Master Email Segmentation Strategy: Quick and Easy Tips

Do you know segmenting your email lists can improve conversion rates?

Just look around. There are many success stories to back this up, like this one from Comcast. The company partnered with Amazon Music and HBO to provide students with complimentary access to various forms of media, including sports shows and TV programs. Cheri Davies, the Senior Director of Acquisition Marketing, reported a substantial surge in website traffic and conversions shortly after launching the promotion within a week. This example clearly illustrates the positive impact of email marketing segmentation and effective targeting on specific consumer groups, leading to a significant boost for your business. When you offer a product or service that caters to a specific audience, the likelihood of them making a purchase increases substantially. Nevertheless, developing an effective email marketing strategy can be an extensive endeavor that requires careful consideration. To make it a little less daunting, this post shows you 4 quick email marketing segmentation tactics that you can start using today to send relevant emails to your customers. For example, you can send a different email newsletter to people based on their geographic location.

Demographics

Many marketers first begin their email segmentation strategy by using demographic data.

Age, gender, company position, and income level can tell you plenty about a person’s needs and interests.

The more information you can get about your audience segments in the sign-up process, the more options you’ll have for demographic segmentation. Be careful with this, though, because asking for too much information can scare people off from signing up. Decide which metrics are most essential for your business and include those questions in the signup process. For example, if you’re a selling to B2B company, the company position would be an important demographic. If you’re a clothing retailer, then gender would be extremely valuable to know. Ideally, the more segmentation you can create, the more targeted your emails will be. If a user signs up for a coupon code, it’s fair to say that they’ve got high purchase intent. You can then use your email campaigns as a way to keep these subscribers engaged and drive them to make that final purchase.

Our Advice

Segmenting your audience for email marketers is crucial for delivering targeted and personalised messages in your sales funnel that resonate with your recipients along every step for their customer journey. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to effectively segment your audience:

• Define Your Goals: Clearly identify your marketing objectives and what you aim to achieve through email campaigns. This will help you determine the type of segmentation that aligns with your goals.
• Collect Relevant Data: Gather data about your subscribers, such as demographics, purchase history, interests, and engagement levels. You can collect this information through sign-up forms, surveys, and tracking customer interactions.
• Analyse and Group Data: Analyse the collected data to identify patterns and commonalities among your subscribers. Group them into meaningful segments based on shared characteristics, such as age, location, interests, or past purchase behavior.
• Prioritise Segments: Determine which segments are most valuable to your business based on factors like revenue potential, engagement levels, or specific campaign objectives. Prioritise segments that are likely to respond positively to your offers.
• Create Personalised Content: Craft tailored email content for each segment to address their specific needs, interests, and pain points. Use dynamic content or personalized recommendations to enhance relevance and engagement.
• Automation and Campaigns: Utilise email marketing automation tools to streamline your campaigns and deliver targeted messages to each segment. Set up automated workflows triggered by specific actions or behaviors to nurture leads and drive conversions.
• Test and Refine: Continuously monitor and analyze the performance of your segmented campaigns. Test different variables like subject lines, CTAs, and content to optimize your email marketing strategy and improve results.

Remember, effective segmentation goes beyond demographics; it should be based on meaningful insights and align with your overall marketing strategy. Regularly review and update your segments as your audience evolves to ensure your email marketing remains relevant and impactful.

Email Engagement Another simple way to segment your lists is by looking at your email engagement stats.

Open rate and clickthrough rate are the main metrics here.

You can segment by engagement by designating active vs. inactive users, such as someone who hasn’t opened your emails in three months. You can then create a specialized campaign designed to re-engage your inactive subscribers.

Alternatively, you can focus on subscribers who do engage and target them more precisely. For example, you can create a segment of subscribers who have shown interest by clicking through on an email announcing an upcoming sale. By categorizing them as “interested,” you can then create a special campaign to further target this segment as likely buyers from the sale.

If you use Mailchimp, segmenting by engagement is simple:

Email engagement as an email segmentation strategy. Just fill out the filters, click on “Preview Segment”, and you’re done!

That’s engagement covered, but what about location?

Geographic Area Segmentation by geographic area is a valuable tool, especially for businesses where location greatly influences purchasing decisions.

Geographical segmentation is an approach global delivery and logistics firm Aramex uses. The business has a customer base in over 20 locations, so naturally, it wanted to get the location-specific details in front of customers in real time.

Aramex used software to segment its audience into 20-plus different countries. From there, it delivered prospects customized pages, locally relevant content, and personalized discount codes.

The result? An impressive 41.18 percent increase in conversions:

Other ways companies can use geographic data include:

Time-based email messages. Stagger your emails to send them out at optimum times for customers in different time zones. Advertising regional promotions. Send focused emails for events in certain store locations. Live webinar or AMA (Ask Me Anything) invitations. Adjust event timing based on audience location. Personalized travel directions. Customize directions to a store or event based on the reader’s geolocation. Where a customer shops. Send out offers specific to the physical store a buyer frequents. Location-specific content. Use a location in your headlines or content to draw attention and offer a personalized experience.

By implementing these easy email marketing segmentation strategies, including sending segmented email, and adding website visitors to the appropriate email segments, you can enhance your targeting efforts and increase your chances of driving conversions. Don’t forget to combine these strategies with effective email marketing practices to maximize your results. If you have any other segmentation tips, feel free to share them in the comments below.

What is email segmentation and why is it important for your marketing strategy?

Email segmentation is the practice of dividing your email list into smaller, targeted groups based on specific criteria. It is important for your marketing strategy because it allows you to send personalized and relevant content to different segments, increasing engagement and conversion rates.

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