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Segmentation: It’s How You Slice It

When it comes to marketing credentialing programs, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to communicate with your audience. Why? Because according to Marketing Sherpa, 78 percent of consumers rank email as their most preferred communication platform. While this nugget of data can empower your marketing – it empowers everyone else’s too.  Meaning you have to fight harder to break through a cluttered inbox and grab your target’s attention! How do you do that? By creating a relationship with your audience. Emails need to be relevant, timely and personal – avoid the one-size-fits-all email! To do this, you must start with audience segmentation.

The secret is in your database

Certification organizations continuously build their database with new prospects.  Your database is the bread and butter of your operation, and it is vital that records are current, regularly updated and include the level of detail to be able to slice and dice your list for truly targeted communications. For many organizations, the struggle is real – according to Marketing Sherpa’s Email Marketing Benchmark report, 52 percent of marketers say they have a “great need to improve email database segmentation,” and 32 percent of email programs have cited segmentation as a top priority in the growth of their programs. There is no “one size fits all” in marketing: personalization is expected.

Seven best ingredients for success

To truly get the level of personalization and relevance right, here are the top seven tips to get your segmentation right:

1. Ask the right questions: When building your database, ask for information such as industry, job title, management category, communication frequency (how often do they want to hear from you) and location. That way, you can ensure that any email correspondence is targeted and relevant. The more targeted and relevant, the greater your open and click-through rates and the lower your unsubscribes and complaints.
2. Get personal: Do not send e-communications from a corporate account but rather a personal email address to which subscribers can reply. This establishes a relationship between a known person at your organization and your audience – be sure you are setting the right tone with a personal greeting, like “Dear Jane,” or “Hi Paul,” and a friendly sign-off which includes the contact information of the sender at the end.
3. Grab their attention and get emotional: Use a subject line that draws your audience in and start with an opening paragraph that is truly relevant to them and connects with them emotionally. For a recent graduate, it’s tapping into the exhilaration of graduation and positioning your organization’s certification programs to calm the fear of where to go next. For a seasoned professional, you will want to discuss the pride of achievement, the commitment to lifelong learning and the benefits that come with advancing their career.
4. Have conversations: Lose the certification jargon and keep industry-speak to a minimum. Your e-communications should be conversational, to the point and include a call to action which encourages your audience to engage further – maybe it’s clicking on a link to access more information on your credentialing programs, to register for continuing education, to contact a leader or to take a survey.
5. Keep it simple: Only share value-adding content which is interesting, educational, and compelling. Your organization should be seen as a solution for their professional growth, one that enables the recipient to do his/her job better and to advance in their career. Make sure to keep everything simple – from your registration process and where to go with questions, to tools that help your audience sell a new certification to their employer.
6. Go mobile: More than half of all users will check their email on a mobile device so make sure your content – and any call-to-action link/web site – is mobile friendly!
7. Know your metrics and adjust the course: It’s important to test, test and test some more everything from time of day to headline preferences. That way you can track your level of engagement and continue refining your list and content for deeper personalization. Open rates, click thrus, shares and views are all metrics to track consistently so you can benchmark and measure the efficacy of your e-communications.

The more you invest in segmenting the more targeted your messages will be, and the more they will resonate. This translates into a bang-up successful email marketing campaign with a more engaged and eager audience!

Image Attribution: INTVGene

Categorized in: Industry News