If you’ve been following our email series, you know we are diving into all aspects of email marketing to help you nurture your current and potential clients and increase web traffic and sales.
In this blog, we’re discussing email segmentation.
Email segmentation is such an important tool. So, what is it?
In a nutshell, email segmentation is where you split up your email messaging to smaller groups. In doing this, you choose to target specific email addresses by demographics or some other criteria.
If you’re just starting to collect email addresses, you’re going to want to identify people as they come into email system (Constant Contact, MailChimp, HubSpot, etc) and here’s why. Being able to target messages to how and why people decided to give you their email addresses – essentially wanting to hear from you, gives you an opportunity to really have their attention right from the start.
Think about when you’ve read an email and information wasn’t something you were interested in. You close that email and most likely delete, if not unsubscribe to it. This is what we don’t want.
The Best Way To Identify Your New Emails As They Come In
Most email programs give you a way to identify addresses as they come into your system. Either through tags or through different lists. The next best step would be to set up a series of emails that are targeted to each segmented list.
So, let’s say you have a new email come in from someone who downloaded an opt-in offer such as an e-book. That e-book was about how to know who is the best company to buy widgets from. You now know this person is on their journey to buy widgets. This is great because you sell widgets!
Send a follow up email with more information someone who is looking to purchase widgets would find very helpful. Then continue to send a series of emails over a period of time that educate on what someone needs to know to get the best widget. HINT: This should be you and you can humbly (or not so humbly) let them know you would like their business.
The Best Way to Segment An Existing Email List
If you already have an email list but have never separated the list, you’re going to want to segment. Unfortunately, not many businesses do this. In fact, one study has shown that 70% of businesses fail to use email segmentation even though 80% of businesses have seen returns from doing so.
If you’re still not convinced, think about this—how many times have you received an email that is totally irrelevant to you? You may be a single male who signs up for a store’s email promotions only to be inundated with announcements for the new line of clothing for women, for instance.
In fact, 56% of people who unsubscribe from email message lists do so because the content they are receiving is not relevant to them. In our current business climate, customers not only want personalized content and offers, they actually demand it. Email segmentation will help you provide this effectively.
I’m hoping you now realize just how important this technique can be to you. So, how do you put it to work for you?
Well, let’s go to one of the experts that I follow — Neil Patel. He’s got a few thoughts on the subject that I’d like to give my own spin on:
1. Get LOTS of data about your clients — When you get email addresses for your messaging lists, you want to get as much data about them as possible. Demographic data (age, gender, etc.) can easily be used to segment your email mailings.
(Neil even suggests that if you aren’t comfortable asking for this information up front, you can still send out a survey or quiz at a later date that can help narrow down your focus. Many customers will answer these if they know it will go towards getting them deals that are more specific to their needs and interests.)
Remember that example I gave you about the single guy getting emails about women’s clothing? With segmentation, you could easily make sure he only gets emails related to men’s clothing. If you’re running any kind of clothing company, gender and age are two important demographics that will influence the type of offers you want to send out.
If you’re running a clothing operation that sells to kids, you might want to get information about how many children a client has and how old they are. All of this data can be put to good use in getting returns from your emails.
2. Buyers vs. Browsers — You know that a portion of your email addresses belong to people who are actively interested in buying your products (and do so regularly) and those who are just browsing through.
Segment your email mailings to target these groups differently. If someone has purchased from you or is regularly reading your emails, you can send them a message thanking them for their business and offering them a discount for being such a great client.
But if someone isn’t reading your emails, then you can create messages with offers for the first-time buyer. This would also be a great opportunity to try those surveys to see what you can do to gain their business. A quality email server can help you segment your messages using this stat.
3. Browsing data — Send segmented messages that focus on exactly what a customer has been browsing. If they’re checking out a specific product, but then click off without buying, then you can send them a message asking if they are still interested in that product. To help “sweeten the deal” you can even offer them a discount on that specific product. This level of personalization is a great way to engage with potential customers.
If you’ve never tried email segmentation before, this is a great technique you should try. Email management software and servers make this kind of personalization even easier than before and it could turn into increased sales for you.
Want to know more about how email can help your business nurture leads and keep your current clients feeling warm and tingly? Contact Tara Adams with Adams Edge Marketing to schedule a brief phone meeting.
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