Have you ever received an email from a brand you like to do business with, but they’re promoting a product that you have no interest in?
If you have, the brand is relying on a traditional method of email marketing that focuses on casting a wide net with generic mailings to a long list of recipients. And what are those recipients likely to do? Either unsubscribe or mark the email as spam, which not only loses the company a customer but also damages their reputation with the email service provider.
These days, with the sheer number of emails arriving in the average person’s inbox, people have very little tolerance for irrelevant emails. People want emails that are personalized to their interests and priorities.
That’s where CRM email marketing comes in.
CRM email marketing delivers what customers want and what brands need in order to achieve their marketing goals. So, why is CRM email marketing so effective? And how does it help to personalize emails? Read on for the answers.
What Is CRM Email Marketing, and Why Is It Effective?
CRM email marketing combines your CRM software and email marketing software so that the two are “talking” to each other with data. One of the most significant processes that comes out of this is segmentation.
Segmentation divides subscribers based on a number of factors, including:
- Demographic information
- Expressed content interests
- Requested email frequency
- Website activity
- Purchase history
- Email engagement
For recipients, this means that they receive more relevant content in their inboxes. The emails contain content that they actually want to read and that offers them value. For brands, this means that they can make more meaningful connections with customers which leads to greater loyalty and more revenue.
According to a study conducted by Mailchimp, compared to non-segmented campaigns, segmented campaigns have:
- 14.31 percent higher open rates
- 100.95 percent higher click-through rates
- 9.37 percent lower unsubscribe rates
Most email marketing platforms make segmentation simple and automated, but this comes with time. You need plenty of content in order to gather data points that can then contribute to a segmentation strategy. Over time, your email campaigns will become more granular and targeted.
Using Your CRM for Personalized Email Marketing
Personalization is no longer a luxury—it’s an expectation. According to a study conducted by McKinsey & Company, 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. Customer retention is as much about a company’s treatment of the customer as it is about the quality of the product or service.
Achieving personalization means collecting and leveraging customer data.
Let’s look at a few of the ways you can use your CRM to build an effective personalized email marketing strategy:
1. Warm familiarity starts with cold, hard data.
First, you need to make sure you’re tracking the right data points to inform your email strategy. As we mentioned in the previous section, this data should reveal customer behaviors, demographics, and website activity, among others.
The good news is that gathering this data is easy. The tricky news is that many organizations are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data. According to a study conducted by Deloitte, companies on average have:
- 16 different technology applications used to leverage customer data
- 25 different data sources that are used to generate customer insight
With so many tools in play, it’s not uncommon for organizations to begin showing signs of poor data hygiene, which can lead to inaccurate decisions. The right CRM and analytics partner can help you clean up your database and track the right data so you can segment customers and launch personalized email campaigns based on accurate data.
2. Timing is everything.
Have you ever been shopping online, selecting a few items for your shopping cart, and suddenly been interrupted by a phone call? Later in the day, you might receive an email from that company reminding you that you have items in your shopping cart.
This is a great example of a well-timed email that uses data based on your activity on their website. Data on buying behaviors or a customer’s history with your brand can also inform the right time to send emails that remind them to use a personalized promo before it ends or to share helpful information based on where they are in the sales funnel.
3. Keep the content relevant.
Ultimately, your CRM data should help you communicate relevant messages with your customers and leads. This may look like providing proactive customer service, sending personalized offers, or recommending relevant products—whatever the case, you’re providing value in your recipient’s inboxes, not generic content that the receiver might consider spam.
Take the Next Step
A personalized approach to your email marketing means:
- Your recipients receive content that’s relevant to their needs.
- You create meaningful connections with your customers which leads to brand loyalty and more revenue.
By harnessing the power of CRM email marketing software, you will create email strategies that are based on customer data.
So, how effectively are you leveraging customer data? Find out by taking our CRM & Analytics Checkup Assessment.
