Segmenting your list

NOW THAT YOU HAVE A LIST

Always, the first step to successful email marketing campaigns is to target specific types of prospects. If you’re like most businesses, your email database likely contains various types of customers and prospects that vary according to factors like gender, geography, and interests. While you can sometimes send the same email to all of these folks, it’s usually more effective to create specific email campaigns for a list of recipients who fit a certain profile. You may profile on a specific or perhaps more than one.

THE POWER OF PROFILING

Targeting particular recipients with contextually relevant emails offers you and them a lot of benefits. For example, if your product is baseball uniforms, an email to soccer moms will not have the same impact as an email to baseball coaches. The result is you have probably wasted your time and theirs and you risk having the soccer mom remove herself from your mailing list.

Moreover, the email will have higher open rates, when recipients will it more relevant and  more prospects will click through to your landing page completing the form. Your side benefit is   the email will see lower unsubscribe rates. So profiling or list segmentation can be critical to a successful list.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF FOLKS

Your first step is to understand the types of customers you do business with. Depending on your market you may have several different types but a segment may have some unique qualities that set them apart. So start with some obvious items but keep it to three or four to maintain a sense of congruity. Think of terms that may apply. They may be geographical, gender or any characteristic that is common among a group. Keep the persona of your customers simple and keep the criteria to three or four types. Once you have a handle on these core segments or persona, you can create additional segments later on.

SEGMENT YOUR LIST

We have all heard the term “walk before you run”.  The phrase couldn’t be more true, when you are segmenting your database. To start, try segmenting using some simple criteria like geography mentioned above. Later on, you can tackle more advanced techniques, such as behavioral segmentation that will allow you to send emails to specific types of prospects based on some action or behavior you know they have taken in the past.

Stepping into this process will require access to your database and information about the people in that list. Have they purchased before? If so, what did they buy? Look for age or age ranges. Start a spread sheet and record the information. It takes work but it is well worth the effort. Soon, you will slot new people into segments of your database based on the criteria you have selected before they go to your mailing list.  If you need help, send us a note for a FREE phone consultation. Or if you wish to comment we would love to hear from you!