Dynamic Targeting and Personalization in Your Email Marketing

Gloria Farmer | 5 June 2008 |

In email marketing, targeting every electronic communication to each specific customer’s interests makes it easier for them to buy from you. Researchers at Listrak have proven that customizing a newsletter and tailoring it to a client’s specific interests results in better response and feedback.

The key reasons to target and personalize your marketing emails are to:

Build Trust by giving clients what was promised when they signed up for your newsletters.

Satisfy Needs and Wants by giving clients what they desire.

Create Significance and Value by personalizing your email communications to the reader and helping you to remain aware of their needs.

Build Brand Loyalty. Clients perceive quality in a company when it meets their needs.

Strengthen Customer Relationships with regular communication.

Personalization
On newsletter sign-up forms, drilling down to the details about your customers helps you to target your newsletters to specific client needs. The more data you collect about your customers, the more targeted your newsletters can be.

Gather information about your subscribers that can be helpful in your marketing, such as gender, age, marital status, location, occupation, hobbies, number and ages of children, product preferences and more . For example, if you know someone’s address, you can then direct them to the location of your store closest to them or invite them to events taking place nearby.

Demographics
When creating the newsletter sign-up form for your website, begin targeting and segmenting subscribers with form fields that give you useful information, including their specific interests. Obviously, the relevant data you wish to collect will differ by type of business and industry.

In the hospitality niche, for example, you can add a list of specials or packages to your newsletter. This will allow you to find out what each client is most interested in and it can also help you discover their reason for traveling. Adding the right fields to your sign-up form is an important part of organizing data and getting as much information about the customer as possible.

Tracking
Another important way to gather data about your customers is by tracking their actions. Analytics software allows you to see which links subscribers click on in your emails and tell you if they bounce after reaching your website. Use a website tracker, like Google Analytics, to determine which products and pages subscribers look at on your website. Then, offer discounts or specials accordingly. Tracking is a very significant aspect to managing your subscriber data.

Dynamic Content
Instead of sending out an all inclusive email, use dynamic content in your newsletters to send specialized messages to specific subscribers. The crucial aspect of these types of newsletters is the management of subscriber data and targeting individual interests and needs.

Your content can target both first-time buyers and loyal customers. To gain new business, use special coupons or discount codes for first-time buyers. You may also offer different levels of discounts to subscribers. For example, you could offer 10% off to a one-time buyer, 15% off to a two-time buyer off and 20% off to a customer who has purchased from you 3 or more times. Once clicks and purchase history have been saved, the emails themselves are easily produced.

Here are a few other ways to use dynamic content:

Cross Selling
Once a customer has made a purchase, you can send out a dynamic email with related items they may wish to add to their original purchase. For example, with a room reservation confirmation, send out offers for add-ons such as breakfast, champagne or area activities.

Rewards
Dynamic content can also be used to deliver rewards to loyal customers. Rewards can also be given to recipients that forward your offer to a friend. Other perks may be based on the number of times a customer has stayed with you.

Customer Support
You can also use dynamic newsletters is to inform customers about website maintenance or to send out responses to customer inquiries.

Email Marketing Objectives
Email Marketing can provide a wealth of information about your customers and the services you offer. Managing your subscriber data takes work, but once the information is sorted, sending out your newsletters is simple.

Use email newsletter personalization and dynamic content delivery to its full potential and it can give you just the boost your online marketing needs.