One of the hardest concepts for small businesses to buy into is the idea of segmenting their target audience and building messages based on customer needs.
Either time, technology or knowledge seems to hamper this type of true target marketing for smaller businesses. Email promotions or customer retention programs are usually sent out to one group all the same. I know that large retailers and national service organizations are on board to segment their various audiences and then they can email more relevant messages and draw better results.
But what about small businesses? If your house list is only 400 addresses, are you thinking you can treat those 400 individuals as one? Think hard about those 400 individuals - are there even just a couple of significant characteristics that make half those business prospects unique? If so, put those people into a group of their own and recreate your message to address that unique characteristic. If you do, your message will more likely be opened and read!
For more on audience segmentation, see Stefan Pollard's Five Tips for Building Better Segments at http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=clickz_print&id=3630580
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