What is Targeted Email Marketing? Examples and Tips

Jan 23, 2024
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If you asked the typical marketer about the most effective way to make a return on marketing investment, the vast majority of them would say it’s email marketing. Research suggests that a single dollar spent on it could generate over $40 in return.

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But you can’t just send any email to anyone and expect those results. People getting $40 for $1 spent are the ones sending targeted emails to the right audiences.

Today, we’re going to show you what targeted email marketing is and how you can get started – or improve your campaigns.

What is targeted email marketing?

Targeted email marketing is a strategy that aims to tailor your email campaigns to the specific needs and interests of your audience. It can take you beyond the one-size-fits-all approach and craft messages that resonate personally with different segments of your target audience.

So, if you ever wondered why some emails resonate with your recipients more than others, the secret ingredient is targeting.

Take into account the word targeted because it makes all the difference between writing all the people you know and having a one-on-one personalized conversation. However, what’s valuable here is the right content sent to the right group of people, at the right time.

This method leverages many different data, for example:

  • CRM data,
  • purchase history,
  • and other insights to create emails that hit the mark,

you can save your time, costs, and resources, while still boosting effectiveness, ROI, and client satisfaction.

Sounds interesting, right?

In terms of effectiveness and ROI, targeted emails shine in this area. 

Statistics show that targeted and segmented email lists bring 760% higher revenue. Also, targeted email marketing campaigns can offer an astounding 77% return on investment. So, as you see, it’s a powerhouse regarding profitability.

The benefits of doing targeted email marketing

Why bother yourself with targeting?

Because, in terms of ROI, it pays off a lot – you already know that. However, many other benefits tell how targeted email marketing can work for you.

Among them are:

Improved personalization

Targeted email campaigns allow you to create emails that resonate personally with your audience. They address them by name, know what location they live in, how old they are, what they have bought recently, etc.

Thanks to leveraging the right CRM, other customer data systems, and demographic information, you can craft messages that speak directly to the recipient and make them feel valued and understood.

For instance, imagine a clothing company sending an email about its latest line of winter coats to a customer who recently browsed for such items. 

This level of personalization turns a general marketing message into a relevant conversation and enhances customer loyalty.

Higher conversion rates

Targeted email marketing campaigns can improve email conversion rates by 202%. That’s the power of speaking directly to your target audience’s needs and interests.

When you send targeted emails, you’re not just spreading information and hoping for the best outcome. Instead, you’re like an archer who knows exactly where to aim to hit the mark.

This precision leads to more customers engaging with your emails, clicking through, and ultimately, making a purchase, thereby driving up your conversion rates.

Better customer engagement

In targeted email marketing campaigns, opening an email is vital, but more valuable is creating a bond.

When you use an email marketing tool to segment your audience and send personalized emails, you’re inviting engagement. This strategy turns your email marketing efforts into a two-way street and encourages feedback, responses, and interactions that deepen the customer relationship.

What is the result? A more engaged customer base that looks forward to your emails and, more importantly, trusts your brand.

Increased email campaign relevance

With a targeted email campaign, you increase the relevance of your emails. 

When you use customer management systems and tailor your email content to align with specific interests, your emails can hit the goal every time.

For example, send a message on home decor tips to someone who just browsed your furniture collection, or give a special discount on pet food to a customer who recently bought one.

This strategy will make your marketing messages resonate and position your brand as one that truly understands its customers.

More segmentation flexibility

Targeted email marketing provides the canvas for a more nuanced approach to segmentation. That’s because you are creating distinct groups based on some criteria.

Moreover, this segmentation flexibility allows you to create targeted emails that speak to each unique group. Maybe you are a content marketing manager who knows exactly which audience segments prefer infographics over blog posts, or which customers respond better to new product announcements versus promotional emails?

If that’s the case, and you’re aware of groups you can create, the world of possibilities for targeted email marketing is open to you.

Increased opportunities for A/B testing

A/B testing lets you be a digital marketing detective who constantly explores what resonates best with your people. Testing different subject lines, email designs, call-to-actions, and even send times, can gain invaluable insights into your audience’s preferences.

It’s like putting two options in front of the client and seeing which one draws a bigger crowd.

A/B testing in targeted campaigns allows you to refine every aspect of your email communication. This can boost the performance of your current campaign but also provide a roadmap for future campaigns.

