Marketing ROI is tied directly to message relevance. Consumers have no time for messages that are of no significance to them, and marketers can achieve higher engagement rates only by making their messages more relevant.
So the question is: how then do you make your marketing messages more relevant? The answer: by tailoring your messages for specific segments of your target audience.
By gaining a deeper understanding of the subgroups within your target market, you can better appeal to their pain points. But to gain such an understanding of your audience and identify their common traits, you first need to have the right data.
Ensure that your data will serve your goals.
Before you do anything else, you should outline your goals and determine what data you need to achieve them. You should have already accumulated a trove of data over the years. You need to ensure that it is accurate and up to date and then figure out what’s missing.
B2B businesses have traditionally had a hard time maintaining the accuracy of their data, as people frequently change jobs and roles. You need to have your database audited and cleaned frequently to ensure that it gives your campaigns adequate support. Once your database has been audited, you can then decide what additional information will give it the depth needed for your marketing goals.
Profile your audience to ensure greater message relevance.
Historically, segmentation has relied on geographic and demographic information such as age, marital status, income range, and zip code, but new data fields can also enable psychographic and behavioural segmentation. These make it possible to spot subtle differences that allow for tighter segmentation.
Once you have all the necessary data, you can profile your target audiences. In inbound marketing this would mean developing your buyer personas. This is where segmentation works its magic. By separating customers and prospects into distinct groups with similar attributes, you make it possible to target them with tailored messages.
With the right data, campaigns can be tweaked for greater marketing ROI.
When done right, segmentation should identify both your best customers and the most effective means of engaging them. As the surest way to improve marketing ROI, this activity deserves as much attention as, if not more than, any other tasks performed by your marketing department.
But how do you determine whether an optimised campaign is delivering greater ROI? You use performance analytics to measure the things that matter. These will vary from campaign to campaign, but will mostly rely on engagement rates. Once you know what works and what doesn’t, greater ROI is just a matter a tweaking your approach for the greatest impact.
Analytics can ensure that future campaigns are optimised for ROI.
Analytics also allow for the optimisation of future campaigns by providing predictive modeling and Lifetime Value (CLV) calculations for potential customers. Predictive modeling uses a record of past behaviours to predict future interactions, and CLV calculations helps determine which audience groups will provide the greatest return if targeted. Both enable marketers to give their brands a distinctive strategic advantage while ensuring the greatest marketing ROI.
If your current database lacks the in-depth data needed to properly segment your target audience, you probably need to enrich it with strategically chosen third party data. AT GCL, we go to lengths to provide our customers with the most relevant and accurate data available. If you would like to learn more about how our data enhancement service can improve your marketing ROI, visit our website for more information.
Image Credit: General Assembly
