If you’re one of the email marketers who’s constantly striving to get subscribers or attract customer engagement, then look no further than email segmentation.

A segmented email has a 100.95% higher click rate and a 14.3% higher open rate.

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There may be countless reasons why your generic email isn’t effective. It’s crucial to deliver personalised emails to increase customer engagement and sales drive.

EmailAn email (or electronic mail) is a method of exchanging communications through the internet. It is one of the most used features on the web and the number one mean... segmentation is going to get you there!

Sending personalised email campaigns and segmenting your audience is one of the most efficient ways to enhance customer engagement and generate more sales.

Also, email segmentation is a great alternative to “batch and blast” email marketing campaigns.

Besides, you can also consider implementing a lead score system to assure that you’re only prioritising the emails to send.

This article covers everything from scratch! You’ll get some valuable insights on email segmentation.

What is Email Segmentation?

Email segmentation enables you to prioritise customers based on predefined criteria. 

You divide target audiences into different groups.

Segmentation helps to divide the group based on certain characteristics such as customer interest, purchase history, geography, and many more.

Sending tonnes of futile emails to a subscriber doesn’t work. It has to be relevant to get the engagement.

Hence, email segmentation ensures that you’re sending relevant messages to subscribers.

It is also easy to personalise your campaigns to boost engagement.

It’s a very basic technique that can be easily implemented in a marketing campaign.

It’s daunting that, despite being a basic technique, marketers failed to implement this technique in their campaigns.

There are numerous benefits to email segmentation. It keeps the subscribers engaged by sending them relevant information.

Moreover, it helps to demarcate a thin line between sending tonnes of irrelevant emails and sending personalised emails to targeted audiences.

It also helps to increase the return on investment.

The Importance of Email Segmentation

The underlying fact is that the audience is not uniform and is divided into different categories of people whose interests vary based on their profile.

And if you want to make the most of each group, then sending blanket emails isn’t the best approach to look for.

Hence, it necessitates the importance of segmenting the targeted groups based on their profile.

Undoubtedly, email segmentation comes with a host of benefits to implement in your email marketing strategy.

#1. Better campaign results.

More pertinent emails result in positive responses from subscribers. It will also ensure more click-through rates. If your subject line of email piques their interest, they are more likely to open it. And if content serves the same purpose, they’ll continue to do it in the future. This will increase your conversions and click-throughs if it resonates with their interests. On the flip side, sending blanket or irrelevant emails can never satisfy every customer. And if the customers receive the same email repeatedly, there is a greater chance of them becoming disinterested. It will make the engagement lower, which will lead to a higher unsubscribe rate.

#2. Improved Deliverability.

Targeting audiences and sending relevant content will improve your performance statistics which will enhance future deliverability. Email marketing has a direct impact on deliverability. A lack of email segmentation will lead to poor engagement. It may also increase the chances of your future campaigns resulting in spam.

#3. Stronger relationships.

Implementing generic email campaigns won’t let you connect with your individual subscribers. To grab their interest and sustain it, the recipient needs to feel that the message is exclusively written for them. Consistently connecting with them on a personal level by writing relatable content will build trust and loyalty for your brand. And this translates to stronger bonds, which will build brand loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. 

#4. Increase your understanding of the audience.

Email segmenting will deepen your knowledge and understanding of your audience. You can identify your most valuable customers by curating content based on different profiles and considering the group with the best engagement.

Email Segmentation Strategy

Figuring out which email segmentation strategy works best for your campaign can be difficult.

Here are three easy strategies that you can implement to increase subscribers and engagement.

#1. Demographics

Generally, marketers consider analysing their demographic data to begin with email segmentation. 

The basic information, such as gender, income level, age, and company position, can answer all the questions about the person’s interests and needs.

You can know your audience by asking for this basic information on the sign-up page.

It will help you know your audience and will also add a lot to the demographic data.

Be careful! There’s a catch: don’t ask for too much information. It can become intimidating.

The simplest way is to break down all the metrics that are crucial for your business. 

You can include those questions in the sign-up.

You can also create the website forms to customise the sign-up questions or use the plugins.

After research, if you still aren’t able to decipher the data and create the questions, then you can use an email builder.

Campaign Monitor is an email marketing platform. You can use it to segment based on demographics.

Show the demographics to this website and select the content. It will segment the data.

#2. Email Engagement

Email segmentation can do wonders if you monitor the main metrics to keep the audience engaged.

Click through and open rate will define your email segmentation. 

Segmenting works best in separating active and inactive users. You can easily segment them by checking who hasn’t opened your emails.

Then you can personalise the campaign to re-engage those users.

It will also help you segment the subscribers who seem disinterested.

