Why you need to segment your client marketing list

Receive enough marketing emails from professional services firms, and you’ll soon work out that few segment their client mailing lists. They prefer instead to send everything to everyone on their mailing list. Nor, in many cases, do these professional services firms understand why segmenting their email marketing lists is an important process to go through. 

At GSJ we believe that by not segmenting your client list to the relevant readership, you’re missing out on a ton of business development opportunities. 

If you want to rectify this error, you should start by classifying your current client and target client lists.

Segmentation options for client marketing lists

1. Industry sector

Not only is there a big difference between government and private sector clients, there are also big differences between individual industries. Is your client in health, law, education, manufacturing, mining, technology, and the list goes on. Of course, there will be a general cross-over for many of these, but there are also very unique differences for some of the information and knowledge you may have to share.

With the range of industries and sectors you are likely to be working with (both now and in the future), there are almost certainly going to be different needs and concerns and so you will need to market to those sectors differently.

2. Geographic location

How would you feel being invited to a client event, CLE or seminar that you would really like to attend only to find out it is in a part of the country that you have absolutely no chance of getting to? Or maybe it’s not even in your country.

You should ensure that email marketing campaigns that rely on a geographical location are sent to appropriately segmented email lists.

3. Seniority

Is the client a decision-maker or a junior looking to up-skill their knowledge? Because it is very unlikely any emails you send will be the same for both groups.

4. Nature of your relationship

Is your client a target client or current premium client? Are you sending the information to profile the firm name or provide a solid value-added service? You will likely only send brand-building emails to target clients. And on the flip side, you will send brand-affirming emails to your current premium clients.

5. Specific and unique needs

Do some of your clients have particular needs? They may be environmental risks or competition or tax concerns. You can target your content appropriately to meet their specific needs.

6. Preferred method of communication

Even in today’s highly advance technological world, some people still live for snail mail, so having them on an email marketing list may not be the best option. Others may simply want a phone call. 

If they’re a valuable client, you need to respect that choice to build and retain a strong relationship with that client. 

But for many people, digital consumption is the choice. But you still need to know if that’s personal emails, email campaigns, or e-newsletters. 

Benefits of a segmented client mailing list

A properly segmented client mailing list will result in:

• targeted communication;

• better allocation of internal resources – which are scarce;

• higher readership;

• higher engagement;

• more awareness of people movements;

• a more adaptable approach to market change;

• higher referrals; and

• better insights.

To do this properly, you need to be asking:

“What does my client need to know, and how would they prefer I tell them?”

Get this right, and you’ll be sending highly relevant information to the right people!

Added to that, you now have engaged and happy clients who look forward to your newsletters, marketing and business development initiatives, and suddenly it should be a “no brainer” why you need to be segmenting your client lists!