Planning Ahead

Start planning ahead now ... when your business begins the process of returning to normal, you're going to have four high-level segments of customers to address.

Segment 1 = Previous purchase via email marketing.

Segment 2 = No previous email purchase, recent email marketing click-through.

Segment 3 = No previous email purchase, no previous email marketing click-through, current email subscriber.

Segment 4 = Everybody else.


I know, I know, your vendor will tell you that this is too simple, that they have AI and Machine Learning designed to "micro-target" today's stressed "consumer". Fine. Work with them, you'll make money and everybody will be happy. Give this webinar a try while you are at it ... you should be listening to all advice right now. Or read through the deck of information outlined here. The key is to do something ... not to do specifically what I'm saying unless you align with my thought process. Given the overwhelming response to my QuickScores project offering, I know you're thinking very carefully about how to use email marketing to save money.

Most of my client base is in a tough spot unless selling toilet paper, soap, food, internet services, phone services, or at-home hobbying products. Your CFO already crafted a plan to reduce expenses ... your 25% salary cut is just part of what is coming. When business begins to reboot, your CFO is likely to surprise you with a significant reduction to the marketing budget. "Here, go figure out how to get by with less and oh by the way you better increase sales or you and your team are outta here."

Oh yeah, it's coming. This is how most companies deal with business downturns ... caused by the economy and now caused by something very different.

That's why you segment as I outlined above.

• Email Buyers.
• Email Clickers.
• Email Subscribers.
• Everybody Else.

If you can't spend money on catalogs or television ads or Google or Facebook ads, well, you'll need those email buyers because they've proven they'll buy based on your messages and not those on other platforms.

If you can't spend money on catalogs or television ads or Google or Facebook ads and the customer hasn't purchased via email, you'll want to tailor a unique strategy designed to appeal to those who are clicking and are just about ready to purchase ... and not, this isn't a cart abandonment email ... not close.

If you can't spend money on catalogs or television ads or Google or Facebook ads and the customer hasn't bought via email marketing and the customer hasn't engaged via email marketing, well, you'll want to have the ability to address the customer yourself because the customer cares just enough to subscribe to your email campaigns. This is where all of your email testing is going to happen ... almost no risk, right?

And if you can't spend money on catalogs or television ads or Google or Facebook ads and the customer hasn't purchased via email marketing and the customer hasn't engaged via email marketing and the customer doesn't subscribe to your email campaigns, well, now you have a problem that you have to solve, don't you?

Four simple segments.

Start planning ahead.

Build a marketing plan for each segment, so that when business begins to reboot you are ready to execute ... always better to execute than it is to react.