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Delivering your email to the right person, with the right message, at the right time is critical in ensuring overall email marketing success. According to Jupiter Research, relevance and timing are nearly as effective tools at driving conversions as discounting. In fact, most consumer complaints about email marketing are primarily driven by irrelevant communications.
To deliver a relevant, timely message it is important to establish targeted messaging using dynamic content and segmentation. In this white paper, we will discuss how using relevancy and personalization at different levels will help you achieve email marketing success.
Collecting Data
The key to data collection is not asking too much, too quickly. A customer must trust the company they interact with. A good tactic is nurturing the data collection throughout the customer lifecycle. First begin by asking for permission to send email marketing to your customers. When requesting the customer’s opt-in, be certain to give them specifics of the email campaign they are subscribing to:
- Content
- Frequency
- Services
Providing full transparency to a customer leverages credibility and builds trust.
Once you’ve established their opt-in preference, you can begin trending a customer’s specific interests. By collecting your customers purchase history, demographics, email or web site behavior, you can create a more relevant experience. According to MarketingSherpa’s 2006 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide, marketers are personalizing their emails through the following:
- Abandoned Shopping Carts
- Lead Source
- Behavioral
- Product Profiling
- User Details
- Demographic Data
- Dynamic and Segmented Content
Start with the basics, such as name, email and opt-in and start to build a database of content that en-ables you to create a message that your customer wants to receive and respond to.
Segmentation
Segmenting your audience will enable you to deliver a highly relevant message more effectively. Seg-menting is an easy tactic that enables marketers to learn more about each specific group or audience they interact with, allowing them to better tailor their content and send more targeted messages. Ac-cording to MarketingSherpa, the non-segmented promotional campaign receives a .48% click through rate, versus a 6.68% click through rate on a segmented promotional campaign.
Most email marketing service providers lend you the flexibility to seamlessly segment your audience within the application, allowing for more time to work on messaging than creating segments. A few ideas for campaign segmentation can include:
- Action-based
- Gender
- Birthday
Apply the Right Metrics
Once you h ave gained permission and collected customer data, it’s time to apply those metrics to your messaging. Referencing a recipient’s purchase history or preference profile elevates the value of the communication. It reinforces trust and reminds the customer of their relationship with you. By applying these metrics, you are building a stronger, more intimate relationship with your customer and prospects.
Example: An online drugstore company has a customer that purchased shampoo online two weeks ago. Their metrics show that the customer re-purchases every three weeks. To send a relevant mes-sage, tie the content and offer to the re-purchase of the shampoo product and include opportunities to up-sell or cross-sell with conditioner or additional complimentary hair products.
Timing
Timing is critical when ensuring relevance. A female customer who is three months pregnant won’t want to receive a message focusing on a toddler promotion; instead send a discount promotion on your nursery products. By ensuring that you are sending the right message, as well as delivering it at the right time, you will see a greater conversion response rate and continue to keep the customer engaged.
By continuing to deliver the right message to the right customer you will increase revenue, lead generation loyalty and customer retention.
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