Maximize the impact of your email marketing campaigns by sending more targeted messages.

By Gretchen Kast

While one-on-one communication is an essential part of the sales process, email marketing is a valuable and efficient way to maximize your efforts by connecting with your wider prospects list. But just because email allows you to reach your entire mailing list at once, that doesn’t mean you should fall back on a one-size-fits-all approach when crafting your messaging. If you’re looking to optimize your email marketing strategy, segmenting your email list and sending more targeted campaigns is the best place to start.

What makes a marketing email successful?

The trick to any effective email marketing campaign is crafting a strategic blend of helpful and relevant messages for your audience. Think about your personal inbox. What makes you open up an email from a brand? Most often, it’s one that offers you something you can use or something you will not find elsewhere. This includes pertinent reminders, important information or exclusive deals.

When it comes to B2B email marketing, it can be especially easy to fall into the stale messaging trap if your opportunities are not changing on a regular basis. But no one wants to read the same sales pitch over and over again. Repetitive messaging can drive people to tune you out – or, worse, unsubscribe entirely.

Updating your messaging with each new campaign is one way to safeguard against falling into a rut. But if you really want to take your email marketing to the next level, segmentation is key.

How does segmentation help?

According to MailChimp, “segmented campaigns performed markedly better than their non-segmented counterparts.” In measuring stats across all segmented campaigns, the company found that they had 14.31% more opens, 10.64% more unique opens and 100.95% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns.

By grouping your email list into logical sub-categories, you can curate your messaging towards more specific interests and goals. This makes your campaigns more relevant to your recipients, which increases the likelihood that they will open and engage with your email.

Thankfully, email marketing providers like MailChimp and ConstantContact make it easier than ever to organize your email list into categories, segments and groups.

What are the best ways to organize your segmented email list?

Even if you are part of a niche industry, there is still plenty of variation within your audience pool. As with any piece of marketing collateral, segmented email campaigns should answer one major question: how will your organization help the audience achieve its goals?

In order to do that, you must first think about the most logical way to organize your mailing list. Depending on your offerings, you can group your list into sub-categories based on:

The products and services they provide
This allows you to highlight editorial features or speaking engagements that are relevant to their corner of the industry. Additionally, it gives you the chance to reassure prospects that your organization is already connecting with the customers they’re trying to reach. By segmenting your list this way, you are able to really zero in on these specific details.

Their location
This can be an especially valuable grouping for event sponsorship and exhibit opportunities. Say your next conference is in Dallas, TX. Creating an email segment for companies based out of Texas allows you to highlight just how easy and convenient it will be for them to sign up—a message that is less effective for companies based out of other parts of the country. 

Their engagement with your organization
Have they advertised or exhibited in the past? Are they already signed on for one type of campaign or contract? By segmenting your list this way, you can write more direct messaging based on their familiarity and experience with your organization — giving you the opportunity to introduce key companies to new opportunities or larger programs. You can also make sure that existing advertisers are not receiving additional sales pitches after they’ve signed a contract and are instead getting helpful updates that provide them with key deadlines and reminders.

The topics or products they’ve signed up to learn more about
In addition to organizing your existing email lists, most email marketing providers make it easy for subscribers to update their preferences about which information they’d like to receive from you. This can be an especially valuable segment for email marketers. When someone expresses interest in a certain topic, it means they have already begun considering it as an option. This places them further along in the decision making process, which means they are more willing and likely to open and engage with the content you send.

*One crucial reminder*

Today’s email marketing services can provide you with a host of valuable data about your subscriber list. While this information can help you fine-tune your marketing strategy, you always want to remember how important privacy is. If you get too granular with your targeted messaging, you run the risk of creeping people out – which will most likely have a negative impact on their impression of your brand. When in doubt, err on the side of caution; your goal is to be helpful, not Big Brother.

When it comes to ad and exhibit sales, email marketing is just one piece of the puzzle. But if you do it right, if you are thoughtful and specific about your messaging, it can be a game-changer. Though segmentation does require a little bit more work—organizing and grouping your lists, then writing multiple versions of the content—the sales pay-off is worth it.

Want to learn more? Get in touch today.