Segment your email list to personalise, build strong relationships,and make more sales
If you’re ready to say bye-bye to spray and pray marketing, email marketing sequences are the way to do it. I’m about to give you the skinny on how to stay in people’s inboxes. Keeping your emails targeted (and personalised) can boost your engagement and your sales. Here’s a look at the whys and hows of segmenting your email list.
Psst—if you can’t get enough of email content, you’ll want to check out these six email sequences to drive conversion
Benefits of segmenting your email list: Connection
Email marketing is all about creating a relationship. And one thing that can make or break relationships is whether or not your audience feels seen.
Dividing your email list into smaller groups (aka. segments) based on common characteristics means you can create campaigns that are more relevant to each group. For example, you can send product recommendations based on a subscriber's purchase history or past website activity, or send location-specific content to subscribers in a certain region.
But if you’re continually sending irrelevant or unhelpful content to your entire list (when it might only be interesting to certain segments) your audience is going to be more likely to unsubscribe.
Benefits of segmenting your email list: Testing
Smart email list segmentation is also helpful if you’re looking to test and optimise your campaigns. If you’re keen to understand the kind of content that appeals to your people, A/B testing your messaging and subject lines can improve your overall email marketing strategy.
How to segment your email list
Remember, the idea here is to make sure you’re only your subscribers stuff they care about. For example, a medical practice with a variety of services (think physio, dietitian, psychologist and naturopath) might want to send out helpful hints for injury recovery to their physio clients only. By segmenting their list by client interests, they’ll get the right information to the right people (without pestering everyone else).
Of course, every business is different, but here are some common segments that might be useful:
Demographic information: Segment based on age, sex, and location. This can be especially useful for targeting campaigns and offers to specific groups of subscribers.
Purchase history and behaviour: Segment your list based on the products or services a given subscriber has nabbed in the past—as well as their overall behaviour as a customer. This is a great way to create more targeted product recommendations and upsell campaigns.
Interests and preferences: Segment your list based on their interests and preferences! If you’ve set up an engagement quiz (you clever bunny) you’ll have a good idea of what your people are into. You can also take previous email engagement and website activity into account.
Email segmenting best practices
Start small: It's a good idea to start with just a few segments and gradually add more as you gather more data and become more comfortable with the segmentation process.
Make it optional: Give your subscribers the option to update their preferences and information. This will make your segments as spot-on as possible, which will make your campaigns more effective.
Keep it tight: Regularly review and update your segments to keep them relevant and accurate. I recommend giving your email segments a once-over at least once per quarter for maximum engagement.
Testing 1,2,3: It's important to test different campaigns and subject lines to see what works best for each segment. This will help you to optimise your email marketing efforts and improve your overall strategy.
Keep your email segments on target
If you’re not sure where to start, remember: no segment is permanent! If you find you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, you can always consolidate. But if you’re keen as mustard, here are a few ways you can use segmentation to target your email marketing campaigns.
Product recommendations: Use the information you’ve collected about past purchases to send personalised product recommendations.
Location-specific content: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Keep it local by creating campaigns that are specific to a given country, state, or region.
Interest-based campaigns: Again. The subhead says it all. If you’ve got a heap of subscribers who are cuckoo for kayaking, keep that kayak content flowing.
Pro-tip—when you target your campaigns, your messages become more relevant and more appealing to your subscribers. And if you make your subscribers feel seen, they’ll hit you up when it’s time to buy.
Get segmenting
If you’re looking to make the most of email marketing, segmenting is definitely worth your time. It’s a budget-friendly way to test campaigns, boost conversion, and get your list on-side. Not only that, it’s a valuable tool for maximising your investment in email marketing.
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Martha Barnard-Rae is a Denmark WA-based SEO copywriter. She supports businesses in Denmark, Albany, the Great Southern and beyond with all the wordy things they need to stand out in the best possible way.
Her words live on the websites, blogs, videos, emails, and socials of businesses all over Australia. An accomplished speaker, Martha helps brands, business owners, schools, and Government Departments understand what they need to do to find their voices.
Martha holds an Honours Degree in English and a Master’s Degree in Education — communication truly lights her up. When she’s not crafting delicious words, you’ll find her walking two giant pooches, practicing her ukulele, or wrapped around a cup of tea, planning out her next Instagram reel.
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