Why Targeting Matters

December 7, 2011

In a post at her eponymous blog, Elaine Fogel asks how frequently you receive email with content that has no relevance. "I'll bet it's a lot," she says with certainty. "Let's just look at the ones you receive from companies and organizations that have your permission to send communications. Count the emails they send that have nothing to do with you at all. Delete."

Fogel gives a quick rundown of blatantly irrelevant messages she has received. Here are a few:

A nonprofit organization thanked her for attending a fundraiser she didn't attend.
An airline sent offers for flights that didn't depart from her city of residence.

Let's face it: Even if you like a company, like its product or service, like the people who answer the phone—you're going to unsubscribe from an email campaign if you keep getting wildly untargeted messages.

Are you subjecting your subscribers to this type of treatment? According to Fogel, small businesses are especially likely to implement untargeted email campaigns. "Maybe they don't have a marketer on staff to guide them," she conjectures. "Maybe they don't know what segmentation is."

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Email Marketing, Segmentation, Targeting

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Comments

by Taylor @ Get Smart Content Tue Dec 13, 2011 via web
Very informative post, but let's not limit this to just the experience of email. This happens to us each time that we visit a website. Websites (brands/companies) have the capability to understand more about their traffic than they are currently taking advantage of.

With Get Smart Content, brands have the opportunity to present the most relevant content to the right visitor at the right time. What does this mean? No more "learn about our product" when you've already visited the "our product page." No more "become our fan on Facebook" when they've already done so. Using targeted content results in lower bounce rates, higher engagement, and increased conversions - isn't that what all brands are looking for?
by Robert Jordan Mon Jan 23, 2012 via web
Well that's a fairly interesting post and informative too, but I think your chief worry is likely to be spam complaints rather than 'unsubscription' rates.
Spam complaints can undermine your entire email marketing program by forcing ISPs to blacklist you.

And when that happens ALL your mails get blocked without so much as a whisper of a bounce message to let you know why. the fear of being blacklisted is really what makes targeting infinitely important.

If you need targeted lists, make sure you get in touch with Thomson Data at www.thomsondata.com! We'll help you reach out to B2B prospects across every industry imaginable!

And if you mention that you found us at Marketing Profs, we'll give you 10% off on all your list purchases!