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The basis of a successful B2B email campaign is, at the very least, the personalisation of emails. To avoid sending the same mass email to all your prospects, it is important to segment your list of subscribers. Here are a few ways of segmenting your list in a relevant way.
Segmentation and its benefits
As part of a marketing strategy, it's vital not to put all your contacts on a single mailing list. What could be more rewarding for a corporate customer than to feel valued by an e-mail with content that is precisely tailored to their expectations? To respect this principle, you need to segment your subscribers into several lists. Otherwise, your prospects run the risk of losing interest in poorly-targeted e-mails, leading to damaging unsubscribe rates. The result - emails ending up in spam, disinterest and a lack of response - can be catastrophic.
That's why your company's marketing department needs to take particular care with the segmentation of your subscriber list, as much as with the content of your emails. Each recipient's needs, profile and level of maturity in a B2B inbound marketing campaign are unique.
Data to feed your lists
A good marketing strategy starts by getting to know your future customers as well as possible, so that you can offer them the content they expect in an e-mail, at the most opportune moment. The first tactic is therefore to gather all possible data on the companies that come to you. A registration link in an e-mail is a first source, since it includes a simple visitor in your subscriber lists.
However, it is through the behaviour of these potential customers, when they interact with your emails or your website, that valuable data can be gathered to develop your contact segmentation. This information will be provided by appropriate analysis tools.
What marketing criteria should be used to segment?
There are many criteria that can be used to segment your subscriber list. The most common is socio-demographic data, in which the position held by your contacts within the client company plays a key role. It is also advisable to segment according to the observed behaviour of your prospects, such as opening an e-mail, downloading a file or visiting a web page.
To read Le role du storytelling dans l’email marketing B2B
Lead scoring tools will give you information about the stage of maturity of your leads, which calls for appropriate segmentation within email campaigns. If your future customers are looking for certain products, an e-mail containing information about that product range will be welcome. If they are interested in the products sold by your company, an e-mail testifying to the satisfaction of your former customers could encourage them to make a commitment.
Other segmentation levels
Other levels of segmentation are possible, for even greater personalisation of your e-mails. The time of day at which an e-mail is sent is sometimes a factor in a good open rate. Subscribers who have been inactive for too long can be targeted with a reminder email, or removed from the list so as not to increase the failure rate. However, don't multiply the segments unnecessarily, or you risk obtaining lists that are too complex.
Constantly updated lists
Relevant and responsive segmentation requires an automation tool, which is the foundation of any marketing strategy. Once your segments are well defined, it's up to your marketing team to keep them up to date. Your subscribers will frequently need to migrate from one list to another as their expectations evolve.
Lastly, comply with the General Data Protection Regulation: it would be a shame to compromise your email campaigns by failing to obtain the consent of one of your customers to the use of their personal data!
