Email-Marketing List Segmentation—Give a Lift to Your ROI With These 5 Best Practices
All your e-commerce customers are not the same, so why would you send them all the same email message? By segmenting your email subscribers into different groups, you can send more-personalized and relevant content, as well as offers that best match their individual interests and needs.
Here’s Why You Should Segment Your Email List
How much does segmentation impact your email-marketing performance results? In a recent study, MailChimp looked at the results of about 2,000 users who sent approximately 11,000 segmented campaigns to nearly 9 million recipients. The results of the segmented campaigns were compared to the results of the same customers’ unsegmented campaigns, which demonstrated that email list segmentation:
- Increased opens by 14.31%
- Increased unique opens by 10.64%
- Increased clicks by 100.95%
- Decreased bounces by 4.65%
- Decreased unsubscribes by 9.37%.
And what about the impact of segmentation on email-marketing revenue? Compared to sending one-size-fits-all email campaigns, the Direct Marketing Association found that segmentation increased email campaign revenue by 760%.
Email-Marketing Segmentation Means Better Personalization
When it comes to email marketing, segmentation leads to better personalization. And in a recent survey by AgileOne, 79% of U.S. consumers surveyed said that they expect some type of marketing personalization from companies. The types of personalization listed in this survey included pop-up online discount offers, automatic-refill reminders, alerts for sales and new product releases, and email discount offers for products consumers had browsed online. In the survey, 66% of respondents from the United States said that they preferred email discounts, whereas pop-up offers were rated as the least-favorite type of personalized marketing (24%).
This survey also showed that millennial consumers (aged 18 to 34 years old) demanded more personalization from companies compared to consumers 65 years or older. In addition, millennials were more receptive to sharing their personal information with companies and more interested in receiving email campaigns that provide welcome offers and discounts for online abandoned shopping carts.
Email Segments Can Be Based on All Kinds of Data
Segmentation of email lists can be based on all kinds of data, virtually providing an unlimited number of possible ways to segment your email list and better personalize your email content for subscribers. Here are some major categories:
- Demographic Segmentation – (e.g., based on age, gender, family, occupation, income, education)
- Geographic Segmentation – (e.g., geo targeted email marketing based on country, city, climate, language)
- Behavioral Segmentation – (e.g., products purchased; products browsed on your website; engagement with your email marketing, such as opens and clicks).
Email Segmentation Best Practices
Segmenting your email list is one of the most-effective ways to send more-targeted mails that maximize the relevance of your marketing message for individual subscribers. Here are 5 top email segmentation best practices to keep in mind:
- Start with simple segments, crafting email campaigns that target the specific groups of your email subscribers. Although the number of possible email list segments may seem overwhelming, you can start with a simple segmentation model that involves only 2 or 3 segments. For example, divide your list into 2 segments: 1) customers who have already made a purchase from your company, and 2) prospects who have expressed interest in your company. The emails crafted for the customer group could include loyalty rewards and product discounts, whereas the email content for prospects would be more educational and trust building.
- Create buyer personas. What are the characteristics, needs, personality traits, and motivations of your best customers? Knowing your customers and why they would choose your product over a competitor’s is the first step in establishing effective segments for different personas. Buyer personas are also useful for developing relevant email campaigns that target subscribers’ different needs and for crafting value propositions that drive opens, clicks, and conversions.
- Continually collect information from and about your prospects and customers. The more information you gather about your subscribers, the better opportunity to personalize your email campaigns and deliver content that resonates. One way to do this is by giving subscribers the chance—and an incentive—to periodically update their profiles/preferences. In addition, collect and analyze behavioral data (e.g., products they purchased and browsed at your website) for use in segmentation, as well.
- Test and optimize your segmented email campaigns regularly. In addition to opens, clicks, and conversions, be sure to measure success using such metrics as sales, return on investment, and overall revenue. Based on the results, adjust your email content and segments to continually improve your performance results.
- Use tools to automate your email segmentation. Thanks to the many tools available through email service providers today, email list segmentation is easier and more automated than ever. If you have questions about choosing the automation tools that best meet your email list segmentation needs, contact FulcrumTech. We’ll help narrow the options and find the optimal solution for your business.
Sending the right email message to the right subscribers at the right time—that’s the goal of email list segmentation. Are you getting the best possible email performance results from your email list segmentation? FulcrumTech’s team of email-marketing experts can help. Contact us to learn more.