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Targeted Email Campaigns Make for Happy Customers

January 01, 2018

Email was invented in 1971 and its use has continued to grow year after year since.  Let’s just say email is not going away anytime soon. So let’s discuss some ways to utilize email as a source of delivering targeted content to your customers.

Let me start by sharing a few very interesting statistics gathered from a whitepaper published by WhatCounts. They state that the return on investment is $38 for every $1 spent, depending on the industry, but still very impressive. The average employee checks their email 74x per day. About 225 billion email messages are sent each day. That is a lot of emails!

So with all the competition in the inbox how do you set your email marketing campaigns apart? Well, let’s talk targeted marketing and segmentation! Targeted email marketing means sending specific content to contacts who have expressed interest in some form already, it can be as simple as following your social media accounts or even being an existing customer.  Segmentation of contacts can help you advertise more of what that individual client wants to see. If you are sending your entire catalog out in every email it may not be as effective as sending an email with a specific product or service.  

Building your email list is two-fold. One, build your list by using opt-in features. This means the individuals you are emailing have requested information or have given your permission to contact them. Begin building your list by advertising an opt-in link on social media and your web page. You can also ask current customers to join your mailing list. Purchasing a generic email list is not advised and can cause a huge increase in your opt-out numbers. Second, you want to organize that list based on customer preferences. Most advance email services provide built-in ways for you to accomplish these goals. Constant Contact, a major email marketing service, uses “tags”. These tags are a built-in labeling system. You can use them for frequency preferences, such as weekly, or monthly. They can also be used for product or services preferences. 

This can be an easy task as you add new contacts to your email marketing list. If you have an existing list it may be more of a challenge. Some email services have tools to help you create specific segments. These tools work based on clicks. So if someone clicks a certain link within the email campaign it will automatically a tag to that contact grouping them together with others. So the next time you are ready to advertise that particular service or product you have a list of individuals who have already shown interest. If you don’t have tools to help it is as simple as manually reviewing previous emails and going through your contact list. This option is more time intensive but can boost your overall satisfaction of customers in your email marketing because you are able to give the people what they want.

Whether you have an existing email marketing service or you’re are looking to start a new area of marketing, feel free to contact us at the SBDC to get assistance with all your marketing needs.

“Business Tips” was written by Dezaray Johnson, Business Development Training Coordinator, of Angelo State University’s Small Business Development Center.  For more information on the topic of this article or the services of the ASU • SBDC, contact her at Dezaray.Johnson@angelo.edu.