The customer journey is evolving. More customers are now discovering the value in buying a product or service and then using it until they’re bored of it. Thanks to technological advancements allowing for a seamless transition between interacting with a brand and receiving marketing content, the days of one-sided communications are on the wane.
If you’re struggling to keep up with these shifts and determine the best way to reach your target audience, the following sections will help you build a solid foundation for your email marketing strategy.
Personalized, Concierge-Like Services
Whether a customer has been a member of your community for years or they’ve just signed up for your newsletter, you have an opportunity to provide them with a memorable experience. By taking the time to get to know them and their needs, you can craft a series of offers that will pique their interests and draw them into a purchase funnel. The more you know about your customers, the more you can offer them.
For example, if you’re a health company, you might consider prioritizing wellness content in your regular emails because it’s something that your customers need and want. But if you’re a travel company, you could use the knowledge gained from customer interactions to offer them luxury vacation packages or insider tips on where to visit next. This custom level of service is called concierge marketing and it’s all about anticipating what your customers want and need, rather than simply treating them as tokens to be acquired.
The Growth of the Customer Lifetime Value
If you’re just getting started or if you’re looking to grow your business, you can use customer lifetime value (CLV) to determine the value of a customer to your business. This value represents the total amount of money you can expect to earn from a customer, multiplied by the number of days they’re likely to remain engaged with your brand. So, if you have 1,000 CLV points, you can expect to earn $20,000 worth of revenue from that customer over the course of a year.
You can use this number in conjunction with other metrics, such as retention rates and web traffic to determine the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The more you know about your customers and their individual behaviors, the better you can tailor your approach to reach them where they are – whether that’s in terms of interest or lifestyle. If you can get them to spend more time with your brand, the more you know about them and the more you can offer them.
Segmentation
You can use segmentation to reach a specific audience that is more likely to respond to your messages. For example, if you send separate emails to men and women, you can be sure that you will hit your target audience. But you can also use segmentation to reach people who are located in certain areas or have similar interests. So, if you’re a sporting goods company, you might want to consider reaching tennis enthusiasts in Boston or Portland – two cities where tennis is popular. You can also target people who are interested in fishing and you might send them a series of emails about the best places to catch fish near their area. You can use the segmentation tools within your email marketing platform to craft specific and personalized messages that will engage your audience.
Content Personalization
Content personalization is all about tailoring the content of your emails to match the interests and behaviors of your target audience. This technique allows you to provide your customers with relevant information that will keep them interested in your content. If you can develop a consistent and continuous stream of engaging content, you’ll be able to better understand your customers and what they want, which in turn will allow you to provide them with the best possible experience. So, rather than just sending them marketing emails about your product, you can become more proactive in understanding their needs and wants.
Cross-Selling and Upselling
Cross-selling and upselling are methods of getting customers to buy more products than they initially intended to. If you provide great value and offer something that is better than what they originally came for, they might be more willing to buy another product or service from your company. For example, if you sell clothing and your customer decides that they also need a bag to go with their outfit, you can assure them that the bag is also something that you offer and it might be worth purchasing. Upselling is similar to cross-selling, except that it’s more of a two-way street. So, if a customer is interested in the bag that you’re offering, you can also suggest other products that they might also like to purchase.
The Power of the Product
One of the main reasons that customers come back for more is because they believe that your product or service will make them happier, healthier, or wealthier. If you can get customers to understand the importance of your product or service to their lives, you can greatly increase the likelihood that they’ll become lifelong customers. These are the types of customers that you want to target with an email marketing campaign, because they’re more likely to be influenced by a personal appeal and engagement strategies rather than just product information.
Getting customers to see your product or service in a new way, by presenting it in a different light or through a different channel, can also make a difference. For example, if you’re a fashion company and you notice that your customers are struggling to find the right dress, you can help them by presenting them with a wide range of styles and colors to choose among. Or, if you sell health-related products, you can use email marketing to suggest that your customers try a new dietary lifestyle that incorporates more fruits and vegetables because of the health benefits. If they decide that this is something that interests them, you can then upsell them nutritional supplements that assist with weight loss.
The Role of Social Media
Thanks to the influence of social media, particularly Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, customers are now able to discover your product or service and associated brands, through articles and photos posted by active users. If you use social media to engage with your audience, you’ll have the opportunity to learn a great deal about what your customers want and need. Plus, you can also use the platforms to cross-promote your various products and initiatives, further expanding your reach to attract more customers.
Data Driven Decisions
Whether you’re a small business or you’re operating at a more corporate level, when it comes to creating marketing campaigns, it’s important to keep in mind that the decisions that you make, regarding the strategy, tactics, and materials of your campaigns, should be based on data. For instance, if you know that the majority of your customers are male, between the ages of 25 and 54, and live in the United Kingdom, you can consider using an email marketing platform that is tailored to British audiences. Or, if you know that your customers prefer to read articles about lifestyle, fashion, and fitness, you can use this information to make more targeted recommendations about the types of content that you should be creating.
Localization
If you’re running an email marketing campaign in the EU, you might want to consider localizing your content for European audiences. You can do this by using local keywords and finding a local affiliate to promote your brand. This way, when European customers search for those keywords, your website will pop up, with all the content that you need to engage them. If you’re looking to expand your reach, without having to expand your team, this is a viable option.
Mobile First
With consumers now spending more time on their phones than they do on their computers, it’s essential that your website is accessible and engaging on all platforms. If your website doesn’t look the same on a phone as it does on a computer screen, your customers will quickly lose interest and disconnect. To ensure that your website is optimized for mobile users, test different layouts and schemes on laptops and desktops, versus mobile phones or tablets. Once you’ve figured out what works best on which platform, you can repeat the process for the others. If you’re stuck in design mode, you can always outsource the work to a design firm.
While there are various tactics that you can use to build a solid foundation for your email marketing campaign, you must first decide what you’re trying to achieve. Once you do, you can develop a plan, selecting the right tools and strategies to make it happen.