Once you’ve done the footwork of establishing your company’s buyer personas, the marketing planning that comes after becomes a whole lot easier. Instead of selling to an entire geographic region or vertical market, you can envision selling to one (fictional) person who has likes, dislikes, and goals – just like you and me.
Personas are also pivotal to crafting effective email marketing campaigns. Highly targeted emails get more opens, clicks, and engagement. Targeted emails are also more optimized for lead generation and likely to result in increased conversions.
Speaking directly to a buyer persona’s pain points is key when it comes to the strategy and messaging of an email campaign. Consider their buying stage, demographics, role at the company, etc. This way, when it comes to crafting the bigger picture strategy, or something smaller like a subject line, you’ll know what to say and how to say it.
Here are a few actionable ways to apply this targeted approach to email marketing:
Campaign Strategy and Goals
Every great email marketing campaign has an overarching goal and, ideally, is based off of where your typical buyer is in the buying process.
If a typical buyer hasn’t heard of your company before, you are better off sending an email campaign that focuses on brand awareness. The further they get down the funnel, transition to a more lead-focused strategy.
Segment your List
Segmenting your email list makes a huge difference when it comes to sending targeted campaigns.The identifiers that are most important to a company will determine what segments to choose, but here are some ideas on how to break it up:
- Sales stage (Prospect, former customer, etc.)
- Title/position (IT Director, CIO)
- Interests (webpages visited, resources downloaded, emails opened)
- Partners (or potential partners)
- Vertical markets
Once an email list is segmented out, it makes it really easy to pull a particular list and send a highly targeted campaign. For example, if you are an internet provider whose target buyer is an IT Director, you can pull a list of all IT Directors in the database and send a campaign specific to them.
To take it a step further, if your company is running a promotion on SD-WAN, you can segment the IT Director list further to those who have visited your SD-WAN service page.
Write Compelling Copy
This should go without saying, but steer clear of listing off your company’s services. Instead, envision your buyer persona’s everyday problems…how can your company help solve them? Take into consideration a buyer’s biggest concerns and struggles, and then write copy that will address those concerns.
Also, consider word usage and particular phrases. The words used to market to a Millennial are going to be different than those used to speak to a Baby Boomer. So take into consideration things like age and educational background. Would the reader respond well to complex words or a colloquial approach? All of these considerations can help hone in on a message that will speak to the persona.
Provide a Tailored Offer
What does your buyer persona value most (time, money)? Depending on what is most important to them will determine what offer to present. Just make sure the offer speaks to what is valuable to the buyer.
Also, present the offer at the very end of the campaign. After hearing a consistent targeted message for a few weeks, the reader is a lot more likely to convert.
Buyer personas lay a great foundation for email marketing. If you’re struggling to find the time or desire to build them out properly, Mojo can take on the burden with our refined strategy and process. Contact us today to chat about getting started!
