Tip 9 - Email Segmentation For Effective Communications

blog 2017
Written By Andrew Ford

Once a prospect enters your digital ecosystem and gives you their email address, what's next?

Do you have a plan to build a relationship with them? Many businesses, when they first start out, don't have an email plan to nurture prospects through the buying process and beyond. The first step is to segment your buyers into personas and have different email lists.

An email address is a sign of trust and should be treated with respect and consideration. What did you promise the prospect to get the email address with your call to actions (CTA)? If it was advice on a specific topic, ensure you provide that value to them. The fastest way to get them to move along the buying journey is to give them useful information to solve their problem. Not easy when you don't know them yet, so here are some tips to get you started.

Email segmentation process

The first step is to create buyer personas for each of the groups you are targeting. These personas are attributes that make these prospects different from other people but similar enough to be grouped together. It could be demographic (age, income, location etc), or psychographic (beliefs and behaviours) depending on your business. Once you have these attributes, think of your perfect client in this group. Give them a name and specifically define what their problem is, what solutions they are looking for and what would make them buy from you. Then when writing and planning your marketing content, visualise this person in your mind and ensure it would be useful and motivational for them.

Next, we create the content to catch their attention and drive them to our website to progress their buyer's journey with our effective CTAs. Once they have submitted their email address on our website, where does it take them? You will need an email program to capture the content and send out your communications from.

Email groups

Segment your email list into groups will increase your open and conversion rates. The goal is to send the right, related and useful information to the right person at the right time. Easier said than done!

Start with a list for prospects for each product you are selling. This list you will digitally nurture them with useful information about their problem to help them take the next step in the buying process. If your products all relate to the one client problem this can be one list.

The second list is for clients that are in the consideration phase of the buying cycle. These clients have opted into your sales process and want to know more, so give it to them! Invite them to your events, offer them a free phone consultation, invite them to get a copy of your book etc

The next list is the client list. These are active clients that you are working with and want to keep up to date with your business developments. New products, functions, changes of staff and useful updates to their products etc

The final list is the completed clients. They have finished the buying process and can be great referrals for new business. Depending on your situation, you might want to keep them up to date with your business and product offerings or delight them with surprises and special offers from time to time.

By segmenting your database into different groups, you will be closer to making your mass communications more personal and relevant to your prospects.

Cheers Andrew

P.S I'm hosting Tim Dwyer, CEO Shirlaw's and Dent Coach, for a special event for small business owners. It will be a deep dive into how to develop deeper foundations in your small business by understanding and managing your time more effectively so you can build more capability and capacity. Social Star clients are welcome to join and receive a 2 for 1 ticket. Click here for more details.

Andrew Ford
Marketing expert Andrew Ford, the founder of Social Star, has discovered the secret of ‘Powerful Branding’. With a fire for unleashing people’s inner brand and developing business models to generate profit from an individual’s passions, Andrew leverages ground-breaking digital and social media marketing techniques to create digital strategies for clients to attract maximum opportunities. Having established a strong name for himself in the field, Andrew blends traditional business techniques with now-necessary tools for entrepreneurs to achieve scale, quality, and influence in their niche. Andrew’s comprehensive business background and qualifications consist of a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) (RMIT 2003), a Graduate Certificate in Management (MBA Executive Program, University of Sydney 2005), and a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Swinburne University 2011). Continually on the cutting edge of his own education, Andrew has tested his marketing theories in forums such as the BCG Business Strategy Competition, which he won in 2005 against all Victorian MBA schools, and the Venture Cup Business Plan Competition (Swinburne University 2003), which he won in the Masters category. With experience working at Hewlett-Packard, Sensis (Telstra) and IBM, Andrew also has mentored dozens of junior staffs to help them achieve their professional goals. Meeting and influencing high-profile public figures helped Andrew to realise just how many professionals require more understanding and control of their public brands or appearance, and need help with the skills to use the many amazing free tools at their disposal to generate success. At Social Star, Andrew consults with clients to uncover their personal brand – both where it is today and where it can be tomorrow – and refine and define how that should be displayed in social media in order to attract their perfect target audience. Andrew mentors his clients to rapidly grow their business’ audiences, resulting in larger potential client bases and higher revenue. Applying formulas that integrate over twenty years of Andrew’s business experience and fifteen years of formal business education, Social Star specialises in building clarity and velocity for clients’ brands using the ‘Understand, Build and Leverage’ methodology. ‘Having a Personal Business enables people to have an authentic, congruent connection with their valued clients and partners, using their brand as the bridge,’ says Andrew. ‘I’m highly driven to work with the new breed of entrepreneurs and small business owners – people who have a passion for making the world a better place. Traditional business models are stepping aside as people follow their innermost dreams and my role is to see them operate within their values while creating wealth. Some people think you have to sacrifice what you love to be successful in your business, yet it is actually the opposite. Follow your passion and success will come.’ Lecturing at Swinburne University from 2009 to 2011 on brand dynamics and digital marketing, presenting at numerous conferences, and consulting to hundreds of clients, Andrew has seen his philosophy work that if you follow your unique path, based on your skills, experience, values and goals, you will automatically attract the opportunities you desire and achieve the success you deserve. Living his mantra, Andrew has created a successful business and attracts high-profile clients including musicians, athletes, authors, models, entrepreneurs, professionals and small business owners, helping them find their ‘why’ in their business and fulfilment in their lives. Business for Andrew is more than work, it’s personal. Running a personal business means that he is able to fulfil all of his values rather than separating his life from work. It supports his two boys while providing social opportunities, educational development, fitness opportunities, spiritual fulfilment and many valuable friendships. Social Star has now become the vehicle for Andrew to crystallise his mission in the world, to help people love what they do, supporting his ‘why’, that if more people loved what they did, the world would be a better place.
http://www.andrewford.com.au/
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