In my previous post, I discussed the importance of subject lines in email marketing.

Another key consideration, which I forgot to mention, is the importance of knowing your target audience. Understanding who you are trying to reach through email marketing, and why, is just as important as the language you craft to populate your outbound messaging.

Just this week I received a marketing email that illustrates why it’s important to know your audience, or risk alienating it before recipients even bother to open your email. The following example is a great illustration of a vendor not knowing its targets.

Several months ago I adopted a wonderful Basset hound/Beagle, Gomer, and have been looking into pet health insurance. As a result of completing several online profiles for Gomer, I continue to receive emails addressed to him -- and/or emails with a subject line about him.

This is an effective email marketing convention, and indicates that the pet insurers I reached out to are paying attention to my particular dog and his healthcare needs.

Last week, in the run-up to the July 4th holiday, I was surprised to receive an email urging Gomer to “focus on the fireworks” and leave healthcare coverage to this particular company. Most dogs, not just those who have been rescued (like Gomer), are extremely frightened by fireworks -- so this surprised me as an approach for the insurer’s email marketing. It reflects a disconnect between what the insurer and the prospect, or dog owner, is thinking about as we approach the July 4 holiday (one which both the American Kennel Club and the ASPCA acknowledge sees a spike in dogs running away). This oversight offers ample opportunity for me to select a competitor, one who better reflects an understanding of how overwhelming, and potentially frightening, a typical July 4 fireworks spectacle can be for my dog. If this was an email marketing error, attributable to how the vendor’s marketing platform reads my profile, that’s a separate issue for a different post.

In other words, if the email is supposed to be addressed to me about Gomer, and the sender’s intent was to urge me to enjoy the fireworks, then that’s a universal quality control issue marketers must check prior to hitting ‘send’.

While I appreciate pet health insurers staying in touch with me, and have yet to select coverage for my dog, this particular email drove home the significance of knowing your target audience for effective marketing -- and reaching it with an informed, authentic voice.

Happy Fourth of July!