Justifying marketing budgets is a common exercise for business owners and marketing executives. After all, they are ultimately accountable for the bottom-line results of their marketing programs. Campaigns that demonstrate proven results - such as growing revenue, strengthening customer engagement and improving cross-channel coordination - are positive indications of the contribution marketing programs can make to the success of a business.

Email marketers are beginning to understand that an effective segmentation strategy is a critical component of overall campaign performance. The question is not whether to segment email lists, but how to identify the highest quality segments. While you can always make assumptions based on traditional open- and click-through rates to identify email segments, it’s far more effective to study how customers and prospects behave once they’ve received your email messages.

Real-time Web analytics solutions that optimize marketing campaign results across multiple channels can help you understand customer journeys and predict usage patterns. With the ability to recognize customer interactions and behaviors and personalize email communications, you can identify and target the most meaningful segments for remarketing with relevant email campaigns.

Just by monitoring behaviors using Web analytics and observing the signals prospects and customers send through their behavioral patterns, you can get closer to your ultimate goal: monetizing that information with proven results for all campaign strategies.

The graphic below illustrates how a single, collaborative solution can help you plan, execute, optimize and manage marketing campaigns across email, mobile, social and Web channels using real-time Web analytics to track customer behaviors.

With real-time Web analytics, you can identify recent purchasers and even segment them by age, spending thresholds and brands purchased. Then you can optimize campaigns by sending a relevant email inviting those segments to a promotional event that features the brand they’ve purchased in the past.

Once received, those email invitations can be shared on social networks such as Facebook so that recipients' friends who are also interested in that brand can register and attend the event. Then, using real-time Web analytics reports to identify the segment of those who have RSVP'd, you can confirm attendance by sending another email to that segment offering promotional discounts in return for actually attending the event.

The use of strong email campaign tracking with real-time analytics is an essential part of measuring email marketing ROI and success. With real-time Web analytics, you can make rapid yet informed decisions to optimize campaigns in order to convert them into measurable results such as driving revenues or other desired actions.

Now, as a business owner or marketing executive, you can make the right marketing investments simply by personalizing email marketing campaigns based on your understanding of your customers' and prospects' every interaction throughout the customer journey.

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About the Author

Natalie Monetta is the product marketing manager at Lyris. She is responsible for the go-to-market strategy and execution for all Lyris HQ product releases.

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