3 Tips on Using Your Marketing List to Outperform Your Goals

All of this data can be used to create email campaigns that allow marketers to directly message a given audience.

I’m sure we’ve all been on the receiving end of one of these email campaigns driven by a list we’re on. I can look at my inbox at almost any point of the day and will see outreach from a number of organizations. Some of which I am excited to hear from because I willingly subscribed on their site to receive their content.

But sometimes I have to ask myself, “How did I get on this specific company’s radar and where did they get my info from?” As a marketer, that’s not a question that we want our customers or prospects asking.

What’s likely happened, is that a company, who I have no real interest in, probably purchased a marketing list from a third party, I happen to be on that list and now they’re emailing me. That’s not an effective strategy.

So, how do we build an email marketing list the “right” way, with recipients looking forward to receiving our content? Whether you are trying to engage users with content to drive optins and subscriptions, capturing leads, or segmenting and personalizing your marketing messages, experimentation can help optimize your marketing list strategy.

1. Experimenting on your main blog page can help drive deeper engagement with blog content. Some experiments that we have seen drive clicks to blog articles or subject pages include adding search, changing the order of subject icons, and testing page layout to move content above the fold.
2. After a prospect has engaged with your blog, lead capture forms have many elements that can be tested and improved. Headlines, images, copy and calls to action are just a few of the elements that you can easily change to learn what drives more customer acquisition.
3. Segmentation and personalization strategies help marketing teams outperform their goals. Remember that a marketing list is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s not a good idea to blast your entire list with every email you want to send out. Experiment with segmentation by past purchases, loyalty tier or content topic. And, Once your email marketing efforts bring visitors back to your site it can be effective to personalize that visitor’s return experience to increase sales with unique messages for prospects in different geographies or with specific content interests.

A Few Options for Testing

Together these strategies can help any business, from online retailers, to media companies to B2B tech startups engage customers, earn their interest, and ultimately increase sales. For an even deeper dive into marketing lists and the experiences and experiments that can help you deliver success and outperform your goals, view our webinar ‘Using Your Marketing List to Outperform Your Goals.’