Understanding Targeted Email Marketing – A Guide For Marketers

Targeted Email Banner

Targeted email marketing has become more and more relevant in recent years. It’s become the difference-maker in email marketing and the catalyst behind many successful email campaigns. 

But why is that? 

Simply put, targeted emails allow brands to differentiate themselves and stay relevant in today’s crowded digital landscape. 

With targeted emails, businesses can personalize and customize every customer interaction. In other words, they can market to people as individuals rather than as a group. 

This approach, rather than the generic, blanket approach of mass email marketing, is the key to success.

Remember, generic emails won’t get you the $36 return on investment that successful marketers are used to. But targeted emails will.

With that said, let’s have a look at targeted emails and why they are so powerful. 

What Is A Targeted Email?

what is a targeted email

A targeted email is an email sent to a very specific subset of your email list. These emails are always very relevant to their recipients. And they are sent based on how your subscribers interact with your business.

Think about it this way, everyone interacts with your business in a different way at different times. Plus everyone is different. Your email list will be made up of people with different:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Location
  • Shopping Habits
  • Hobbies and Interests
  • Relationship statuses 
  • Needs, etc.

And you cannot overlook these differences. If you do, you’ll end up sending unwanted emails to people who won’t benefit from them. 

Instead, what you need to do is segment your list.

What Is List Segmentation?

Email list segmentation is a way to divide your email list into smaller groups. It allows you to group your subscribers by common traits and manage them better. 

email list segmentation

For example, if you have a list with global subscribers, you may want to segment your list based on location. 

You can then send specific emails to each subscriber based on their individual locations.

For example, a 4th of July email would be appropriate for Americans on Independence day. A St. Patrick’s Day email would be more relevant to Irish people than to Caribbean nationals. 

The same goes for gender. Let’s say you sold clothing through an online Shopify store and catered for both men and women. An email sent to your audience would have to take their gender into consideration as well. 

Imagine what would happen if you send an email about your new make-up line to men who don’t even use make-up. They would quickly dismiss your message and toss it in the spam folder.

A look at your customers’ purchase history will also help improve the relevance of your emails. 

For instance, thank you emails are appropriate after someone makes a purchase with your business. But what would happen if we send these emails to people who didn’t buy anything?. 

You’d come off as unprofessional and generic. 

That’s where list segmentation comes in. It makes it easy to target the right people with the right information. 

Segmenting an email list ensures that each subscriber receives content relevant to them. As a result, it’ll increase engagement levels and improve deliverability results.

The more detailed segments you create in this process of targeting people, the better. It will lead them down less-traveled roads, where most sales happen!

Adding Email Automation

email automation

List segmentation makes email targeting easy. But the process still needs to be automated. Automation allows your email marketing to be more responsive to your subscribers. 

Let’s say you sent an email prompting your latest product launch. 

Some of your subscribers may buy right away and some won’t. So the follow-up emails sent to both groups cannot be the same. 

People who did not buy may need more convincing and sending them follow-up emails could nudge them in the right direction. 

On the other hand, purchasers should ideally receive a thank you email. Then follow up content about getting the most out of your latest product. So, you’ll need to create a new segment for all purchasers. 

This is just one example. You may also create segments of inactive subscribers or new optins. 

This whole process is made easy through the power of email automation. List segmentation and email automation are the two most important ingredients for super targeted emailing.

Of course, you’ll need a free email service provider or a powerful email autoresponder that facilitates this process. It all depends on your needs. 

For example, Gmail may be a good platform if you only plan to send a few dozen emails per day. 

However, in the event that you need to send thousands of emails, it would be best to go for an autoresponder. Especially if your emails will contain any promotional or affiliate links. 

If that is the case, you should check out Mailvio – one of the most sophisticated (and affordable) autoresponders in the digital marketing space.

mailvio home page

In fact, Mailvio is 95% more affordable than its closest competitor, Active Campaign.

At the same time, it has all the same high-level features that internet marketers need. These include but are not limited to: 

  • Customizable templates
  • Personalization Options
  • List Management Features
  • Automation 
  • Etc. 

