Targeted Email Marketing: Benefits, Steps, And Ideas To Increase CTR [2023]

Ammar Mazhar
Ammar Mazhar

Last updated on

March 14, 2024

Marketing becomes more precise when you send the right email to the right person at the right time. Email marketing is thought of as a technology only used by established businesses. Even smaller companies can get the advantage of it. Email marketing is a powerful way to get more customers. Whether you run a small store in your town or an online store that sells products to the world, it can help!

Email usage isn’t going to stop any time soon. Research shows that the number of email accounts will continue to grow and reach over 4.5 billion by 2025. It makes it a better tool for marketing. But to get into this business, you'll need to be creative and use effective methods.

Let's find out how targeted email marketing can help your small business thrive.

What is a Targeted Email?

A targeted email campaign ensures that the right person gets the right message at the right time. You can target a specific group of your audience with these customized emails.

Targeted Email Ideation

Email list segmentation is in sync with targeted email campaigns. You can arrange your contacts according to their age, interests, buying habits, location, etc. Then, you can send them relevant emails.

What is Targeted Email Marketing?

Targeted email marketing is an innovative marketing technique. It uses digital technologies to choose a targeted audience for a personalized email campaign. By segmenting, you can narrow down the group of people you want to reach and finds out who will get the email and what they care about. And then sends them an email that meets their needs. This leads to more sales and customers who stick around longer.

A recent study estimated that around 3.9 billion email users worldwide send and receive more than 281 billion emails daily. However, unsolicited messages from strangers have the shortest lifespan because they are more likely to be marked as spam or deleted outright.

Targeted email marketing means that instead of sending promotional emails to everyone on a contact list, emails are only sent to people who have shown an interest in getting them. Customers mostly open, click and take action on emails containing relevant information that meet their needs. 

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What is Email Segmentation?

Email segmentation is the practice of breaking email marketing subscriber lists into more manageable groups. Email segmentation is essential to maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing. It's a simple method of customization that can help you give your subscribers what they want.

Email segments categorize recipients based on demographic characteristics such as age, gender, geography, and interest. 

5 Benefits of targeted email marketing

It's not shocking to see this evolve into a very engaged dialogue and to see engagement skyrocket. As targeted email marketing efforts are highly tailored and targeted at specific demographics, it's incredibly relevant.

It improves leads and revenue since customers have more reasons to continue engaging with and buying from your company. There’s no reason to avoid targeted email marketing due to its advantages. The following are the top 5 advantages (or the five Rs of targeted email marketing, as you will find out) of targeted email marketing.

5 Beneits of targeted email marketing

1. Relevance

You can tailor the method you communicate to certain groups of your target audience in any way you think is best. The key is to provide content that is relevant to your particular audience. Do something that will stick in their minds. Get your point and, more significantly, your name brand into their heads. 

Use this chance to chat about something the client is interested in. Such as something they just bought from you or something they were considering but ultimately decided against. For example, if a customer put something like perfume in his/her cart, but left the cart without proceeding with the order, you can send a reminder email. Get in touch with the consumer in a way that shows your appreciation for them.

2. Response

Customizing your emails (images, message, style, send time, etc.) for a specific audience increases the likelihood that they will connect with it and take the action you want them to do. More conversions come from more opens and clicks.

3. Revenue

Increased sales come from a higher conversion rate. Increase your revenue by catering your deals to targeted customers. According to a study, email marketing revenue is estimated to reach almost 11 billion by the end of 2023.

4. Relationship

Establish relationships with consumers through one-on-one interactions in highly specific email marketing campaigns. Show that you, as a company, see them as more than simply another number. Your perspective places them as unique individuals with their own set of requirements. You, as a business, are aware of this, and you want to provide services that cater to their specific needs. By showing this to your customers, your relationship with them will improve.

5. Retention

Building trust with customers ensures they will return for more of what you provide. You can achieve customer retention by building on and strengthening existing customer relationships.

Targeted email marketing's role in Year on Year growth of businesses

From the above image, you can see how targeted email marketing helps businesses grow their customers through the years. 

