Before discussing targeted email marketing, it is important to have some background about email marketing itself. What is email marketing and what are some steps to setting up a successful email campaign? Email marketing is a direct and digital marketing form that uses email to promote your business’ products and/or services. In addition, a good email is one that reaches the right person at the right time with the right message. Recently, many people are taking a break from social media or even leaving it altogether. People will always continue to use email, so using targeted email marketing campaigns to reach your current and future customers makes sense. In this article, we will discuss how to create targeted emails, how to write different types of marketing messages, and how targeted email marketing can help you make more sales.
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Email Marketing
Email statistics show that in 2020:
- 4 billion people use email worldwide
- 3 million emails are sent every second
- There are over 7 billion email accounts
- 95% of consumers check their email everyday
- About 60% of users check their spam folder daily
These statistics should inspire businesses to use email marketing as a way to reach their audience to start them on the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey is the steps a customer takes before purchasing a product or service.
Targeted Email Marketing Campaigns
An email marketing campaign is key to success, and there are several steps to setting up a good targeted email marketing campaign.
Email List
First, start by building an email list of your target audience. Then, create your email list by asking people to subscribe or give them an incentive to sign up.
Some incentive ideas are:
- Offering an instant special offer for first time subscribers
- An email series on a relevant topic
- Free ebook, chapter sample or report after signing up for your email list
- A time saving cheat sheet, worksheet, checklist or calendar
- A free template or sample proposal
- Video course
- Online webinars or workshops
- Create a contest, giveaway or sweepstakes
- Exclusive or behind the scenes access
- Free download
- Early bird special
- Step-by-step guides
Content
Second, create awe-inspiring content for your targeted email campaign. Be sure to write a catchy subject line and keep your promises by sending what you say you’ll send. As a result, you will start to see growth. Content is so key for any website, and it is the same for targeted email marketing.
Example subject lines include:
Question subject line:
- Do you really have the perfect gift for [husband/wife]?
- Struggling to find the perfect gift for [mom/dad]?
- Have you seen our perfect holiday [offer/collection/gift ideas]?
Command subject line:
- Don’t wait. Save % [percent off] this week at [your business]
- Reserve your spot for [name of the event]
- Find out what we have planned for [month/holiday/shopping day]
Teaser subject line:
- Learn how to [do something] this holiday season
- Stress- free holiday shopping is possible at [your business]
- Gift ideas for your [brother/sister/cousin/uncle] that you didn’t think of
List subject line:
- [ # ] of gifts under $ [amount of money]
- 5 reasons to attend [name of event]
- 10 holiday time-saving tips from [your business]
Announcement subject line:
- We’re open late! New hours for the holidays.
- Come celebrate [shopping day] at [your business]
- Don’t miss our December [specials/offers/events]
Introductory Emails
Your email marketing efforts should begin with an introductory email. It’s important to establish an immediate connection with your subscribers right out of the chute. Use the introductory email for your subscribers to opt in and confirm their subscription, but be genuine and make sure they know what they’ve just signed up for. Now that you have some background about email marketing and good email campaigns, let’s take it a step further and look more specifically at targeted email marketing, targeted email, and email targeting.
Targeted Email Marketing
Targeted email marketing is a way to make sure your emails make an impact in the inbox. As you use information you already have for your customers, you can send targeted emails to specific sets of subscribers. Similarly, you can target them through a targeted email, which is an email sent to a segmented group of your mailing list. These emails are customized and bring value to current subscribers through relevant offers. It is important to segment your email list. Email segmentation is dividing your email subscribers based on a set of criteria. Meanwhile, by segmenting your email lists, it will make it easier to write your target emails and send the email to the right audience. There are many segmentation strategies that can benefit your business.
Demographics
Segment your email lists by age, gender, income, company position, a person’s needs and interests. Collecting this information via website forms or customizing your email sign up questions can benefit you in many ways!
Survey or Quiz Results
Segment your email lists by surveying your audience and offer incentives for finishing the survey. A quiz or survey will help you gather data such as individual preferences and beliefs, while engaging and interesting your users.
Email Engagement
Segmenting your email lists by engagement can give you good results. The most important metrics to pay attention to is the click through rate and open rate. Email marketing platforms such as MailChimp and HubSpot provide ways to measure engagement.
There are many ways to segment your email lists geographically. Some examples are:
- Sending out time based emails. Send out your emails to target customers by sending emails at optimum times for those in different time zones.
- Send regional emails by promoting events in specific store locations.
- Adjust webinars or ask me anything (AMA) times based on audience location.
