Email marketers may benefit from segmentation

Sales are up but the time between a consumer becoming interested in a product and actually purchasing it is much longer than ever before. The bulk of the lag time is because users are comparing products and pricing, a good thing for them. Not such a great thing for marketers. How can you compete?

by Kristina Knight

Segmenting your potential clientele into different groups could cut the time from interest to purchase according to a new report from Marketing Profs. According to the report, segmenting email marketing messages can also help strengthen your brand and build customer loyalty.

How do you begin?

First determine how many segments you have and divide accordingly - new consumers, return/active consumers and non-active consumers. Each email you send should be tailored to one of these groups. From these large segments, you could allow users to self-segment for future mailings by choosing the products or information they are most interested in. Marketers can also segment more fully by product.

Second remember that the message matters. New buyers will react to ad copy differently than active and non-active buyers. For new buyers, give them information to help make a purchasing decision.

Finally, send messages according to the season - not according to the calendar but according to your consumer. Send more messages when they are in-market and fewer when they are not.