We all know the value of delivering “the right content to the right people at the right time.” But exactly who are the “right people,” the human variable in this modern marketing equation? Often, we marketers define the right people by who they are: They’re in such-and-such industry, with this occupational title. They have that pain point and work with those competitors, and their organization is this large or small or mature or scalable.
It can also be valuable, however, to define the right people – your best possible audience – by who they are not. Marketers can do this by using suppression lists to sharpen targeting.
What is a Suppression List?
Let’s start from the top. Unlike sweetbreads and Greenland, a suppression list is exactly what it sounds like: a collection of the contacts in your database who should be excluded from certain marketing sends. This list can be as long or as short as you want, and there is no limit to the criteria used to populate it.
Common criteria are the reverse of the above examples. For instance, you can instruct a campaign to block/suppress people who are not in a particular industry.
Why might you do this? Maybe your campaign addresses a business challenge that plagues certain fields but not others. In that case, it’s wise to exclude contacts who would engage less and hurt your metrics – and maybe unsubscribe from future communication, too.
Remember: Irrelevant content is worse than no content, and poorly targeted engagement is worse than no engagement. You never want people to see your message in their inbox and wonder, “Why did I just get this?” The value-add to be gained by opening, reading, and clicking should be obvious, and you should strive to suppress anyone who would not find the value-add obvious.
Avoid Content Over-Saturation
One popular reason for suppression is over-saturation.
Giving people too much content, too fast, is a known must-avoid. If someone is already being contacted by your brand, you should think seriously about the pros and cons of intensifying that engagement.
There will be times when you feel you should double down. Perhaps the new engagement is so different from the old one that you expect contacts to feel excited – not overwhelmed – by the additional touch.
But the opposite can also be true. There will be times when the original engagement and the new one are too different, which may cause the person to feel bothered.
No hard and fast rule goes here. It’s a judgment call. But the point is this: Think about how to suppress people from your latest effort by remembering the campaigns that are already running. This is especially true for marketers who use automatic enrollment triggers: People in your database can be flowed into new content touches without your even realizing it.
A good way around this? With Oracle Eloqua’s automation, you can program your suppression list to allow people into one campaign after they wrap up engagement in another.
The Right Content for Current Customers
But it’s not just potential customers you should consider suppressing. Current customers also might not fit the bill for some marketing initiatives. In fact, it can be argued that by default, marketing should almost never touch clients – that the expectation should be for marketers to suppress clients from content and campaigns.
Why? Because marketing owns the top of the funnel, where basic education happens. Someone who works at a client company likely has little use for basic information. Hopefully, they live and breathe the more advanced insights by collaborating with you!
Think about it: If you were already working with an organization, would you want to get emails about why it’s a good idea to switch to them from one of their competitors? Probably not. It would make their marketing look poorly targeted, which could make you question their overall savvy.
That isn’t to say all marketing should be client-suppressed. Sometimes lifting the client block can work wonders. Introducing people to your newsletter, for example, or inviting them to subscribe to the company blog? That’s gold at any funnel stage, and with the right language, that content can make clients feel like they’re getting an exclusive chance to interact with your brand.
Moreover, clients like to see their vendors produce good stuff! Webinars can be fun and interactive, providing insights that both clients and prospects find useful. Major reports, too, can show expertise and should be shared with customers.
But these are highly specific scenarios. In general, best practice is to suppress customers from marketing sends by default, and to consult the customer success team on a case-by-case basis before removing suppressions.
Our advice to modern marketers? Less is more, especially when it comes to those mythical “right people” in the “right place, right time” equation. Casting a wide net is useful, no doubt. But the best segmentation is often the most specific. Don’t be afraid to block thousands of people in your database from a beautiful campaign. Consider who could be overwhelmed or confused by it, and who could be interested or inspired. Suppress smartly – and watch your conversions soar.
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About the Author: Brittany Coombs
