Behavioral segmentation will make you win at email marketing
Most email marketing campaigns today are impersonal and unhelpful. This is because companies tend to treat all of their subscribers the same by sending identical email broadcasts to each and every one of them.
Even worse, these one-to-many email broadcasts are typically littered with images and complex HTML formatting. This causes them to be flagged by email providers as “Promotions” or spam and results in poor engagement rates. More importantly, such gimmicks make it difficult for subscribers to consume the content and actually get value from it.
When companies use one-to-many, image-heavy HTML emails, their subscribers think:
It’s evident this company doesn’t understand my unique needs nor do they value my time.
Behavioral segmentation is a powerful way your company can address this problem.
The solution
Behavioral segmentation is the practice of using automated rulesets to send targeted emails to subscribers based on how they engage with your company across multiple channels (e.g., social media, email, your website, etc).
In other words, every digital interaction that a subscriber has with your company should result in an intelligent and customized reaction that’s tailored to the subscriber’s specific needs. That way, he or she is never surprised by the emails received. Instead, the subscriber is anticipating them.
Behavioral segmentation and email automation are about adopting a subscriber-focused approach. A marketing team isn’t dictating when subscribers receive impersonal, one-to-many email broadcasts. Instead, the actions subscribers take and the interests they demonstrate ultimately inform which emails they receive and when they receive them.
In addition to sending targeted email content, behavioral segmentation also enables you to get more sophisticated with your A/B testing. You can improve your engagement rates by using subject lines and calls-to-action that are most likely to resonate with your different subscriber segments based on their prior interactions.
When is behavioral segmentation effective
We’ve found behavioral segmentation to be particularly effective for B2B companies that sell high-priced goods and services. They tend to have long sales cycles where a good deal of education is required in order to qualify leads.
With behavioral segmentation, businesses can tailor their content to each subscriber’s unique problems and highlight why their product or service is well-suited to address them.
In short, they can more effectively nurture their leads over time.
That’s not to say behavioral segmentation only works for B2B. It’s plenty effective in B2C environments as well.
For instance, it works particularly well for B2C companies that sell a varied assortment of products. It allows businesses to drill down and determine which products are best-suited for which subscribers, and to send content that’s specific to them.
Results you can expect
There are three central results you can expect when behavioral segmentation is implemented properly:
Credibility and authority — When you consistently share relevant and timely content with your subscribers, you’ll prove you understand them and that you care.
Increased levels of engagement — The tailored content your subscribers receive will foster increased levels of engagement. The more granular you are with your subscriber segments, the more engagement you’ll see.
More leads and conversions — You’ll generate better leads that are primed to buy, and see more conversions at an improved clip.
At the end of the day, it’s all about providing value. Behavioral segmentation is a powerful way to consistently and reliably provide your audience with value.
Interested in learning how to use automated email funnels to grow your business?
Next month I’m giving a talk at the Syracuse Technology Garden, “Breaking Down an Automated Email Funnel that Tracks ROI”.