7 Steps to execute a successful targeted email marketing campaign

Targeted email marketing is a powerful tool, but its complexity is a big problem for many companies. Businesses need consistent customer data to market to certain groups effectively. With the help of a wide range of useful tools, you can get a better idea of who your customers are and how to interact with them. Effective targeting usually involves seven steps that are: 

7 Steps to execute a successful targeted email marketing campaign

1. Check the database

Suppose you want to divide your client base effectively. In that case, you need as much information as possible about them, including their demographics (gender, location, age), personal data (name, birth date), purchase history, activity level, hobbies, and more.

In most cases, a subscription form or periodic survey will be enough to get this information. Even if a customer purchases in your physical shop or by a referral program, they should associate the transaction with their email address.

2. Go for the right email marketing tool

Effective targeted email marketing is hard to do if you don't have the necessary tools. Probably the most important thing is your chosen email marketing service or software. For service, you only have to pay a monthly or per-use fee for services, give them the information they need, and they'll take care of the rest. You must give them the right software for this situation. Using tags and scores, divide the plan into groups. Then, use marketing automation to reach each group. For an eCommerce business, it should connect to your website, CRM database, and shopping cart.

If you decide to take care of your advertising, you must follow the same rules. It is essential to choose reliable email distribution software and keep it up to date. Similar to when hiring a business or agency, you should look for specific characteristics in software and provide the system with a lot of high-quality input. Your success in email marketing will skyrocket if you complement your regular email client with specialized software. 

3. Integrate data with an email marketing tool

When you don't give your tools a free pass, they won't perform as well as they should. Don't expect perfection from a system that accepts only the worst input. When sending targeted emails to customers, "garbage in, garbage out" refers to inaccurate client data inputted into the system. Using software that integrates with your other customer data systems is the simplest way to guarantee that your data is up-to-date and accurate.

Don't forget that you could use a little creativity to come up with data for your system. You can use web forms for more than just simple registration by writing them correctly and leading clients to choose the items and services they show interest in.

It is only natural to have other things, like corporate updates, available as choices. By doing so, you can quickly reference information on the interests of different clients.

E-commerce networks simplify getting detailed information on certain types of customers. For instance, you can learn about a person's preferred clothing styles and colors by looking at their shopping history. Or, in the case of home improvement stores, you might learn what kinds of projects homeowners take on by examining their purchase and search histories.   

According to a study, the average number of people who open an email campaign is 20%, and the average number of people who click through is 3.3%. Email marketing is miles ahead of marketing on social media. On social media, click-through rates are often around 1%.

Email marketing generates a positive return on investment (ROI) for 60% of marketers, and 32% of marketers believe it will generate ROI  in the near future.

There are a variety of other forms of sales data that might be useful. Since prior customer behavior indicates what they are likely to do in the future, customer relationship management systems are the industry standard in any sales setting. Swimming fans are less inclined to give up their active lifestyles and more likely to continue purchasing new swimming products like swimsuits and masks. Nonetheless, you must know the sport they participate in within that subset. A swimming gear deal is more likely to attract swimmers than a running shoe discount.

4. Define Customer Personas

Simply put, a buyer persona is just a fictional representation of your ideal (or worst) consumer. With the help of buyer personas, you can design highly targeted email marketing campaigns that attract and retain a high-quality audience.

Define your target audience. Consider the subset of your audience that makes up the bulk of your user base and their shopping habits, where they live, and how old they are. This information will help you form a mental picture of your ideal customer, from whom you can then draw inspiration when creating and sharing your content.

One of the most important rules of email marketing is to make it as unique as possible.

  • Adding a human touch to your email may boost engagement by 14% and bring in 10% more customers. 
  • Emails that are tailored for the recipient may improve sales by 20% compared to generic emails.
  • A recent survey found that over 75% of marketing professionals had experienced an uptick in client interaction after using personalized emails.

5. Use segmentation

Though you can accomplish simple targeting with little effort and data, the most effective targeted email marketing campaigns rely on sophisticated consumer segmentation strategies. This requires extensive data entry into your email marketing platform.

