in exchange for it. Examples of possible offers include free trials of software, tips and tricks guides for your tech, and access to special resources that enhance you tech. Another example could be an eBook explaining concepts and challenges related to your tech. Think of the cloud business offering an eBook on how to improve team collaboration.
Segment Your Email List
Your email list can now be segmented in a variety of ways for a more personalized email experience. Customers, for example, who have already purchased your tech should be sent emails encouraging them to be retained as a customer and to make more purchases in the future. Potential customers could be a on separate email list where they are given all the information they need to make their purchase decision.
Emails can also be segmented based on geographic area and industry. For example, scooter and bike apps are fighting for dominance in areas where they are used such as San Francisco, so targeting that area is key.
Most businesses also usually have multiple buyer personas which allows for very personalized emails. When you address someone in an email as, for example, an accounting firm CEO and speak to their specific business interests, then they will be much more receptive to your email than if it had been for an average customer. Marketing automation software will allow your team to cross this CEO with earlier mentioned segmentations, like 'returning customer'.
Behavioral segmentation is also important. Marketing automation software can allow your company to observe consumer behavior and respond to it. For example, imagine your team is offering a video editing software. A potential customer exchanges their email for a download of an eBook explaining how videos improves marketing. A few days later, they could be emailed a blog explaining how video editing software works. Finally, they’re sent testimonials and third-party reviews, explaining why your video editing software is the best in the business. The is referred to as guiding potential customers through the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey consists of three stages:
- Awarness Stage: helping someone define a problem or opportunity (how videos improve marketing)
- Consideration Stage: exposing them to method to solve it (explaining how to use video editing software)
- Decision Stage: helping them choose your vendor as the best selection (the video editing company's software).
The goal of the buyer's journey is to ultimately to push them towards a final purchase.
Automate a Workflow and Optimize Based On Results
Marketing automation is key to running a successful email campaign. It drastically cuts down your employees labor hours in a number of ways. It helps you segment your customers easily. It allows you to personalize emails and address your customers by name and similar personal or occupational data. It also has technology built in to adapt to changes to both your business model and your customers. Don’t forget that customers are people and people change. Make sure to utilize marketing automation software so that their preferences, behavior, and personal data are updated as they change. This keeps your emails on track with targeted personalization.
One of the most useful things about marketing automation is that it can also be used in workflows and is where the behavioral segmentation comes into play. The earlier example of a video editing software company is also an example of a workflow, where an action by a user (in that example, downloading an eBook) triggers a set of emails that are made with the purpose of moving the customer through the buyer's journey towards purchasing or subscribing to your tech.
While running your email marketing campaign, be sure to measure important email data like open rates, clicks, subject line responsiveness, and how well emails lead to customer conversions. This will let you know whether your email marketing approach is profitable or where your emails tactics need improvement. A/B testing, which consists of weighing two variations to your email at a time to determine which is more effective will help narrow things down. Don't forget that more and more people are viewing their emails purely on mobile as well, so making sure your emails are optimized for it is also crucial.