You don’t have to go overboard but can simply deliver the emails announcing sales or offers.

If they open your email, you can differentiate by categorising them as interested.

Mailsenpai is a great platform to segment engagement. Easily manage email lists, subscriber lists, segment lists, custom fields, form lists, and page lists.

You can define your own metrics as well. 

Creating your own marketing segment can help you get tremendous email engagement.

#3. Geographic Location

You can segment the geographic data to target the prime geographic locations where you can get more purchases.

Selecting the right geographic location for your business can highly influence the customers purchasing decisions.

It can help a lot in email segmentation by targeting the specific groups of that location.

#4. Sales Funnel

You can segment your audience based on where they are in the sales funnel.

This will help you curate more personalised messages.

 It works in a simple way by creating different emails for the person who’s on top and bottom.

For example, you will create more generalised content for a bunch of new subscribers, giving them a wide range of opportunities and offers. 

You can go with a good welcome email or a series of them.

Once they have signed up, answered the sign-up questions and been hooked on the content for a while, then you can use this information.

You can make the most of the information by sending more personalised or targeted emails.

Email Segmentation Best Practices

Hopefully, now, you must have known the basics of email segmenting. Here are some email segmentation best practices to keep in mind:

• Keep it simple. It won’t make any sense to create endless different segments. Instead, choose the ones that can have a direct influence on your customer’s decision. 
• Know your audience. Before starting with email segmentation, do some research on your audience to get to know them. This will provide you with some insights based on their profile, which will help you to create segments.
• Don’t ask the subscribers for too much information. Although sign-up forms can be useful for knowing the audience, It’s recommended to not ask for too much information. People will find it difficult to sign up.
• Use dynamic content. You can change the content for certain groups. Make sure you don’t change it entirely. Instead, save some time and make the necessary changes to the content by using dynamic blocks. It can help you create separate campaigns for different groups. Also, it will go in resonance with your pre-defined criteria.
• Monitor performance. Once you’re done with creating segmented campaigns, start gauging your performance. It will give you enough insights into your audiences and will help you generate relevant content for the future.

Email Segmentation Examples

Here are some examples which you can consider to create your own email segment:

#1. SSense

You will find a link in their welcome email that will ask for your email address.

It will direct you to a page where you’ll be asked about your gender.

This can be a great way to curate content and send them gender-specific emails.

To be on the safe side, you can directly send the user to their profile page to let them edit their interests and preferences. 

It’s a great strategy to implement when researching demographics and will prevent subscription.

#2. Barkbox

It’s a great e-commerce website that focuses on buyer personas.

Barbox has an audience of dog lovers. To make it more specific and targeted, the website is more concerned about the dog’s size.

Their segmentation is pretty simple. With just one click, they gather insights about the size of their dogs. 

The customers don’t get deterred as they have to answer one easy question, and hence, the chances of engagement increase.

Based on the valuable information, email segmentation is done.

#3. AYR

What if you get an additional coupon code when you sign up?

This website offers a 10% instant discount through a pop-up. When you sign-up, an email will be dropped.

The email will promise you a discount on your first purchase and direct you to the website to complete your purchase.

This is an effective way to pique the interest of subscribers and then convert them into customers.

3 Email Segmentation Tips Every Email Marketer Should know

If you have started with email segmenting and need some tips to boost engagement. Here are some great tips to consider:

• New subscribers. Welcome your new subscribers with a welcome mail. To make the visitors your subscribers, just add a popup. This will convert them into your customers later. You may even go further by introducing a series of emails comprising your blog content. To build a strong relationship with them, make sure you’re catering to their needs with the best content possible.
• Preferences. Most marketers tend to neglect the preferences of their customers while implementing email segmentation. Asking your customers about their preferences is the best way to make them feel warm. Ask them to select the way they wish to receive email and how often they want to receive it. Do they want to keep themselves updated with discounts?
• Open Rate. You can use the information to segregate the active and inactive subscribers. Email segmentation is about segmenting and targeting a group of customers. You can segment the subscribers by observing the frequency of their engagement. To attract more active subscribers, you can offer rewards in the form of exclusive opportunities. For example, you may give them beta access, which not everyone can have access to.

In Conclusion

Flooding the inbox with too many emails makes no sense. The main goal should be to engage subscribers.

Segmenting the emails and prioritising the groups in a personalised way is the best way to increase subscribers.

Implementing email segmentation is a cumbersome process and may involve leg work too.

Nevertheless, when done effectively, it will skyrocket your subscribers and build a strong bond with them.

You will end up saving a lot of time in the long run and will generate decent revenue. 

I hope you have found this article informative and it has given you valuable insights into email segmentation. 

You can easily implement them into your email segment campaigns to drive more audience engagement.