Customer information should be complete, including name, gender, location, product and service preferences, lead source, and purchase history.

Customers have different spending patterns. You can divide audience segmentation into two broad categories: pre and post-segmentation.

5.1) Pre-Segmentation

Applying filters before people sign up is a great way to put them into groups quickly. Putting subscription forms all over the site is an effective way to do this. People who sign up after buying a new product are likely to be interested in different things than people who sign up to read the blog.

5.2) Post-Segmentation

Your subscriber segmentation efforts should be continuous. You can keep adding new categories even after individuals have signed up for your email list.

If you want to send personalized emails, you'll need to keep track of information about your customers. Retailers operating in eCommerce can learn a lot about their customers' tastes and behaviors by keeping tabs on the products and dates they buy them. This information will allow you to further segment your customers based on actual purchases.

6. Create personalized email content 

Different types of targeted email marketing initiatives need different types of targeting. The decision on how to target customers in one campaign is based on personal preferences, while in another it is based on geography. But this isn't all there is to effective targeting. Instead, you could use a trick from the mail book and send out customized greeting cards. You can see how email personalization can grow your business.

Personalizing email content should begin with the subject line. Personalized subject lines often have greater open rates than the industry average. Besides that, it's the first thing your subscriber sees before opening and clicking on your email.

Put the recipient's first name in the subject line to show that you care. Even though it's the easiest method of customization available, it's also among the most efficient. It gives your email marketing campaign a more personal touch and creates a more engaging experience for your readers.

7. A/B test the campaign

Lastly, the best ways to become an expert at focused email marketing are to test and analyze. Keep an eye on statistics like opens, clicks, transactions, unsubscribes, and spam reports to find out what's working and not. With this data in hand, you'll be able to fine-tune future promotions. You can make alterations to the groups you're targeting, the times you send emails, or anything else you can think of to make your campaign more effective.

The goal of an A/B test in email marketing is to compare two or more versions of a comparable campaign. Then, you divide your readers into two groups and send them both versions of your email.

By comparing two or more versions of an email, you may determine which one performs better and so boost your email analytics. A "winning" version is one that has better metrics than the others, such as open and conversion rates. According to research, businesses that A/B test every email have a 37% higher ROI than those that never do an A/B test.

Finally, we consistently stress the need to not blindly stick to best practices without verifying their efficacy. We've outlined actions that any company can use, regardless of size or industry. However, it is important to regularly use data to determine whether these efforts are paying off in increased sales or brand awareness.

7 Proven targeted email marketing segmentation strategies

Since you know so much about your customers, it's easy to send them emails that are more relevant to them. To sum up, you target certain groups of your consumer base with tailored personal emails. When customers are properly categorized and labeled, choosing which ones should get any given message becomes simple. Targeted email marketing initiatives often aim at the following groups and interests:

7 Proven targeted email marketing segmentation strategies

1. Location

When you manage an eCommerce business, you can connect with customers worldwide. Still, there are times when you might want to send subscribers in different parts of the world additional messages or deals. Let's say you're putting out a brand-new product only available to people in the United States first, or you just want to offer free shipping to customers in a certain part of the world. You just need to send a targeted email to subscribers from a certain location by choosing the group of customers you want.

Segmentation By Location: Revolution's example
Source: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/

For example, in this picture, REVOLUTION is promoting its deals in Sydney. So, the local customers can attract and make purchases.

2. Product lifecycle 

Not every consumer needs the same level of attention. When dealing with sales leads, you likely don't know as much about their purchasing preferences. But with a returning consumer, you already know more about their purchasing habits. Each stage of the customer lifecycle necessitates a separate set of email formats.

The following figure shows how Ralph Lauren is promoting its clothing to a specific audience.

Segmentation by product lifecycle: Ralph Lauren's example

3. Customer Behavior

Some customers browse extensively but rarely make a purchase. They may skip the browsing phase altogether and just add the desired item(s) to their shopping basket before proceeding to the checkout. Logging this activity and then using that data for more specific email marketing is essential. The use of abandon cart emails for shoppers who abandon their carts is a good example of this strategy in action.