And best of all, Mailvio is super easy to use. You can check it out here

If you decide that Mailvio is right for you, be sure to use its list-cleaning service before sending any emails. 

It’s important to clean your lists to rid them of spam traps or other invalid email addresses. List cleaning will ensure you have the highest deliverability rates possible. 

Benefits of Targeted Email Marketing 

Now, email targeting may seem like a daunting task at first but it actually makes your life a whole lot easier. 

Here are 10 unignorable benefits of targeted email marketing:

Email Targeting Is Cost-Effective 

cost effective email targeting

The more targeted your emails are the more conversions you will make. People are more likely to interact with content that’s relevant to them. 

More engagement means higher open rates, more clicks, and more conversions. 

Email Targeting Is Time Efficient 

time effective cost effective email targeting

The power of email automation saves you a great deal of time. Each subscriber interacts with your business differently. As such, your communication with them cannot be generic. 

Automated email sequences allow you to send appropriate emails to each subscriber.  And best of all, these emails get sent out at the perfect time with minimal manual input on your part.  

Email Targeting Allows You To Engage The Right People 

ideal audience

With a well-targeted campaign, you can reach your ideal customer with a single email! 

It’s not a numbers game, it’s a relevance game. 

Sending irrelevant emails will only get your content marked as spam. 

But the more targeted your emails are, the more likely people are to engage with them. 

Email Targeting Leads To Better Engagement Rates 

engagement rates

People are very responsive to targeted campaigns. That’s why advertising agencies make it a point to understand their ideal customers. And the same is true for email marketing. 

The better you know your subscribers, the better you’ll be able to communicate with them. And the easier it is to target their needs. 

As such, your engagement rates will be higher than non-targeted email campaigns. In turn, this results in better open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

Email Targeting Increases Brand Reputation 

brand reputation

Targeted emails show that you understand your subscribers and care about their needs. This helps to separate you from the competition and enhances your brand’s reputation. 

Over time, email targeting helps to firmly position you as an authority in your niche. 

Email Targeting Improves Customer Relationships

customer relationships

One of the better aspects of email marketing is the ability to create brand loyalty and repeat customers. Targeted emails show that you are tuned to the needs of your audience and trying to solve them. 

This shows that you value your subscriber’s opinions. When you can take your customers’ feedback into account and send targeted messages based on it, they’ll be more likely to respond. 

Email Targeting Makes Your Content More Personal

The more targeted your emails are, the easier it is to add elements of personalization. This may include:

email personalization

This makes the whole tone of your email interactions more conversational and natural. And your subscribers will feel like they’re talking to a friend who knows them personally.

Email Targeting Helps You Stay Ahead of Trends 

Knowing what your subscribers like and dislike (and how often they open emails) will also help your cause. Use this information when deciding which products you should promote in future campaigns.  

By tracking customer interests, you can determine the value of your marketing efforts.

Email Targeting Improves Customer Loyalty And Trust

Remember, there are bound to be tons of competitors in your niche. All vying for a spot in your recipient’s inbox. You have to go above and beyond for your audience to earn their trust and loyalty. 

Thankfully, this is quite easy to do. Sending only relevant and personalized emails puts you one step ahead. 99% of email marketers will not even attempt to understand their audience.

That little extra effort on your part will distinguish your brand and make you the go-to person in your niche. 

Email Targeting Produces Better ROI

The bottom line of any email marketing strategy is to boost conversions and scale. And how do we do this? We give people what they want when they want it. Relevancy with perfect timing. 

That’s why every successful online marketer invests in quality email autoresponders

It’s better to send relevant emails to a targeted audience than a generic email blast. 

Hence, marketers who have perfected these strategies routinely see up to 3600% ROI.

How to Acquire Targeted Email Leads

Now that we can see how important email targeting is, there’s still one more thing to consider. Our email lists themselves. 

If we create generic lists then even the most targeted campaigns will not be fruitful or responsive. Instead, we need to create responsive email lists and the key to that again is targeting. 

It is through targeting that we better understand who our customers are. This information will help us later on to create email segments. 

So, how do we actually go about generating these responsive, targeted email leads?

