The market is shifting. There is a need for more technology and less people to manage ‘big data’. Large corporations are finding themselves having to handle huge databases and a wide variety of audience types, tailoring the messaging for each individual user. But tools and programmes which help with this automation and segmentation begin at around £1000 per month, so it’s largely unobtainable for most UK business…so what can you do?
The reason that businesses have begun moving towards automation is due to data becoming unmanageable. However for SMBs this is not the case – if you have an email database of over 2000 you are doing well! But the principles of automated marketing still apply and are incredibly powerful for any sized business. Having the ability to track and monitor individual users, and therefore personalise their experience on your website and outbound marketing, will both increase the value of each user and your overall ROI.
But instead of having machines to do this for you, it’s down to you as the business owner to initiate and manage your different audience profiles. The first step is to ensure that you have segmented your current database – if you haven’t, make sure that in your next email you send you ask them to classify which area of the business they are interested in, along with their demographic and geographic information. This allows you to use email and analytics software to send bespoke marketing messages that relate to their age, location and interests.
Through a successful user profiling scheme, you will find you achieve the same results as automated marketing for a portion of the cost…albeit with more manpower resources exerted!