You can better understand this with an example from Monica Vinader. You can also offer deals on your clients’ birthdays and special events to show them extra care and love. This way, your customers will likely purchase your products. 

Segmentation by customer behavior: Monica Vinader's example

4. Gender

Emailing certain groups based on their demographic data can increase their effectiveness. Many successful companies use gender as a targeting factor, among other demographic factors (especially in the clothing and apparel industry). For the following example, Addidas where they are promoting women's clothing. You should also  send targeted emails to a specific gender. 

Segmentation by Gender: Addidas's example

5. Customer preferences

You can reach the customers based on what they like. In this case, you can use information like what they've bought before, what links they clicked on, how they answered surveys, etc. Information of this kind can help sort consumers into two groups: those who like to purchase at the lowest possible price and those who must have the newest and greatest model the day it's released.

As you can see in the following example from Sephora, Being a makeup store, they are promoting their eye shadow deals to an audience who shows interest in specific products. 

Segmentation by customer preferences: Sephora's example

6. Lack of engagement

Awareness of how often your customers buy from you is helpful, but so is knowing when they've stopped doing so.

Your objective here should be to restore financially vulnerable clients to full financial health while maintaining their previous buy frequency and average order value as much as possible.

There are three distinct segments you can create:

  • Those who don't make regular purchases are "one-time customers"
  • Those who regularly buy your brand but have recently begun to buy less often are "at-risk" customers
  • Those people who no longer buy from you are lost customers

You can win back even the most disengaged consumers through segmentation and send them emails with tempting, customized offers depending on their level of "at risk" status. By separating clients into groups based on their degree of participation, you may create more targeted email lists. As you can see in the following image, there’re different deals for different customers.

Segmentation by lack of engagement

7. Purchase frequency

It's no secret that the more customers buy from you, the more valuable they are to your business.

If you want to boost sales generally, it's crucial to divide your audience into subsets based on how often they buy from you and then send those groups personalized promotions at suitable times. It will help you engage your regular customers and increase revenue! 

It's not about selecting your most loyal customers. Instead, you should aim to have each of your consumers spend more money with you each time they shop with you and to have them visit your store more often.

Imagine a client who buys a certain amount of a specific product from you every Saturday morning. You could then send this person a weekly promotional email on Saturdays before they make their typical purchase, advertising sales, free bonuses, and other incentives to increase their average order value. This will increase your sales and make customers loyal to your brand. 

For example, Chemist Warehouse is offering replenishment of men’s shaving foam in this email to one of it’s customer. Not only that, they are also cross selling hair conditioner and health supplements.

Segmentation by purchase frequency: Chemist Warehouse's example

How to segment your email list for targeted email campaigns 

Let's say you've decided to open a shop in Brooklyn, NY. Happily, hundreds of your email list subscribers already call Brooklyn home.

If you have a list of customers and know which ones live in Brooklyn, you can send them an email telling them about opening a branch in their area may wonder, "should I make a separate email list for each segment to make it easier to start a new campaign?” Not at all. There's no need to compile individual email lists for each group.

Email list management software enables users to construct contact filters, dividing a single email list into many subsets targeted at specific demographics, behavior, gender, and into many more segments. Success factors for business-to-business email campaigns include, for example, tailoring messages to particular contacts depending on their role within an organization.

One of the most effective contact management methods and entry into targeted email marketing is using filters to divide your contacts into distinct groups.

This YouTube video shows how Mailmunch can help you find the best solution for your targeted email marketing campaigns. 

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Start Sending Highly-Personalized Targeted Emails!

You don't want to waste people's time with sales pitches in every single targeted email you send. That's why it's so important to use audience segmentation to send personalized emails while promoting e-commerce.

Your ability to reach the right person at the right time with the appropriate offer to persuade them to convert depends on how well you've segmented your audience, whether by personalities or behaviors, or both.

Author Bio

Ammar Mazhar

A voracious reader and a music lover, Ammar has been writing engaging and informative content for over 3 years for B2B and B2C markets. With a knack for writing SEO-optimized content, Ammar ensures the results speak for themselves.

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