Do You Segment Your Leads and Prospects?

I’m surprised how many companies take their databases for granted.

They did a good job at one point collecting leads from purchased lists, trade show badge swipes, web hits and referrals. But then the data starts to suffer from a lack of attention, no new investment of resources or energy and just some poor data management. A lot of companies never clean the data and most companies just copy the data from a hodge podge of lists randomly into their CRM system or their email marketing program.

But a lot of the literature shows that companies who invest time and money into deduping their lists and segmenting their prospects into groups like industry verticals, job titles, job functions (which are often different than titles), associations and the like see much better response rates.

Ian Michiels, a senior analyst for the Aberdeen Group, says, “Best-in-class companies keep very robust databases to help understand their customers, the buying cycle, the needs, desires, wants, behavior, etc. These components should play a role in developing the marketing message and segmenting into unique market segments.”

So, allow me to translate that from marketing wonk-speak into plain English. If you can send the right message to a person you have targeted to be receptive to that message, you will improve your email response rates from an industry average of 1-2% to a best-in-class 5% or higher.

Let that sink in for a second. A mass email blast will average a 1-2% response. But by improving your data and customizing your emails by whatever your important segments are, you can more than double your results. Would doubling your response rates take some pressure off of your lead generation efforts?

Photo credit: Micky