Email Segmentation Strategies for Savvy Marketers

According to Lyfe Marketing,

“Email marketing’s power lies in its ability to provide businesses of all sizes an attractive return on investment. In fact, according to an eMarketer study, the median email marketing ROI is 122%. That’s four times higher than any other digital marketing channel.”

While planning and launching email marketing campaigns, many marketers opt for email broadcasting to send an email to a large number of contacts and subscribers at once. However, digital marketers cannot boost conversion rates and get higher ROI without sending highly targeted emails to contacts or subscribers at the right time.

Savvy marketers implement email segmentation strategies as an email marketing best practice to send personalized and targeted messages to email subscribers by dividing them into small segments or groups. The small segments make it easier for managers to manage long subscriber lists. Also, the marketers can send the right message to the subscribers at the right time based on the email segment.

In addition to being easier to manage, the email segments help marketers boost sender reputation and reduce unsubscribe rates and subscriber complaints.

According to the Lyris Annual Email Optimizer Report,

“39% of marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates, 28% experienced lower unsubscribe rates and 24% experienced greater revenue.”

The marketers can divide the subscribers into multiple email segments based on a variety of criteria – geographic location, age group, occupation, purchase history, behavior, and stage of the sales funnel. They can further divide the email subscribers into multiple segments using a variety of software and tools. However, savvy marketers make the most out of the email marketing technique by adopting new email segmentation ideas.

13 Email Segmentation Strategies to Get Higher Email Marketing Campaign ROI

Keep New Subscribers Engaged and Informed

The automated email solutions enable you to send welcome emails to the subscriber as soon as she subscribes to your website. But must use the welcome email as a powerful tool to build and sustain a relationship with the subscriber. Savvy marketers make welcome emails more engaging by highlighting the benefits of subscribing to your website, requesting the subscriber to read blogs, and informing the subscribers about the emailing frequency.

Group Subscribers Based on Interests and Preferences

You can use a variety of parameters and criteria to divide subscribers into relevant segments. But you can make email marketing campaigns effective only by sending emails that complement a subscriber’s preference and interest perfectly. While designing the email subscription form, you must allow the subscribers to mention their interests and choose the type of email. The information collected during the subscription procedure will help you to keep the subscribers engaged by sending emails according to their preferences and interests.

Use the Most Appropriate Lead Magnet

Most digital marketers these days use lead magnets to generate sales leads by persuading website visitors to submit their email IDs. But you must remember that the same lead magnet may not persuade every visitor to submit her email ID. Your email segmentation strategies must focus on integrating a variety of lead magnets – newsletters, white papers, podcasts, samples, free consultations, and trial subscriptions. You can send the right type of content to the subscribers by creating email segments using lead magnets as a key criterion.

Customize Email Lists based on Buyer Personas

Most businesses these days create multiple buyer personas while planning and launching email marketing campaigns. The buyer personas help them to design emails according to a buyer’s precise expectations and needs. While dividing the subscribers into various segments, you can use buyer personas as a key parameter. You can easily link a subscriber to a specific buyer persona by creating customized opt-in forms. The opt-in form will collect the information required to link the subscriber to the most relevant buyer persona.

Track Changes in Engagement and Purchase Behavior

Some subscribers stop engaging with your emails after some time due to various reasons – busy schedules and lack of interest. Likewise, the purchase behavior of customers changes from time to time. Your email segmentation strategies must focus on tracking changes in engagement and purchase behavior consistently. You must engage with the subscribers and persuade customers to return by sending emails that include the most appropriate call-to-action.

Send Emails According to the Subscriber’s Position in Sales Funnel

Each buyer crosses through three important stages – lead, prospect, qualified prospect, committed and transacted – before placing an order. You can easily influence the buyer’s purchase decision by sending targeted and personalized emails according to the current stage of the sales funnel. For instance, you need to send highly targeted emails to nurture the leads and convert them into prospects. It is always important to divide the contacts into multiple segments based on their position in the sales funnel.

Create Cross-Selling and Up-Selling Opportunities

While implementing email segmentation strategies, you must create email segments based on the customer’s purchase history. The purchase history will help you to understand the precise needs and preferences of a customer. Popular eCommerce websites request the customer to consider a slew of related or alternative products before placing an order based on her purchase decision. You can use the information to create opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.

Focus on Engaging Inactive Subscribers

Your email segmentation strategy must focus on engaging and reactivating the subscribers who remain inactive for some time. You must persuade the subscribers to return to your website by sending personalized emails. However, it is also important to know if the inactive subscribers are still interested in receiving emails from your business. You must review the subscriber list periodically and remove the subscribers who have remained inactive for a longer duration.     

Differentiate Online Buyers from Offline Buyers

Many businesses these days generate revenue by complementing their brick-and-mortar stores with digital stores. But there are many customers who still prefer buying products from the brick-and-mortar stores. Your email marketing strategy must focus on sending a targeted message to subscribers based on their choice of store. While segmenting subscribers, you must differentiate the online buyers from the customers visiting your brick-and-mortar stores.

Adopt Responsive Email Design

Most subscribers these days access and read emails on their mobile devices. You must segment the subscribers based on their devices to ensure that each subscriber to access the email using the device of their choice. You can easily increase the open rate by optimizing the email design and content for mobile devices. Also, you should opt for a responsive email design to make the same email accessible on both computers and mobile devices.

Consider Subscribers’ Location while Promoting In-Person Events

The subscribers can attend webinars and virtual events regardless of their geographic location. Hence, you can promote virtual events or webinars effectively by blasting a promotional email. However, most subscribers will not travel to a different location to attend in-person events. While promoting in-person events, you can send targeted emails to subscribers according to their location.

Provide Special Opportunities to Engaged Subscribers

You can use email open rate as the key criterion to identify and differentiate the subscribers who engage with the emails more frequently. Your email segmentation strategy must make the engaged subscribers feel special by providing special opportunities. For instance, you can provide the engaged subscribers to try the beta version of your solution before the public launch.

Measure Email Segmentation Results Using the Right Metrics

Most marketers use email open rate as the key metric to assess email segmentation results. But you must remember that the email open rate does not depict the quality of email content. You have to use the click-through rate instead of the open rate to know the number of subscribers who took the desired action after reading the message sent by your business. The email providers make it easier for you to measure email segmentation results by displaying relevant information on the dashboard.

Most marketers these days implement email segmentation strategies to boost email marketing ROI. However, savvy marketers understand email segmentation is an ongoing process. They review and fine-tune the email segmentation strategies regularly to send highly targeted content to every subscriber according to her current position in the sales funnel.

This blog was revamped in May 2024.