Email marketing has shifted significantly in the last decade and many traditional methods simply don’t have the effect they used to — in fact, some of them don’t work at all. The concept of email marketing, however, remains as impactful as ever using the right techniques. According to HubSpot, customer segmentation is the topmost effective strategy for email marketing campaigns (78%), and these are the four reasons why.
1. Email isn’t dead, but “batch and blast” is
Most marketers have heard the term “batch and blast” — you create a generalized campaign or newsletter that gets sent out as blanket coverage to your entire customer database. Sure, you may be getting eyes on your emails, but they’re unlikely to be relevant to most of your customers and typically result in a high unsubscribe rate and customer frustration.
Customers want to have relationships with brands that provide them a personalized experience rather than being treated as just another number on a marketing list. “Batch and blast” make your messages feel non-personal and disconnected, resulting in low engagement and retention. On the other hand, segmentation allows you to identify specific customer groups based on their behavior patterns, purchase history, demographics, and more, allowing you to create campaigns you know they need and want.
2. Segmentation improves deliverability and builds trust
Simply put, it won’t matter how well-crafted your emails are if they aren’t landing in your customers’ inboxes. That’s why understanding the concept of email deliverability is so important. This is how you ensure that your emails are being accepted by the internet service provider (ISP) and placed in the receiver’s inbox, as opposed to promotions, spam, or not being delivered at all.
The reason segmentation matters so much for email deliverability is because it helps you avoid the main reasons your emails may be triggered as spam in the eyes of an ISP, which include no opens or click throughs on your emails and having a high amount of unsubscribes, blocks, or reports. Because segmentation allows you to reach the right customers at the right time with the right message, they are less likely to unsubscribe or block your messages because they are now receiving information that matters to their individual customer journey. Segmentation also produces open rates of about 60% on average, as opposed to traditional email blasts that see roughly 12%.
From successful deliverability also comes customer loyalty and trust. The more customers feel as though you understand their needs and are speaking to them one-to-one, the more likely they are to trust your brand and return for future purchases.
3. It enhances the customer experience and promotes engagement
The lifetime value of a customer is just as important as the monetary value of their last purchase, and the way to create customers for life is to enhance the customer experience with highly personalized messages that encourage them to engage. For example, say you just sold a customer a high-ticket item. It’s not likely they’re going to purchase an identical high-ticket item right away, but there may be an opportunity for them to purchase supporting accessories or other additional products they might have forgotten. This is where you use segmentation (e.g., customers who purchased that item within the last 30 days) to send them a post-purchase campaign with more information that not only leads them back to your store but is unique to their customer experience. Following segmentation, message personalization is the second most effective email marketing strategy (72%).
81% of SMBs still rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel, and 80% for retention (Emarsys)
4. You will boost performance and ROI
At the end of the day, marketers need to know that segmentation creates tangible, measurable results. According to one study, marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue. A large bike retailer, Mike’s Bikes, used data aggregation and segmentation through the Ascent360 platform to create a personalized return-traffic campaign, which resulted in over $100k in revenue and doubled their conversion rate. Needless to say, the combination of segmentation, personalization, and automated email campaigns builds engagement that leads to measurable ROI and increased sales.
Marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue (HubSpot)
Have questions? Ask us!
Our data driven marketing automation platform at Ascent360 is built to combine all your customer data, cleanse and enrich it for a clear customer view, and make it easy for you to identify various segments and send personalized, targeted campaigns. If you want to see your customer data in action, reach out to us today for a custom data analysis and demo of the platform!
