8 Ways to Segment Your Email List for More Successful Marketing
Email list segmentation will drastically improve the effectiveness of your email marketing. Think about it- if you send the same email to every single person in your database, regardless of their location, gender, interests, age, purchase history etc. how many people are going to be interested in your content? Very few, because trying to appeal to anyone and everyone is impossible with one email. However, if you build multiple emails- lets just say one aimed at 18-30 year olds, one for 30-50 year olds and one for 50+ you’ll achieve far better results. This is just one, simple example of how to segment your email list and your segmentation strategy will depend on your product or service. Here’s 10 ways to segment your email list for more successful marketing:
1. Segment Your Email List by Location
By segmenting your email list by location, you enable yourself to send location-specific offers and content. Let’s just say you run a restaurant chain and have multiple branches in different areas of the country. Your sales numbers have dropped in one city and you need to boost them. Sending out an offer to all of your contacts based in that city for “25% off your meal this weekend” or “half price drinks from 5pm-7pm” will give your numbers the boost they need.
If you’re attending a trade-show or speaking at an event for example, send out an email to everyone based in that area a couple of weeks before the show and then another reminder 2 days before.
There are many benefits of segmenting your email list in this way, especially if your product or service is location-specific.
2. Segment Your Email List by Gender
Do you offer products for both men and women? If you do, segmenting your list by gender is a must! Clothing brands for example, make use of this kind of segmentation all the time. Yes, you could send out one email with images of products aimed at both men and women but you’ll engage your customers much more effectively if you send specific emails.
3. Segment Your Email List by Engagement
Another way of segmenting your email list for marketing success is by the level of engagement from your customer. A customer that has clicked a link in your email is certainly more interested in your product than someone that hasn’t even opened your email. So why would you send both customers the same email?
If a customer has clicked a link, what does this say about them? What product are they interested in? Whatever it is, target them with specific content based on that product and nurture them through to becoming a customer.
4. Segment Your Email List by Industry
Is your product or service used by different industries like ours is? InTouchCRM is used by vast array of industries and we often send industry-specific content to our subscribers. For example, 5 ways CRM can work for the hotel industry. Doing this increases our open rates because it immediately appeals to the right people. Sending an email like this to our whole database would result in plenty of customers opting out of our emails!
5. Segment Your Email List for New Subscribers
Don’t let your new subscribers fall by the wayside. As soon as they subscribe to your emails, add them to a ‘new subscribers’ list and send them a welcome email, thanking them for subscribing and maybe even include a special offer as a sign of appreciation. Tell them what to expect from you- will you be emailing them on a weekly basis? Let them know when they will hear from you and they’ll look forward to your emails every week.
6. Segment Your Email List by Inactivity
Segmenting you list by inactivity will do the trick to entice customers back. Do you own an online system? Are you a personal trainer? Do you run online courses? If your service is something that is normally used on a regular basis, segmenting your email list in this way will be advantageous. By sending your customer an email to say “we haven’t heard from you in a while” or “you haven’t logged in for 2 weeks”, will remind your customers that you’re still there to help them and hopefully bring them back to being a regular user. If you’re a personal trainer and your client hasn’t booked an appointment with you for a month, send them a gentle reminder.
7. Segment Your Email List Using Purchase History
Your customer’s purchase history is extremely valuable to your marketing strategy. It can give you great insight into what they might be interested in in the future and can offer great cross-sell and upsell opportunities. For example, airlines offer upgrades or travel insurance once you’ve made a purchase with them.
Similarly, you can send your customers new products at later dates based on what they have bought from you in the past. For example, we offered our customers free lead generation e-books, if a customer downloaded one, a week of so later, we sent them an email offering them another that they might be interested in. Whilst these were free, the same applies to all products and services and can give your sales a good boost.
8. Segment Your Email List Using your Subscribers’ Birthdays
We’ve all been sent emails on our birthdays, whether it’s a special offer just for us, or a simple “happy birthday” message. It always puts a smile on our face and we appreciate the gesture. Birthday offers can be used in almost any industry and is a great way of connecting with your customer and making them feel special. Bars and restaurants do this particularly well and often offer a free drink or meal which can be redeemed throughout the month of their birthday. Doing this means that the customer comes in for their birthday drink and brings a friend or two, increasing the restaurant’s sales.
So there are our 8 ways to segment your email list for more successful marketing. Being able to segment your lists in this way, of course requires you to collect this data in the first place.
How Can You Acquire This Data?
Some data you will have to ask for- such as location, industry and birthday. A few simple questions on a webform will do the job. Make these optional fields and Inform your prospective subscribers of what you will do with this information and why you require it. Alternatively, ask your existing subscribers to complete a survey or questionnaire, again tell them why you are asking for this data and how it will be used. Convince them to complete the survey by giving them a chance to win a voucher or a freebie.
