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[ Targeted Email Marketing ] By Arthur Antigone

One of the biggest mistakes novice email marketers succumb to is not targeting prospective customers thoroughly. An email campaign that targets a niche audience is much more likely to succeed than one that simply grasps at anyone willing to listen. If you want to succeed in email marketing, you have to research your target audience. You must find out what needs they have, and then develop a message that tells them how you can fill that need. It is the best way to succeed when conducting business over the Web.

Personalization and Targeted Email Marketing Campaigns

Part of targeting your clients is personalizing your messages. Potential customers are much more likely to respond positively to your marketing messages when you pay personal attention to them. How do you do this? There are many ways to personalize and target your audience. Here are some considerations that will help personalize your email marketing campaign:

• Look for a service with list segmentation. Services that include list segmentation free of charge make it very easy to target specific subscriber demographics. One such service is FXstyle.
  
  
• Always greet your target audience with a personal message. Sometimes you may need to be formal, and other times you may use a casual greeting that includes the recipients name to address them. This depends largely on the type of services you plan to provide. Always greet with a Dear “X” when addressing a business consumer.
  
  
• You should always include information about a particular product or service you offer when marketing your target audience. Even better, if you have information about a product or service your customer has already purchased, you can reference this when addressing them. This lets them know you are aware of their needs and doing what it takes to meet them.
  
  
• Always affiliate your business with an established business. If for example you are a member of the Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau, you should state so in your message. You should also provide some sort of identifying information to recipients, such as your location. This helps them visualize your business and adds to the professional nature of your message.

While it is important to target your audience and remain personal, you should always avoid being too casual when emailing people. If you are too casual, people will not take your business seriously. This is especially important when working with business clients. One way to present a professional but friendly image is to provide your clients with your business information. You should include your company name, Web address and email or other contact information to all recipients when sending a targeted email message. This assures your customer you are available to meet their needs all day, any day. It will also assure your customers of your authenticity and professionalism.

Recommended Targeted Email Marketing Software

We use and recommend permission-based email marketing software FXstyle. FXstyle makes is very easy to target subscribers through list segmentation and create, send, and track professional permission-based emails newsletters, surveys, and autoresponders.