- Customized travel directions to a store or event based on the reader’s geolocation.
- Send out offers specific to the store where a customer shops.
- Draw attention and offer a personalized experience by using a specific location in your headlines.
Past Purchases
Segment your email lists to target your customers through past purchases. Send recommendations or similar items that go well with a previous purchase.
- Amount Spent: Use expense history to target customers who are likely to purchase more expensive items. Send out target emails that feature products in a customer’s price range.
- Position in the Sales Funnel: A sales funnel is the process a company takes a customer through before purchasing products. Depending on where a customer is in the sales funnel process, you can send out target emails to those who are closer to the top of the funnel as opposed to targeting someone closer to the middle or end of the funnel.
- Website Behavior: Keep track of a person’s website behavior. Send out target emails based on specific web pages they’ve viewed, pages not viewed, or watched videos and the length of time the video was watched.
- Time Since Last Purchase: Send out target emails to your frequent buyers and a different target email to your new or one time customers.
- Personal Interests: Create user profiles on your website or use an email subscription center to collect information about the personal interests of your email subscribers. Using this information you can send out email targeting their specific interests.
Targeted Email Marketing Campaign Examples
Email targeting can be used to target a business-to-consumer (B2C) relationship or a business-to-business (B2B) relationship. B2C is when a business is targeting their customers. Targeted email marketing is a way for stores to sell directly to consumers using the internet. B2B is a way to target other companies and sell products or services between the two. Your email campaigns and target emails need to be tailored specifically for each of these groups.
To compare and contrast, several of these B2C email marketing campaigns are available to help a business to target their customers:
Welcome Email Series
Welcome emails are a way to make a great first impression on your customers. These emails have a 50% open rate. This high rate makes welcome emails a very efficient way to target your customers.
Product Update Emails
Product emails are best used to target your existing customers. This gives them an opportunity to re-engage with your products. For instance, a product email would be sent out when your business is introducing a new product.
Newsletter Email
Newsletter emails are a great way to touch base with your subscribers. Above all, these emails are more personal. Newsletter emails are used to share announcements, interesting information, and trends about a product, and should also include a good CTA (Call to Action).
Reminder Email
Reminder emails are a way to encourage customers to try a new product or service. Also, these emails are a way to receive feedback from customers on previous marketing efforts. Reminder emails should be clear and concise.
Birthday Email
Birthday emails are a great way to show your customers you care. In order to send a birthday email you will first have to collect the birth dates of your subscribers. One example would be to offer a free coffee sometime within a person’s birth month. Be proactive when sending these emails so you don’t accidentally miss their birthday.
Feedback Email
Feedback emails are essential to B2C communication. This target email can be as simple as rating the business on a 1-10 scale. Feedback email is beneficial to a business as well as the customer. Feedback email will help companies see what customers like and where they wish to see improvements. The feedback will come from satisfied and dissatisfied customers. It is important to gather all of this information.
B2B Examples of Targeted Email Campaigns
There are many B2B campaigns a business can run to target other businesses. Some of the B2B campaigns are the same or similar to B2C campaigns.
Exclusive Content Email
Exclusive content emails to target B2B are giving businesses access to the latest information. In other words, this target email is a way for a B2B audience to stay ahead of their competitors.
Webinar Invitation Email
A webinar is a great way to share insights about your customers. In a webinar email, you are able to set up a date so that a B2B audience can login to your livestream.
Cross Promotion Email
Cross promotion emails are sent to drive traffic to more of your content such as your website, company blog or other resources. Using cross promotion will add value to your company and your relationship with clients.
White Paper Distribution Email
B2B white paper emails are sent to share insights such as industry trends, policy changes and solutions. White paper distribution will add authority in your field.
Case Study Email
Case study emails are sent to share information such as a product or service that changed the customer’s life, and can display the impact you have in your field, as well as how you’re contributing to a project. These studies can benefit B2B relationships to show subscribers a solution in action.
‘Tips and Tricks’ Email
‘Tips and tricks’ emails are sent to inform your customers of updates, new products or advice on using a specific service, and how to get the most out of it. In addition, as you use these, you can also combine them with other kinds of emails.
The Importance of Targeted Email Marketing
In short, targeted email marketing is essential to growing your business, because understanding the importance of email targeting and how to write targeted emails will give more authority to your business and reach a larger audience. Do you need help with your targeted email campaigns? SEO Design Chicago offers many email marketing services such as building email lists and optimizing your targeted email marketing campaigns. Our service is designed to help you with your click through rate. We can help you build a targeted email marketing campaign or an overall marketing strategy.
FAQ:
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