When you are taking the time to develop great email campaigns, the next thing you’d want to do is identify the people who will find the most value in your emails. Usually, the biggest hurdle is offering just enough value to your customer that they’re willing to invest their time and effort into opening your email. Incomes list segmentation. Segmented email campaigns see a 58.89% higher click-through rates than non-segmented campaigns. So the more you know about your emails recipient, the better your chances of creating something they’ll want to open.
Here are a few ways to get started..
- Segment by Demographics
The most basic kind of list segmentation you can do, and it’s a good place to start; e.g.
age, gender, income, education level, location—is readily available and easy to acquire
(collected through census data, purchased email lists, etc.). If you’re just starting to
build your first ever email campaigns, this information is likely the first actionable data
you may have, and it’s important because it helps you figure out who your target is. So
don’t dismiss these bits of information, or take them lightly, because it can be a great
help.
The slight problem with using general demographics such as age to segment lists is that
it assumes the same demographic groups have the same needs. A 50-year-old
weightlifter, and a 50-year-old retire may be the same age, but they’re going to have
different interests. Google research reveals that marketers who rely only on
demographics to reach consumers risk missing more than 70% of potential shoppers
(that’s a lot of potential profit). The reason is that demographics are only one part of a
bigger picture; they don’t explain the why of your customer’s behavior, which you’ll need
in order to better understand what will resonate to trigger conversions. So while
demographics data is a great foundation, you’re going to need to get a little more
specific to make a meaningful impact.
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- Segment by Culture
This is known as psychographic segmentation; cultural segmentation takes into account
the actual people behind your target market by leveraging specific data about their
activities, values, preferences, and buying behaviors; it provides that crucial “why they
buy” component. The main issue many brands have with cultural segmentation is the
availability of data; if you can’t collect it on your own you often have to purchase it,
which can be prohibitive for smaller businesses. The good news is that this age of
technology we’re in makes it a lot easier to research and acquire this data yourself.
- Segment by Engagement
Here you can start creating messaging and content that will resonate with those defined
segments. It’ll be wise to draft multiple email versions/campaigns (with varying lengths,
messaging, layouts etc.) which will allow you to test what works best so that you can
further refine and deliver on tactics with proven success. Everything from subject lines
to click-through rates can (and should) be tested. Consider each round of testing as
your new baseline; this will help you hone your campaigns into ones that are more likely
to convert.
This effort will also provide you with new data to further segment your lists: engagement behavior. Every email that gets opened, gets abandoned, or goes directly to SPAM, offers valuable insight into your customers—especially as it relates to what they want, how they want it, and what it will take to win them over. A lot of marketers undervalue what testing adds to their segmentation efforts, don’t be those people.
The more relevant and personal an email is, the more likely someone will open it. The more they open your email the higher you chances of getting them to engage with your brand. That means, ideally speaking, the more granular you can make your lists, the better they’ll align with each person who receives your email. However, this can take a lot of time (and possibly a lot of money) to get to that point. So hit the ground running by starting with the basics and continually testing/applying what you learn into more and more effective campaigns.
