Get Started with a Targeted Email Marketing Strategy for your Business

Email marketing is an essential tool for businesses looking to reach and engage with their target audience. Whether you're a small start-up or a large corporation, email marketing is a cost-effective and efficient way to connect with customers and drive conversions.

However, with so many businesses relying on email marketing, it's important to stand out from the crowd and maximise the impact of your strategy. In this post, we'll provide a step-by-step guide to help you do just that.

Step 1: Define Your Target Audience

The first step in maximising the impact of your email marketing strategy is to define your target audience. This involves identifying the people you want to reach and understanding their needs, interests, and behaviours.

To do this, consider the following:

• Who is your ideal customer? What are their demographics (age, gender, income, etc.)?
• What are their pain points and challenges?
• What motivates them to make a purchase?

By defining your target audience, you'll be able to create emails that are more relevant and appealing, increasing the chances of success.

PRACTICAL TIPS TO HELP DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE

1. Conduct market research: Gather data on your ideal customers, including demographics, behaviour patterns, and pain points. This information can be obtained through surveys, focus groups, and online analytics tools.
2. Analyse your customer data: Look at the data you have collected and identify common characteristics of your target audience. This information can be used to create buyer personas, which are fictional representations of your ideal customers.
3. Identify your customer needs and challenges: Understanding the challenges and needs of your target audience is essential to creating content that resonates with them. Ask yourself what problems they are trying to solve and what they are looking for in a solution.
4. Look at your existing customer data: Use the information you have on your current customers to better understand your target audience. This data can be found in your customer relationship management (CRM) system or by conducting a customer satisfaction survey.
5. Monitor your competition: Take a look at what your competitors are doing to reach their target audience. What type of content are they creating? What channels are they using to reach their audience? This information can give you insights into what is working for your target audience.
6. Engage with your audience: Engage with your audience through social media, online forums, and other channels. Ask them questions and listen to their feedback. This will give you a better understanding of their needs, preferences, and pain points.

Step 2: Segment Your Email List

Once you've defined your target audience, it's time to segment your email list. This involves dividing your list into smaller groups based on specific characteristics, such as location, behaviour, or past purchases.

Segmenting your email list allows you to send highly targeted, personalised emails that are more likely to be well received by your subscribers.

SUGGESTED SEGMENTS

1. Industry: You could segment your audience based on the industry they work in, such as healthcare, finance, or technology. This will allow you to send industry-specific content and offers that are relevant to your audience.
2. Company size: You could segment your audience based on the size of their company, such as small businesses, mid-sized companies, or large enterprises. This will allow you to send content and offers that are relevant to their specific needs and challenges.
3. Location: You could segment your audience based on their location, such as by country, region, or city. This will allow you to send location-specific content and offers that are relevant to your audience.
4. Buyer persona: You could segment your audience based on their buyer persona, such as decision-makers, influencers, or end-users. This will allow you to send content and offers that are specifically tailored to their role within the buying process.
5. Purchase history: You could segment your audience based on their purchase history, such as customers who have made a recent purchase, repeat customers, or those who have not purchased in a while. This will allow you to send targeted offers and content based on their buying behaviour.

Step 3: Create Compelling Subject Lines and Content

The subject line and content of your emails are critical to their success. Your subject line should be short, attention-grabbing, and relevant to the recipient.

The content of your email should also be engaging and relevant. Consider the following tips to create compelling content:

• Keep your emails short and to the point.
• Use eye-catching images and graphics.
• Personalise your emails by using the recipient's name and other details.
• Offer exclusive deals and promotions to incentivize subscribers to take action.

USE HUBSPOT

HubSpot CRM properties allow you to segment your audience and target specific groups of contacts with personalised content. Here are some best practices for using HubSpot CRM properties to segment your audience:

1. Create CRM properties: In HubSpot, go to Contacts > Properties and create new properties for each of the segments you have defined. For example, if you have defined a segment based on company size, you would create a property called "Company Size".
2. Populate your properties: Next, use HubSpot's forms, lead flows, or lists to populate your CRM properties with data for each of your contacts. This will help you segment your contacts into the appropriate groups.
3. Segment your email list: In your email campaigns, use the CRM properties to segment your email list. For example, if you have created a property for company size, you can use this property to send different emails to companies of different sizes.
4. Personalise your emails: Use the CRM properties to personalise your emails with relevant information for each recipient. This can include the recipient's name, company, or any other information that is stored in the CRM properties.
5. Test and refine: Regularly test and refine your email campaigns to ensure that you are getting the best results from your segmented email lists. Use A/B testing to test different subject lines, calls to action, or content to find what resonates best with each segment.

By using HubSpot CRM properties to segment your audience, you can deliver more relevant, personalised content to each group, resulting in higher engagement and conversions.

See our guide to digital transformation.

Consider Generative Ai

Generative AI can be used to create new content such as articles, blog posts, social media posts, and more. This can help businesses save time and resources, while also ensuring that their content is relevant and engaging. See also, the Pros and cons of Chat GPT.

See our guide to Generative Ai.

Step 4: Optimise for Mobile

With more and more people accessing their email on mobile devices, it's essential to optimise your emails for these devices. This means using a responsive design that adjusts to the size of the device being used, as well as using a clear, easy-to-read font.

Step 5: Test and Refine Your Strategy

Finally, it's important to regularly test and refine your email marketing strategy. This means monitoring your open and click-through rates and making changes to your strategy based on the results.

For example, if your open rates are low, consider changing your subject line or the day and time you send your emails. If your click-through rates are low, consider changing the content or layout of your emails.

By regularly testing and refining your email marketing strategy, you'll be able to maximise its impact and achieve your business goals.

SAMPLE 6-MONTH CALENDAR

Here is a sample 6-month email calendar that covers newsletters, offers, blog updates, and other types of content:

Month 1:

• Week 1: Welcome email to new subscribers
• Week 2: Newsletter featuring recent blog posts and industry news
• Week 3: Offer for a free consultation or webinar
• Week 4: Newsletter highlighting recent case studies or success stories

Month 2:

• Week 1: Newsletter featuring tips and best practices for digital marketing
• Week 2: Offer for a discount on a specific service or product
• Week 3: Newsletter announcing any new services or updates
• Week 4: Blog update email featuring a new post or resource

Month 3:

• Week 1: Newsletter featuring a Q&A with an industry expert
• Week 2: Offer for a limited-time promotion
• Week 3: Newsletter sharing recent industry trends and insights
• Week 4: Blog update email featuring a new post or resource

Month 4:

• Week 1: Newsletter featuring a customer success story
• Week 2: Offer for a free trial of a specific service
• Week 3: Newsletter announcing any upcoming events or webinars
• Week 4: Blog update email featuring a new post or resource

Month 5:

• Week 1: Newsletter featuring a thought leadership article or opinion piece
• Week 2: Offer for a special deal or package
• Week 3: Newsletter highlighting recent awards or recognition
• Week 4: Blog update email featuring a new post or resource

Month 6:

• Week 1: Newsletter featuring a customer testimonial
• Week 2: Offer for a free resource or guide
• Week 3: Newsletter announcing any company updates or news
• Week 4: Blog update email featuring a new post or resource

This email calendar provides a structure for your email marketing campaigns and helps you ensure that you are sending a consistent flow of relevant, valuable content to your subscribers. You can adjust the calendar based on your specific needs and goals, and refine your approach over time as you gather more data and insights from your email campaigns.