Email Marketing

Email is a push channel - a direct and personal way to communicate with your customers. Think about it: whenever you sign up for a service or app, you’re required to “Confirm your account” through your email, right? It’s because email is a personal space.

Our inboxes hold our “darkest secrets,” like those subscriptions to competitors’ newsletters no one knows about except us. When people check their emails, they step into an intimate space where every message feels intentional. That’s why spammy, irrelevant, or poorly crafted emails feel so intrusive.

As marketers, it’s our responsibility to make our emails useful and relevant to our audience.

Ask yourself:

• What do my customers want to see from me?

• What is my goal with this email?

• If you don’t have a clear goal, you probably shouldn’t hit “send.”

No one likes being spammed with useless emails. And nothing feels more useless than an irrelevant suggestion - like being told to buy a pink dog bowl when you don’t even have a dog!

This is where segmentation comes in. Segmentation is the process of dividing your audience into smaller, more meaningful groups based on shared traits, behaviors, or preferences. The way you segment your audience will depend on your industry, but here’s a practical example:

If you’re selling skincare products, you might want to segment your audience by age. A “30+ aging cream” with strong retinol content should only go to people over 30. Otherwise, you risk confusing (or even offending) a large portion of your audience. But when sent to the right segment, that email can perform wonders.

Segmentation ensures that your emails are targeted, relevant, and less likely to annoy your subscribers. Once your audience is segmented, the next step is to tailor your message specifically to their needs. Let’s explore how.

After segmenting your audience, personalization takes your email marketing to the next level. Personalization means tailoring the email content to match the preferences, demographics, or attributes of each segment. This could include using personalization tokens like names, ages, cities, or past purchases.

Example 1: B2C (Business-to-Consumer)

Imagine you run a subscription box company that delivers fresh meal ingredients. You’ve segmented your audience by dietary preferences. When emailing your vegan subscribers, you only feature colourful vegan-friendly options, with a message like:

“We thought you’d love this dish.”

You can even take it further by segmenting based on age. For example, your vegan audience aged 18–24 might receive emails styled with bold, trendy designs and meals tailored to their tastes.

Example 2: B2B (Business-to-Business)

If you’re working for a B2B software company, segmentation might focus on job industries and titles. For instance, a junior employee might get an email encouraging them to “Suggest this to your higher-ups to improve company workflows.” Meanwhile, a manager might receive a more tailored message: “Consider this during your next review session.”

Why It Matters

Personalized emails feel relevant and helpful, increasing engagement rates. When you tailor your message to your audience’s specific needs, you create a connection that generic emails can’t achieve.

If you’re looking for inspiration, check out this blog post on email personalization.

At this point, you might be wondering: How do I keep track of all these segments and personalized campaigns? This is where a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and automation tools come into play.

CRMs can help you organize your email lists, track customer interactions, and set up automated workflows. Automation tools make it possible to send the right email to the right person at the right time - without the need for constant manual effort.

To learn more about automation and CRMs, read this guide on email marketing tools.

Email marketing is a powerful tool, but only when done right. By understanding your audience, segmenting effectively, and personalizing your messages, you can create campaigns that resonate and drive results. Remember: your audience’s inbox is a personal space-make your emails worth their time.