How to Do Email Marketing Effectively, Part 3

Segmenting an email marketing list is essential to email marketing best practices. Customization and personalization on a mass level is one of the great benefits of using email marketing (in fact, it's the only digital marketing channel that allows for personalization on such a large scale). Consumers want personalization, and this is a fabulous way for you to offer it, without a lot of fuss. It pays off for you too--your readers will be more engaged, unsubscribes will be fewer, and your efforts will lead to more conversions.  When email recipients know they are only receiving communications with information that is relevant to their likes, tastes and interests, they are much more likely to pay attention. Think about regular mail--you're much more excited to see a card from Grandma than a piece of junk mail trying to sell you auto insurance you don't need.

A recent post from the Bronto Blog couldn't have explained email segmentation better. I'd like to share their post below. ;)

Keys to Creating More Relevant Emails with 4 Simple Segmentation Tactics

The Democratic and Republican National Conventions recently came to a close. Imagine if instead of having the Democrats attend the DNC and the Republicans attend the RNC they instead randomly assigned people to attend one or the other. Of course some people would find the convention relevant to them, but others would not. This wouldn’t make much sense, right? Well, this is exactly what you do when you send batch-and-blast emails to your subscribers.

Email marketers and politicians both know the value of sending people messages most relevant to them. Relevant emails generate higher open rates, higher click rates and, most importantly, higher conversions.

Although it all sounds great and you want to do it, what if you simply don’t have all the traditional RFM data at your fingertips? What if your company is smaller in size and/or your resources are limited? The good news is there are still ways to begin to create more relevant emails and increase revenue without a complex email marketing infrastructure. Your subscribers are handing over valuable information explicity (through a sign-up form, preference center) and implicity (through behavior within an email). For more ways to explore how to continue to grow that data bank, check out "Segmentation: What they tell you explicitly - Preferences 101"

Visit the Bronto Blog to look at some ways you can use simple segmentation data without being overwhelmed.

Preaching to the Choir

I just had to share Seth Godin's post from this morning. He's right in saying the solution to low conversion is not necessarily a larger audience--it's really the right audience. 

The unforgiving arithmetic of the funnel

One percent.

That's how many you get if you're lucky. One percent of the subscribers to the Times read an article and take action. One percent of the visitors to a website click a button to find out more. One percent of the people in a classroom are sparked by an idea and go do something about it.

And then!

And then, of that 1%, perhaps 1% go ahead and take more action, or recruit others, or write a book or volunteer. One percent of one percent.

No wonder advertisers have to run so many ads. Most of us ignore most of them. No wonder it's so hard to convert a digital browsing audience into a real world paying one--most people are in too much of a hurry to read and think and pause and then do.

The common mistake is to reflexively come to the conclusion that the only option is to make more noise, to put more attention into the top of the funnel. The thinking goes that if a big audience is getting you mediocre results, a huge audience is the answer. Alas, a huge audience is more difficult than the alternatives.

A few ways to deal with the funnel:

• Acknowledge that it's there. Don't assume that a big audience is going to easily convert to action.
• Work to measure your losses. Figure out where in the process you're losing interest and clicks or the other behaviors you seek.
• If you can, remove steps. Each step costs you dearly.
• Treat different people differently. If you alter the funnel to maximize interest by the wandering masses, you may very well miss the chance to convert the focused few.

His last point is such a great way of boosting conversions. We are in the time of "personalization" and "customization." Customers want to receive information that is only relevant to their interests. Don't send email marketing messages to your entire mailing list if the information is not relevant to the entire mailing list. Segment your marketing efforts by customer tastes, interests, or preferences--it will pay off in the long run. 

"Preaching to the choir" isn't cliche, it's necessary. Why would you want to preach to an audience that is completely closed to your offerings? You aren't going to convert them, at least not all of them, and likely not large numbers. Preach to the audience that is present, interested, and willing to engaged.