As small business owners grow increasingly aware of the optimal email segmentation strategies and best practices, they may wonder how collect their customers’ information.
After all, marketers who utilize segmented email campaigns report up to a 760 percent increase in revenue, according to HubSpot. Check out the following details to get a brief understanding of the process.
What Is the Role of Data and Where Do I Find It?
You can’t execute a strong email segmentation program without the right customer data, so it’s vital to understand your customers’ needs and analyze the data points effectively. Two types of data segments provide the most insights for customer segmentation:
- B2B: Company location, job title, vendors, partners, industry verticals, etc.
- B2C: Age, location (state, country, region), language, recent purchases, interests, gender, etc.
You need to capitalize on every opportunity to gather information about a customer’s interests and behaviors. Whether it’s through a sign-up on the website, event registration, social media or interacting with the customer in-person. Remember that any email registrations need to be compliant with all laws and regulations — explicitly giving you permission to email them. Otherwise, you could be out of compliance based on current email laws.
Your software should have the capability to track all interactions with your customers across websites and devices as they open your emails, click on items, register, refer friends, complete surveys, add items to carts and make new purchases. It’s smart to segment your leads — both at the moment you capture them and on an ongoing basis as their relationship with your brand changes.
You can find public data at the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics and Chamber of Commerce, via industry and trade research, and often from trade fairs and exhibitions.
What Are the Smart Ways to Collect Customer Information?
To gather concrete data about your customers, you can use tools like Google Analytics, including information about their demographics, interests, behaviors and previous interactions with your brand.
You may conduct surveys with your audience by using tools like SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics to get them on board as an email contact. Keep surveys simple, make them engaging, and conduct meticulous testing to avoid issues they might raise.
Leverage data from organic search traffic, email leads on your website, Google Ads accounts, customer forums, paid advertising leads, email marketing contacts, and blog traffic to target visitors before they sign up. Offer customers incentives like a newsletter or special offer for registering.
You can also find data in your e-commerce platform, email service provider (ESP), customer relationship management tool (CRM), tracking software, and many different third-party systems. Closely manage your email contact list as people’s interests and needs are ever-changing.
“Leveraging the right data to create marketing segmentation lists and increasing customer engagement can be a major email marketing challenge,” says Disha Sisodia, digital marketing specialist at American Medical Forensic Specialists. “The right CRM email marketing platform can fuel marketing segmentation while aiding the sales process. A functional CRM can provide cutting-edge data on customer’s purchase histories, sales attribution, website visits and clicks, mobile device users, and customer preferences that can maximize the impact of your email marketing efforts.”
How to Inspire Customers to Subscribe
If you’re wondering what matters most when it comes to your email campaigns, always look toward your content, Sisodia says. “Forty percent of the success of an email depends on the content of the email. Developing a contextually aware email environment system allows a brand to tailor content more closely for the relevant audience. Relevance matters not only because it provides targeted messaging, but it also builds trust, and consumers have greater confidence in messages that provide useful information without trying to sell them something,” she adds.
To inspire your customers to subscribe, follow these best practices:
- Use Facebook and other channels to target ads to the most likely customer segments.
- Some people may also share personal information if they get personalized discounts or offers in return. Try to incentivize such new customers into sharing relevant data.
- Thoroughly tie emails to landing pages: The buyer journey often begins with an email, and the right landing page can play a significant role in reiterating the offer and closing the lead.
- Provide email sign-up locations on your social media and blog posts to increase your chances of capturing promising leads.
- Limit subscription questions to a minimum on a sign-up form and keep it simple.
- Serve the audience with relevant content so they start to feel connected to your company. Then you can ask for more details about them.
- Invite them to share their email addresses and other information for a shot at a prize. Make sure you follow all local laws regarding giveaways.
- Use automation to nurture leads when possible.
By getting the right data from potential customers, you’ll be able to more accurately target your email marketing messages to maximize success.
