Relevance via segmentation
Stefan Pollard from EmailLabs has posted a great 5 tips article over at Clickz. It starts with "One size does not fit all." Of course we couldn't agree more... You can read the full article here http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627972.
#2 on his list really stands out because it points out the interconnectedness of all forms of online marketing. Use the search engine optimization terms that drive the most traffic to your site. That is, use converting keywords (a favorite term of my friend Rob Snell) to help form your customer segments. It sounds simple enough but is really insightful.
Let's use an example of a baseball and softball bat store. The most popular keywords are going to be baseball, softball, bat, little league, fastpitch, glove, slowpitch, and so forth. The keyword list highlights the nearly natural segments that occur among the customers for the retailer. People who buy baseball are more interested in a baseball targeteed message than a softball message (and vice versa). Someone who recently bought a bat is more interested in hearing about accessories than the newest bat on the market.
We're lucky in that we are able to capture converting keyword data in the Top Right dashboard and leverage it to create segments. What used to be disparate tactics (email are search) are now combined to a greater effect. We know what people are searching and in many cases those search terms form the foundation for natural customer segments. It's simple but extremely powerful.
