Segmenting your donors and members can be both the bane and the saving grace of a digital marketer’s existence. Ideally, each marketing message (from a simple Facebook social post to an elaborate email marketing program) should be targeted exactly to the portion of the audience that will find it most relevant, and is most likely to act on the call to action. In this article, I will review some of the challenges and value of utilizing segmentation in your nonprofit marketing processes.
Segmenting is Powerful in Top Marketing Automation Software for Nonprofits
While segmenting donors may be a goal, segmentation is often difficult without the proper marketing database software. Not only does it include gathering enough relevant data about your potential constituents to make segmentation effective, it also requires an easy way to segment these supporters based on the information provided. Often, that second step is where segmentation falters; not surprisingly, effective targeting is commonly named among the major obstacles of digital marketing.
Fortunately, as our digital marketing needs have evolved away from batch and blast methodology, so has the ability to effectively and efficiently segment. Thank goodness! And one of the major developments aiding marketers has been the rise of marketing automation software, which helps in both steps of the segmentation process:
Getting Smart with Segmentation of Data
For any segmentation effort to be effective, it has to rely on reliable, thorough data. Marketing automation software like Leads Liaison, Act-On and Informz ease the process through landing pages, which gather information about your leads as they enter the sales funnel.
Smart forms have especially helped marketers in this step, as they provide only the form fields for properties they have not yet entered in previous interactions with the website. This both shortens the form and allows marketers to get more in-depth information about their potential supporters, and thus is a significant help in gathering segmentation data.
Segmenting Supporters with Good Data
Gathering the data matters little if you don’t use it for effective segmentation. Thus, marketing automation software often includes easy ways to segment, from the ability to create workflows not just on contacts but specific properties, all the way to allowing exclusion lists in email sends. Solutions like Marketo also offer thorough tutorials that explain just how supporters (potential leads) can and should be segmented to be used effectively.
And, in many leading marketing automation platforms, segmenting can allow you to do the following:
Combine profile attributes: Title, Department, Location, Etc.
With observed behaviors: Visited specific page, Attended a webinar, Downloaded xyz content, Etc.
And a specified time frame:1 day, 7 days, 14 days, …and so on
In short, marketing automation software has significantly eased the process of segmentation and helped marketers in nonprofits increase the effectiveness of their efforts. In my experience, segmentation is the secret sauce that helps you make your email marketing messages personal and relevant to your unique audiences, boosting member engagement and increasing conversion.
If your marketing strategy could use a segmentation boost, contact us! We’ll be happy to help you find the right solution. Until then, please keep SmartThoughts in mind.