How to do targeted email marketing, step-by-step

To create a targeted email marketing campaign, you need to take care of your goals, audience, data, email lists, and content. But one step at a time.

Here’s how you can effectively do targeted email marketing.

Define your email marketing goals

Start your journey with clear, measurable goals. They could range from increasing sales and boosting website traffic to enhancing customer loyalty, so do research and think about what you aim for with your targeted campaign.

This matters because setting specific objectives helps in creating focused content and determining the success of your campaigns. For instance, if the goal is to increase sales, your emails should include persuasive calls-to-action (CTAs) and links to product pages.

Understand your audience

If your goals are in place, now take a look at your audience: observe them, know their behaviors, pain points, preferences, needs, etc. This move is the cornerstone of successful targeted email marketing.

Begin by creating detailed customer personas – fictional representations of your ideal customers based on real data and educated speculation. Here, consider factors like demographics, interests, habits, and so on.

The more detailed your personas, the more tailored and effective your email content can be.

This understanding allows you to speak directly to your audience’s needs and interests and can increase customer satisfaction.

Collect and analyze data

Data is the lifeblood of targeted email marketing. But it isn’t enough – data alone will not provide as much information as a proper analysis of it.

You can start by gathering data through sign-up forms, surveys, or even tracking user interactions with your website and emails. Such data should include basic demographics, engagement history, and behavioral data.

Once collected, analyze this information to identify patterns and trends.

For example, there is a chance that one segment of your audience frequently opens emails about specific topics. If so, take advantage of this situation and create more content in those areas.

Build a good email list

Another necessary thing in sending targeted email campaigns is a robust email list. Focus on building a list of subscribers who are genuinely interested in your products or services. For that, utilize opt-in methods on your website, like newsletter sign-ups or content downloads. 

It’s vital to maintain the quality of your list by regularly cleaning it and removing inactive or unengaged subscribers. This not only improves engagement rates but also keeps your list compliant with email marketing regulations.

In this case, you can use Bouncer and its email list verification services. They will help you verify your email lists and clean them of invalid addresses. As a result, you will improve deliverability, performance, engagement, and ROI. You can also check whether email addresses are deliverable if an email will cause a hard bounce, verify email syntax, and much more.

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And if your needs are much bigger, try our
email verification API, which is easy to integrate, secure, and ultrafast.

Create personalized content and send it to segmented lists

Time to focus on content. But before preparing it, segment your email list based on chosen criteria, like:

  • purchase history,
  • age,
  • search queries,
  • location,
  • engagement level.

If you divide your recipients into groups, then you need to tailor your content so it can resonate with each segment. For instance, send product recommendations based on past purchases or offer region-specific promotions.

Such personalized emails can drive a deeper connection with your audience, as they feel that your content speaks directly to them. It is then no surprise such an approach often leads to higher metrics.

Use A/B testing to find out the best-performing email campaigns

If you are not sure which approach will be more effective in communicating with your audience, prepare two options and conduct A/B tests.

A/B testing lets you test different elements like subject lines, email content, or CTA buttons.

Thanks to this experiment, you may understand what resonates best with your audience and what to avoid.

It can improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns and contribute to the fact that you are always adapting to your audience’s preferences.

It also helps you get to know your existing customers better, identify their behavior, and learn for the future.

Monitor and analyze results

Our final step is nothing else than monitoring and analyzing the results of your campaigns.

Check out metrics, reports, and statements to gauge the effectiveness of your messages. You can also take advantage of your email marketing platform to see how your campaigns perform.

With Bouncer’s deliverability kit, you will stay up to date with your domain and IP’s reputation. You will also know how your email deliverability is going or if you are on block lists. Test your inbox placement as well as your email set-up and make essential adjustments.

As you want to achieve your marketing objectives, you must keep monitoring your activities and react accordingly. But with Bouncer, this is not the problem.

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Improve your targeted email marketing campaign

And here we are, after our targeted email marketing overview.

As you see, these times, email marketing isn’t just about blasting out promotional messages – it’s the art of hitting the right note with the right audience at just the right time.

And you can achieve this with targeted campaigns and Bouncer’s help.

Our email marketing platform can help you segment your audience, adjust emails, improve deliverability, boost email marketing success, and more.

So, if you are looking for a reliable partner in email marketing, don’t hesitate. Sign up and start for free today.

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