Have you ever wondered how to segment your email list effectively? Email segmentation is a method of dividing your email list and sending different messages to different segments. Email list segmentation is a compelling concept that allows you to communicate with your audience based on their preferences. By sending messages to people who have taken specific actions or met certain criteria, you can be confident that these subscribers are interested in what you’re selling.
Poor list segmentation is one of the reasons why so many email marketing efforts fail. Suppose you can’t send specific emails to different groups of subscribers. In that case, you won’t make much money or even keep your subscribers interested. In this article, I’ll walk you through some simple steps to segment your email list.
Steps on How to Segment Your Email List
Collecting emails
You can collect emails from visitors by offering a sign-up form for your mailing list or asking for user names in exchange for a free download.
One of the main advantages of using a form is that it’s the easiest way to capture information from your visitors and send them updates without going back through your site and looking up their email addresses manually. Be sure that your form has an enticing call to action and it’s not too intrusive—many people will leave if they feel bombarded with requests for their information.
The second option is less complicated than setting up a form, but it must work more for you as the website owner. You’ll need to design an incentive for your audience that makes them want to hand over their email addresses—it could be anything from a unique resource, such as a PDF book.
Know your audience
Marketers who don’t take the time to segment their audience are missing out on a huge opportunity: sending their emails to people who aren’t interested in what they have to offer, which doesn’t make sense. Here are some of them:
- Demographics – This is where you break down the demographics of those on your list. You can segment by age, gender, or location among other things. The benefit of this method is that it allows you to target specific markets effectively. Still, it can also be time-consuming and expensive if you have too many segments.
- Psychographics – This method looks at those on your list’s personality traits and interests instead of demographic data such as age, sex, or location. It allows you to target people based on their hobbies, beliefs, and values rather than their physical attributes such as height or weight, which are much harder to quantify accurately anyway!
Choose your strategy
In segmenting emails, you need to decide what information will determine which segment(s) someone ends up in. It saves you money in terms of sending out emails. You only send out the relevant message to each group of people; therefore, you are not wasting time and money on irrelevant messages.
The more relevant your emails are to each subscriber, the more likely they will be opened and clicked on. This leads to higher engagement rates and increased conversion rates.
There are many filters a business could consider using when segmenting their email lists; here are some of them:
- New subscribers
By creating a new subscriber list, you can send them an introductory email with helpful information about your business and product offerings. This will help new subscribers get up to speed quickly and can be paired with other strategies. - Location
If you’re running an eCommerce business, this type of filtering can be beneficial. You won’t want to send out a message about free shipping in the middle of summer if it’s currently snowing outside (unless you sell snow globes). You could also use location filters to target specific cities or regions where your products are popular or where customers tend to live. For example, suppose you’re running an online clothing store based in New York City. In that case, you might target customers who live in New York City or nearby cities like Boston or Philadelphia. - Email engagement
The more engaged someone is with their email inbox the higher the likelihood that they will open your emails and engage with your brand. For example, someone who opens but doesn’t click may not be interested in what you have to say; however, someone who clicks through multiple times may be ready to make a purchase or sign up for an event or webinar. - Past purchases
Suppose someone has purchased something from you before. In that case, they’re already familiar with your brand. They have expressed interest in becoming a customer again in the future. Adding this filter allows you to send them targeted offers based on what they’ve already bought from your store or website. - VIP customers
This filter identifies people who have signed up for rewards or loyalty programs through your website or store.
Conclusion
Email segmentation is an essential step in the email marketing funnel. It helps you narrow your focus and send valuable content to each group with a relevant interest. If you want to increase conversion rates and improve the experience for your readers, take advantage of segmentation today.
