Marketeers use e-mail marketing to reach customers. A great choice, but I still see many companies who do not personalise their mails. Why do I receive an e-mail about garden items while I love in an apartment? I quickly gloss over e-mails like these: I am not triggered. Today, you learn how to use data to personalise e-mail marketing.

E-mail marketing is still an important tool

E-mail is important to companies. Almost three quarters of Dutch people bought something online thanks to an e-mail at least once last year. This was shown by the National E-mail Survey 2018. A great medium to reach your target audience with. Now you must wonder: surely, it doesn’t get better than that? But it does. Every (potential) customer is different, and so is their demand. To uncover that, the data is the right way to make new offers. This is how you do it:

 

1. Look at your current data

To start personalising e-mail marketing, it is important to start at the foundation. What customer details do you have? Name and address data or more? This forms the beginning of your database. Try to identify all data per customer. You can use a DMP (Data Management Platform) for this.

 

2. Look for cohesion

Once you have a clear view of all the data, you can get started. What data is interesting and useful? Try to see the patterns. For instance: you see that your customer has bought a lot of different products in a short time, such as a bed, sofa, TV and hammer. Perhaps they are moving, or your customer is redecorating their home. Interesting, because this information enables you to send targeted offers, such as a new TV cabinet or a drill.

 

3. Improve your segmentation with internal and external data

To make your e-mail even more personal, you can add additional data to your database. This can be consumer personas, information about what neighbourhood someone lives in, or the fact that someone is an entrepreneur. This data allows you to even better segment your target audience. Tip: the better the segmentation, the more personal the e-mail!

 

4. Trial and error

After your target audience has been further segmented through your own and external data, you can start testing. I see that companies often directly communicate with target group that is too large. Don’t! Try to figure out whether your segmentation is correct. Keep a close eye on whether you receive more clicks and whether the conversion goes up.

 

Feel free to mail me!

This step-by-step plan allows you to get started with personalising your e-mail marketing. Start small, improve your database, segment and test. This way, your customers will receive better e-mails and offers. Do you want to know how to structure your data and find new, interesting data? Feel free to call me, I am happy to help. Even if you have a different data question.

Photo credit: Campaign Creators