Only the right target generates new customers

Contrary to popular belief, B2B cold email is not spam but a serious advertising strategy. Drastic differences make it possible to clearly separate the two. We covered this in detail already in our Blog article “Professional Cold Email is not Spam”.

However, there is one feature that we should pay special attention to – “targeting”.

But what makes “targeting” so important and why isn’t targeting the same as targeting?

Quantity above everything?  – Selecting a database for marketing

It is definitely an advantage to reach the largest possible number of companies in email marketing to acquire new customers, no question. However, the number of new clients will not increase proportionally to the number of emails sent, because the selection is crucial.

This is one of the major differences to spam, because in professional cold email marketing hundreds of thousands of emails are NOT sent to random recipients that have absolutely no relation to the offer. This is unfortunately exactly what spam does. Instead, the quantity is limited to a much smaller number, a specific group of recipients, the so-called “target”.

This group contains only companies that are actually related to the service or product offered. The email and its content must provide some value to the recipient. A manufacturer of baking accessories will hardly be interesting for a car repair shop and vice versa.

This is also an important factor in the legality of a cold email campaign. According to the GDPR (Recital 47), there must be a legitimate interest in the product or service, so the content of the email has to correspond to the industry of the company addressed.

Correct targeting for email marketing – but how?

Targeting in an email campaign is therefore the decisive factor. But how does this “targeting” work?

The basis for successful targeting is a large database from which to choose, because this is the only way to ensure that there are in the end sufficient data sets for the actual email campaign.

“Targeting” is based on the marketing persona which determines the exact properties that the email addressee should or must have. These are then ultimately used to filter the address database in detail.

The more detailed you go here, decides over success or failure, as well as on the ROI (return on investment) for this email marketing campaign.

So, attention has to be paid to the exact categorization of the database or to the selection options of your database provider.

To illustrate this with an example, more than 11 million records of Bancomail S.p.A.  are divided into 26 areas, 292 macro categories and 1,879 micro categories.

Furthermore, there are over 350 additional specifications in order to be able to determine the target group even more precisely. Filtering only for 4- and 5-Hotels in a region – with a swimming pool, that’s no problem either. Or reaching out to restaurants that specialize in vegan cuisine in order to advertise a certain product – Bancomail can also offer these special specifications for your targeting.

Conclusion on targeting in email marketing

Cold email marketing can and will only work for customer acquisition if we work with the right target. Invest sufficient resources in the determination and selection of your address data, because this will significantly influence the result of your direct marketing campaign.

We suggest, to purchase email contact lists always from an experienced and reliable provider, who offers specific, targeted mailing lists tailormade for your exact needs.

In any case, Bancomail S.p.A. wishes you every success.