When you receive an email from a business, what makes you more likely to open and read that email?
Maybe the subject line mentions your city. Maybe the email features a product you recently viewed. Or perhaps the message shares several blog posts that are relevant to the industry where you work.
These are all forms of email segmentation, and if you’ve received emails like these, it means there are marketers out there doing a good job. How can you implement segmentation into your own email marketing — and why should you?
Here’s what you need to know about email marketing segmentation and why it matters.
What Is Email Marketing Segmentation?
In email marketing, segmentation divides up your email list into categories. Having these targeted groups of consumers allows you to tailor your marketing so you can provide the most relevant products and information to each group. With this strategy, you don’t just blast out mass emails and hope a few of them stick — you send precise, targeted messages to each segment.
You might choose to segment your email list according to a customer’s:
- Geographic location
- Age
- Gender
- Interests
- Income level
- Job title, industry, or professional background
- Level of education
- Birthday or anniversary
- Psychographics
- Familiarity with your company
- Customer behavior or buying habits
- Frequency preferences
Segmentation is the best method of providing personalized marketing. Your marketing efforts will be more effective when customers are receiving marketing content that applies to them — content they actually care about. If someone doesn’t like an email they receive, they might not open it or click on it. They could even mark it as spam. When a customer does find your emails relevant, however, this will result in more engagement and hopefully more sales for you.
Benefits of Email Marketing Segmentation
Not sold? Take a look at these statistics proving the benefits of email marketing segmentation.
MailChimp discovered that when users segmented email lists based on data like location and job title, open rates increased by almost 19% and click-through rates increased by almost 22% compared to non-segmented messages. That’s a pretty big difference!
82% of marketers have reported an increase in open rates by using email personalization. Another survey discovered that out of all consumers who unsubscribe from a business or nonprofit list, 56% of them did so because the content wasn’t relevant. Segmentation allows you to send highly personalized and relevant emails to customers.
Finally, segmented emails make readers 50% more likely to click on a link within the email — and, email segmentation can cause a whopping 760% increase in business revenue.
The numbers are in: Email segmentation can make a big difference for your bottom line. How can you get started with segmenting your email list? Let’s take a look at some helpful tips and tricks.
How to Segment Your Email List
Before you can segment your email list, you need to collect certain information from your audience. After all, you can’t segment your list by age if you don’t know how old your customers are, or by favorite product if you aren’t paying attention to where your customers are browsing on your website.
Gather Data
Some email marketing apps will help you gather certain data. In other cases, you may have to collect the information yourself over time. You can do this by sending your email list a direct survey with questions you want to know — data that’s relevant for your brand (when is a customer’s birthday? How much money do they make? Do they enjoy certain hobbies?).
Other data might be available in your CRM (customer relationship manager) or your website — such as the anniversary of the date someone signed up for your email list, or the most recent product they purchased.
Regardless of how you get the data, it’s never too late to segment your email list, and there most likely won’t be a point in time when your segments are “done.” You can continue adding new information to a user’s profile on an ongoing basis.
Organize Your Segments
The next step is to organize your contacts. Think of your segments as smaller versions of your email list, with each segment being based on certain criteria. DirectLync makes it easy to organize your email list by using the contact manager to segment contacts, track activity, and gain insight into your most engaged contacts all in one place.
Create Emails
After you’ve collected data, decided which segments to focus on, and organized those contact lists, it’s time to start designing. Create email marketing content that’s specifically made for each group. DirectLync helps you save time with email design by providing a user-friendly, drag-and-drop email editor as well as ready-made email templates. Choose a template and use the email editor to customize it with your company’s details.
Once your email is ready, send it to your contact list right away or schedule send the email. Remember to also track how your emails are performing. Are people opening your messages, reading them, and clicking on links? The information you learn from tracking these metrics will help you design better emails for your customer segments to enjoy.
Segment Your Emails With DirectLync
Segmentation will go a long way in helping your email marketing succeed. Use DirectLync’s CRM and contact manager to organize your contacts and ensure you’re sending personalized, relevant emails to each one. Click here to begin a free trial today.
