If your company isn’t driving traffic to your site from your email channel, segmentation may be your problem. Nearly half of marketers don’t bother sending targeted email messages. No matter what product, service or initiative your company is trying to push, the audience receiving your emails will always be diverse.
In your email collection, it may be worth it to collect basic information like zip code or city, specific interests based on your brand, or age-range. If you collect simple emails, tracking those users’ behavior can help to segment later as you learn more about them. Taking advantage of those differences in interests and personas can improve your organization’s conversion rate.
Basic Segmentation
As you start segmenting your email lists, every decision should use targeted personalization to motivate clicking through on a call to action. Not every aspect of segmentation needs to be “ground-breaking.”
There may be simple segments that you’ve overlooked. A few that are the most effective are:
Geography: Do your contacts live nearby, meaning they are able to visit in-store or participate in a local event? Segmenting by geography will make the user feel as though you understand their ability to interact with your brand based on what is most convenient for them.
Age: A college student will have different and more priorities and interactions with your brand than a person approaching retirement. Segmenting by age will allow you to use different and more relatable voices to speak to your contacts.
Advanced Segmentation
Once your contacts have begun to interact more with your brand, those returning users will become more valuable. According to The Direct Marketing Association, segmented and targeted emails can generate up to 58 percent of all revenue for an organization. In order to keep them engaged, consider creating new segments like the following:
Form or Cart Abandonment: Often, a user will abandon a shopping cart or a form before completion. Organizations miss an opportunity for follow-up on users that abandon these processes. Set up an email to trigger a few hours or a day later to remind the user to return and finish checking out their cart or filling out their form. With 68% of shopping carts abandoned prior to purchase, it’s worth giving your customers a second chance!
Referring Customers: With a constant influx of advertisements and campaigns, yourbrand will stand out more by referrals from customers to their friends and family. Customers that continually refer new business to you should be encouraged and rewarded with special discounts, loyalty programs or other perks. Sending out emails showing your appreciation and making these customers feel part of the team will result in long-lasting brand loyalty.
As you start to explore email segmentation, remember to use all the information available. The more targeted email campaigns you can devise will result in your contacts feeling more personalized with your brand. Watching customers become more passionate and engaged with your brand is exciting - happy segmenting!
Article contributed by: Kathryn Malarkey, Marketing Specialist
