Introduction to Audiences

This article provides a comprehensive overview of audience management in Experiture, detailing the key types, attributes, and methods to create effective audience segments for targeted marketing campaigns.

Overview of Audiences and Their Importance

Audiences are fundamental to the success of any marketing initiative. They represent collections of records or targets, often pulled together from different sources, that may share similar attributes or simply be grouped for a common purpose. The ability to accurately define and manage these audiences is crucial for executing precise, targeted campaigns that foster deeper customer relationships and drive engagement. By leveraging Experiture’s comprehensive Audience tools, marketers can effortlessly create, refine, and connect with well-defined (i.e., created by specifying specific rules or criteria that determine which records belong to the audience) segments. This capability not only enhances the efficiency of targeting efforts but also ensures that every campaign is designed with optimal relevance, leading to improved performance and higher return on investment.

How Audiences Impact Campaigns and Targeting

Audiences significantly influence campaigns and targeting by creating a foundation for precise, data-driven engagement. By forming collections of records, Experiture allows marketers to group individuals based on a variety of factors—whether behavioral, demographic, or based on specific interactions—and leverage these groups to drive targeted messaging and tailored customer journeys.

Once an audience is defined, it becomes the building block for creating and executing highly personalized campaigns. This means audiences can be assigned to one or more marketing journeys, enabling marketers to dictate the sequence of communications each audience will receive. These communications could take the form of emails, SMS messages, or other channels that are delivered as part of a carefully crafted marketing flow. By embedding audiences into automated journeys, campaigns can be orchestrated to trigger based on specific actions or timelines, ensuring that customers receive the right message at the right moment, enhancing their experience.

Moreover, audiences impact the overall targeting strategy by allowing marketers to align the campaign content with the most relevant segment. This alignment means that messages can be tailored in a way that resonates specifically with each audience’s interests or behaviors. For example, customers who have previously shown interest in a product can be put into a re-engagement journey that sends them special offers or relevant content. Audiences can also be utilized across multiple campaigns simultaneously, providing scalability in targeting efforts. The integration with Experiture’s audience segmentation and journey-building tools makes it possible to create nuanced, multi-touchpoint campaigns that improve engagement rates, brand loyalty, and ultimately conversion.

Methods for Creating Audiences in Experiture

Experiture provides multiple methods to create audiences, allowing marketers to effectively leverage different data sources and segmentation strategies. Below are the different ways to create audiences using Experiture:

  • Upload: This option allows users to create an audience by importing data from external files. For example, marketers can upload CSV files containing customer lists, which are then automatically processed to form an audience. This is particularly useful when dealing with data collected from various offline sources or partner organizations.
  • Define: With the Define option, marketers can create custom audience segments by specifying certain criteria or rules. These segments can be based on attributes like purchase history, engagement metrics, demographics, or other relevant data points. This method provides high flexibility, enabling users to build precisely targeted groups that match specific campaign needs.
  • Connect: The Connect feature allows users to create audiences by integrating with third-party data systems. This can include CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, or other marketing tools. By connecting these external systems, marketers can enrich their audiences with additional data and maintain consistency across all marketing channels.

Audience Attributes in Experiture

In Experiture, audiences are defined by various attributes that give marketers a detailed understanding of each group and enable precise targeting. The Audience dashboard offers a comprehensive view of multiple attributes, allowing for an in-depth analysis of each audience segment’s characteristics. Below, we explain the key attributes that define an audience in Experiture, as represented in the dashboard:

  • Audience Type: This attribute defines how the audience is structured and updated based on whether audiences are defined or uploaded.
    • Static: If the audience is set as static, it remains unchanged unless manually updated. When creating a defined audience, there is a toggle to determine whether it is set as static or dynamic. Static audiences are ideal when you want a consistent set of individuals that does not vary over time unless you make manual adjustments.
    • Dynamic: Dynamic audiences continually update as changes occur in the underlying data. Experiture continually monitors changes in the data sources, and if these changes match the audience filters, the audience is automatically updated to reflect the most current information. This ensures that the audience remains relevant based on real-time data.
    • Uploaded audiences, such as those imported through CSV files, are typically static, meaning they do not change unless the data is manually re-uploaded or updated.
  • Record Count: The total number of records or individuals included in the audience. This attribute helps marketers understand the size of their target group, enabling better planning and resource allocation for campaigns.
  • Valid Emails: This metric represents the number of valid email addresses in the audience. Ensuring high email validity is crucial for the success of email campaigns, as it directly affects deliverability and engagement rates.
  • Invalid/Non-Deliverables: The count of invalid email addresses or non-deliverable records within the audience. High numbers in this attribute indicate the need for data hygiene to improve the efficiency of campaigns.
  • Deliverables: This indicates the number of records that are considered deliverable within the audience. Deliverable records are those that can be successfully reached through chosen communication channels, such as email or SMS.
  • Bounces: The count of email addresses that resulted in bounced messages during past campaigns. This attribute helps identify issues with the audience’s data quality and highlights areas for improvement.
  • Unsubscribes: The number of individuals in the audience who have opted out of receiving communications. This is a critical attribute for compliance and maintaining the health of marketing lists.
  • Deliverable SMS: Represents the count of records in the audience that can be reached via SMS. This is particularly useful for campaigns that include SMS as a communication channel.
  • Deliverable Push Notification: The number of audience members who can be reached via push notifications. This attribute is important for mobile-first marketing strategies.
  • Modified Date: The last date on which the audience was modified. This provides context on how up-to-date the audience is, which can be essential for campaigns that rely on recent interactions or behaviors.

The Audience dashboard in Experiture allows marketers to easily view and manage these attributes, helping them to evaluate the health and effectiveness of their audiences. By understanding these attributes, marketers can make informed decisions about how to utilize each audience in campaigns, ensuring that the right individuals receive the right message through the most appropriate channel. The ability to drill down into these attributes enables effective audience management, leading to improved targeting, optimized campaign performance, and ultimately, higher ROI.