Well, there are two ways, including: 

  • Organic Marketing
  • Paid Advertising 

Organic Marketing 

Many people shy away from organic marketing because they feel it’s a slow process. And that is not necessarily true. 

It may be slower compared to paid advertising but slower isn’t necessarily slow. For example, a bullet train is faster than a Bugatti but a Buggati is still very fast. 

And it is the same with organic marketing. Organic marketing is sometimes called attraction marketing as well. This is because, when done right, clients and business prospects come chasing you.

It also firmly establishes you as an authority in your niche and gets people to know, like, and trust you. 

Thanks to that, people will know exactly who they are dealing with and what to expect when signing up for your lists. This can only lead to them being more receptive and responsive to your campaigns. 

Social Media platforms have been a goldmine for organic marketers. Platforms such as Facebook have millions of users in almost every niche. 

Marketing on Pinterest is now also a common theme amongst bloggers. And eCommerce brands seem to thrive on Instagram traffic. 

With the right brand strategy, anyone can tap into this market and grow a huge following. 

You can learn how to create a responsive email list by reading this article

Paid Advertising 

As mentioned above, paid advertising works faster than organic marketing. And it doesn’t need as much work upfront. What it does need is a bit of testing and a sustainable budget. 

With proper targeting, you can create an email list in any niche very fast. But there is one drawback, your subscribers may not know who you are and won’t always be responsive.

To overcome this you’ll have to send a series of warm-up emails to get them familiar with you and your brand. 

Of course, there are many platforms you can advertise on. Let’s take a look at one of the most affordable ad platforms – YouTube. 

YouTube Marketing

Did you know that YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world? It has over 1 billion active monthly users and is a super engaging platform. 

Many marketers see YouTube ads as a great way to generate leads. This is because of how easy it is to target your ideal customers. 

To run ads on this platform you’ll need to sign up for Google Ads. 

google ads
Types of YouTube Ads

There are five types of YouTube Ads, including:

  1. Skippable In-Stream Video Ads 
  2. Non-Skippable In-Stream Video Ads 
  3. Bumper Ads 
  4. Discovery Ads 
  5. Non-Video Ads

Skippable instream video ads are inserted into monetized YouTube videos and usually relate to the content of the video they show up in. 

They will play before, during, or after a video and can be skipped after 5 seconds. 

Marketers are not charged until at least 30 seconds of their ads are watched.

As their name suggests, non-skippable in-stream ads cannot be skipped. They can show up before or during a monetized video. 

They are a welcomed addition to the ads family since over 75% of users will skip an ad when they can. Non-skippable ads work really well to bring brand awareness. 

Bumper Ads are short 6-second ads at the start of a video. They cannot be skipped and have to be creative to grab users’ attention. 

Discover Ads are similar to Google text ads in appearance. They show up in search results for specific terms and are super-targeted. 

Non-Video Ads are simple image or banner ads that can show up as a video overlay or to the right of a playing video. 

They are very cost-effective but if a user isn’t looking at their screen these ads may just pass them by.  

Once you decide on what type of ads to run you’ll need to set up your lead capture pages

Tips For Creating Lead Capture Pages

When creating a targeted email list you must first collect accurate data from your leads. This will make the process of creating email segments much easier later on.

As mentioned above, email segmentation is the process of organizing subscribers into groups based on specific criteria. 

To get to this point you must design a high converting opt-in page. Creating an opt-in page is easy with page builders like Funnelvio

Your opt-in page needs four main things:

  • A Lead Magnet
  • A Body Texts 
  • A Lead Capture Form
  • A strong Call to Action

Lead Magnets

Lead magnets are given away in exchange for personal data. They can be anything from a discount, a free case study, or even a coupon code. 

They must be congruent with your brand, niche, and the content of your future emails. 

Here’s a great example from Conversion Gods:

conversion gods lead magnet

Body Text

The body text should be minimal and explain clearly what people are signing up for. 

A privacy policy must be in place when collecting personal information.

This protects both you and your mailing list as they will know what you intend to use their information for. 

Lead Capture Forms

This is where some of the magic happens. Depending on your lead magnet and audience. You can collect really detailed data.

