One-to-One Email Marketing: Worthwhile for Small Businesses?
One-to-one marketing is not a new concept – in fact, a hyper-personalized customer approach is something marketers first began using in-store.
It makes perfect sense that customers are more likely to pay attention to your brand communications when you absolutely nail the content tailored ot their specific needs, wants, and interests. So it’s also no surprise that as email marketing continues to gain strength, thanks to advanced CRM and ESP functions, that one-to-one or personalized communications were among the top predictions for email marketing in 2017.
Sure, personalizing content for subscribers might seem a little less daunting when you have a robust marketing budget to afford software to manage massive subscriber lists and smartly deliver queued relevant content to them.
But what about the one-man marketing team? What about the small business with a quality, engaged email list – who deserves the content they really want no less – but perhaps doesn’t have the time or budget to use an advanced CRM software? Is it worthwhile to expend effort on personalized email marketing to a smaller subscriber base?
Yes, it certainly can be.
The Case For Small Businesses & One-to-One Marketing
Okay let’s back up. What exactly am I talking about when I say ‘One-to-One email marketing’ … or even better, ‘personalized ecommerce email marketing’?
One-to-one marketing is really just all about getting specific. Instead of mass emailing one email to one subscriber list, it’s using customer data and delivering the most relevant content based on what you know about the subscriber.
It’s a natural transgression for large companies and retailers, to get closer to their customers through hyper-personalized campaigns, but it is possible for smaller businesses to achieve as well.
For starters, with some Privy plans, a simple way to get specific would be to identify detected attributes and user level analytics.
When did they sign up to your list? Celebrate one year of being ‘friends’! It’s an important milestone and perfect opportunity to remind them of your brand.
Where are they geographically located? Target specific locations to offer free shipping.
What led them to your site in the first place? Show them content similar to the ad they clicked through, or the Facebook contest which led them to be interested in your brand.
Have they shopped with you before? Show them relevant products or new items.
The key for a small business attempting a one-to-one marketing approach is to still keep it simple. Identify a few specific data points that would make sense for your customers, then create an evergreen email to send to a hyper-targeted segment each time a new subscriber fits the mould. The more specific, the better, since the whole point of one-to-one marketing is to treat each subscriber as an individual after all.
Have you tried to add more personalization into your marketing? What works best for your small business? Let us know!
Related: learn how to grow your email list by personalizing your on-site experience in Email List Growth 101.
