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Email Marketing Clinic: The importance of targeting

Email is among the most flexible and cost effective tools at a marketers disposal. However, before diving in and sending emails to your customers and prospects, there are several things that should be taken into account. In this month's email clinic, email marketing experts Pure share their thoughts on the importance of appropriate targeting, and why you should not embark on an email marketing campaign without first understanding your audience.

Why is targeting important?

For an email marketing campaign to be effective, the email must be targeted to resonate with its recipients. In fact, targeted email campaigns have a higher success rate and lower opt-out rates than non-targeted ones.

You can further maximise your campaign's impact and keep within the law by ensuring your database is always up-to-date.

How do I get the right email to the right people?

Study the habits and demographics of your customers and build up a detailed profile through relevant data, such as gender, age, location, motivations, new customer/potential customer.

Divide your database into appropriate segments made up of groups of individuals who will be more receptive to your mailings. You can then send tailored emails to the different groups reflecting their interests and motivations - but keep things simple.

How do I build a profile of my target audience?

Ask them: Add interactivity to your campaign to gather information about your users. For example, Expedia have a section in their email newsletters called 'Getting to know you' where they ask their users a simple question about what they like. Do this slowly, with one or two questions at a time. Don't put in a whole questionnaire.
Analyse the response to your campaign: Using reporting tools you can discover:
- Who signed up
- Who opened the email
- Who visited your website and who placed an order
- Which parts of your email generated the best response
- Who deleted or opted out of the email
- How many emails went astray
Run test campaigns: Email allows you to run cost-effective test campaigns where you can analyse the response of the same segment to different approaches.

What is important when maintaining my database?

Make sure customer information is current, remove people who have opted out from your database and ensure there are no duplicate entries. If you don't, ISP administrators might consider you to be a spammer and could blacklist your marketing emails.

What does the law say?

The EU's Privacy and Electronic Communications regulations state that marketing emails must not be sent to individuals without their consent. But the rules do allow for promotional messages relating to 'similar products and services'.

Case Study: Targeting

Take computer games manufacturer Electronic Arts' campaign for EA Sports' Fifa Football 2004. Video gaming and football appeal mainly to a precise segment - teenage boys and young, single men. They have access to relatively sophisticated software.

By using an up-to-date database which has been cross-referenced, the emarketer can identify the right email addresses.

So the same lads who received this campaign could then look forward to receiving for further relevant promos like the Arsenal FC website or Electronic Arts's Total Club Manager Game.

About the author
Award-winning Pure is one of the top email and SMS marketing companies in the UK, and the eleventh fastest growing new media company in the country. Pure provide email marketing solutions to small, medium and large companies and their software used by over 1000 marketers worldwide. Founded in 2001, the same dedicated team of highly skilled developers and designers remain today, shaping the company's market-leading technology. Brighton-based Pure counts Levis Europe, innocent drinks, Thomas Pink, Truprint, EMAP and the FT among its stable of 500 clients. Find out more at http://www.pure360.com.

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