This data can be used to segment your lists right away. Here’s an example from Fashion Nova. 

fashion nova lead capture form

Here, Fashion Nova requests preference information as well as an email address. This way they will be able to send relevant, more personalized emails in the future. 

There are also clear body texts that explain what users should expect once they sign up. 

This is an example of a permission-based opt-in page. Take note of the privacy policy as well. 

A Strong Call To Action

To round things off, you’ll need a strong, effective call to action. 

There’s no need to put much thought into this. Tell users exactly what you want them to do. Feel free to be creative here but also clear. 

Check out this super simple CTA – Sign up now:

tom ford optin page

Now, let’s have a look at some popular lead-generation software. Each of these has different applications and can help you build a lucrative list fast.

Lead Generation Softwares

Some of these are free to use and some cost a monthly or annual subscription fee. 

The following is a list of some common lead generation software.

Outgrow 

Outgrow is a popular lead-generation tool. It’s easy to use and it gives users many ways to collect customer data.

Outgrow uses quizzes, surveys, and chatbots to get leads.

outgrow lead generation

It has many customizable templates and allows users to embed interactive features in websites, emails, pop-ups, and more.

Outgrow is also able to integrate with more than a thousand sales and marketing tools. 

Subscription to Outgrow starts at just $14. 

Interact 

Interact is another lead gen software that primarily uses quizzes to collect leads. 

It has many templates to choose from and has both a paid and a free version.

interact lead generation

The paid version, of course, has exclusive templates and other premium features that aren’t available for free.

The paid version of Interact costs $17 per month. 

Pure Chat

Pure Chat is a free live chat software. It allows you to save the contact information of visitors.

pure chat lead generation

It integrates well with WordPress, Hubspot, GoDaddy, and others. Pure Chat is a fast and easy way to add live chat to your website. 

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a popular lead-gen software that focuses on newsletter pop-ups.

You can create full-screen take-over pop-ups, slide-in pop-ups, and many other types.

optin monster home page

It has many templates and is suitable for online stores. A monthly subscription for OptinMonster starts at $9. 

Popups Smart

Popups Smart is another popular lead generator. It is ideal for persons who have a website powered by WordPress. 

Popup builder

It has twenty-two themes to choose from and costs only $24.

Purchasing Email Lists

One shortcut to creating an email list is to go out and purchase one. Solo Ad vendors thrive in this area. And many people have built profitable lists by buying leads. 

This concept can work but there are several problems with it. 

First, lists built in this way may not be targeted or responsive. The users on this list will most likely have no idea who you are. So while you may be able to get a few upfront conversions, eventually people will unsubscribe. In some cases, your emails may be flagged as spam. 

Secondly, marketing to people who haven’t explicitly expressed an interest in your content can be illegal. You’ll have to do a great deal of “warming up” to get people to know, like, and trust you. 

And finally, it will be hard to really personalize emails or segment lists built this way. 

Oftentimes, the only information you’ll have on your leads will be their names and a little purchasing data. If you are lucky you’ll also have their location.

But this isn’t enough considering that your leads don’t know you. Emailing them is practically cold email marketing. And to make this work, you’ll need at least 6 points of personalization. 

So while purchasing an email list may get you off the ground fast, it will require much more work in the long run. 

Wrap Up

Email targeting is the holy grail of email marketing. Even a tiny list can produce better results than a large one if relevant content is sent to a targeted audience. And these benefits cannot be understated. 

The fact is if you are not sending targeted emails to your subscribers you are doing them and yourself a disservice. 

It’s a good idea to take some time to rework your marketing strategy. Think about how you can better segment your lists. And if you have not begun automating your email campaigns yet, now is the time to start.

Of course, you’ll need a reliable, affordable, and feature-rich autoresponder to bring this all together. And if we had to recommend a few to you, Mailvio would come at the top of the list since it meets all three criteria.

Now, this concludes our lesson on targeted email marketing but before you sign off…

We’d love to know what your biggest challenge in email marketing is at the moment. Comment below we’ll try to make an article address your specific concern. 

Thank you for reading! 

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