Why you must segment your email database
2 Comments
If you’re making a regionally-specific offer, it should only be sent to people that can act on it.
For example, Amway Grand Plaza Hotel recently sent me the email below:
Creating a “neighbors” rate for residents of their 616 Grand Rapids, Michigan area code may be a good idea – but they should have known I live in San Francisco, making this offer irrelevant to me. (And I’m not just picking on Amway Grand Plaza – I’ve received many similar emails from other hotels)
Failing to segment their audience probably alienated a lot of people on their list.
How could they have obtained my home location?
- From my guest record (if I stayed with them, which I have not)
- When I signed up for their list, on the opt-in form
- In a survey sent sometime during our email relationship
Take a look at this email I received today from Sirius Radio – they’re asking my listening preferences, so they can send relevant messages in the future:
I like this, and would like to see more hotels using this tactic.
Find practical tips on “how” to properly segment your database in the Savvy Hotelier’s Guide to Email Marketing
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I love this tactic too, and it’s very easy to do code wise. In one of my companies for example I whipped up some additional code that sits in one part of the navigation of an ezine. If there’s an event coming up that’s in a postcode near the one we have registered for that recipient (assuming we have their postcode, which is the case in 95% of the mailouts) the code tailors that content to the user and invites them to the event which we are putting on ‘specially for them’ etc.
A couple of weeks I moved this over to a different mailout which visitors get when they apply for a brochure. We’ve also done this on TP before, based on countries users live in. This is also one reason why I’d recommend any company to code their own newsletter distribution system. It’s easy to do, and this kind of control and granularity is worth its weight in gold.
It’s also not rocket science, but this kind of connecting with those interested in your product in a way that makes sense to them is what good marketing is all about, on- and offline!!
Nice tips, Sam!