As an email marketer, you know each contact in your email list is unique. Managing them sometimes becomes difficult. Especially if you have hundreds of subscribers. Then, how do you make sure your emails are tailored and customized for each subscriber? 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... tagging to your rescue!

It’s one of the most effective yet easiest ways of email segmentation. It allows you to manage a growing list of contacts. Through email tagging, you can easily keep all your contacts organized. In addition, you can send them highly targeted emails.

Therefore, today, we discuss what is email tagging and the types of tags you should know about. In addition, learn how to tag email along with its benefits.

Let’s dive in!

What is Email Tagging?

“Email tags are labels. Assign them to your contacts on the basis of their personal characteristics. You can also tag them on the basis of how they interact with your content.”

– Sendlane.com

The best part about email tagging is that you can add several tags to a contact. 

You can use any type of tag that you like. Easily segment your users before sending them targeted emails. In addition, you can choose any name for your tags as long as it helps you simplify things. 

However, you need to be careful when it comes to choosing tag names. Don’t randomly tag emails without a proper system. Else, you will end up using hundreds of senseless tags. In addition, they’ll be difficult to organize.

3 Reasons To Use Email Tagging

Here are three main reasons why email marketers prefer using tags:

• To Stay Organized. Let’s take an example so that you can understand better. For instance, you are an email marketer at a cosmetics brand called Makeque. It has 100,000 email subscribers. It’s impossible to send them personalized emails if they’re not sorted. Therefore, you can categorize the subscribers on the basis of their characteristics or interests. In addition, you can also do that on the basis of their behaviour or budget. Examples include “Foundation”, “Mascara”, “Lipstick”, etc. adding such tags will ensure that your users stay organized on the basis of their purchase preference. 
• To Segment Your Audience. Send personalized messages to your email segments using email tagging. Let’s go back to the example. For Makeque, create a segment of the audience that is interested in buying Lipsticks but hasn’t opened your emails in the last 90 days. Once done, send them a re-engagement email that focuses on your latest lipstick collection.
• To Trigger. Tags act as triggers in your automation cycle. You can run an automated email for users tagged with “Foundation”. Share updates about your upcoming Foundation launch. Therefore, the “Foundation” tag acts as a trigger for your marketing automation. 

Sure, you can do most of this by creating lists. However, lists aren’t as good as tags. They’re great to create collections of subscribers that you know want to spend repeatedly. In addition, they work well for large email automation such as newsletters or pop-ups. 

However, you can do a lot more with email tags. They allow you to segment users on the basis of their purchase preferences. In addition, you can tag them on the basis of their activity. This allows you to optimise your marketing campaigns. 

5 Types of Email Tags

Here are a few types of email tags you can use:

• Product Tags. Tag your users based on their purchase history or buying preferences. They’re useful when you’re selling different items as they help you send targeted emails for every product. Let’s go back to our example, Makeque. You can use tags like “Lipsticks”, “LipBalms”, etc. The next time you run a campaign, you can send an email to people who brought these items.
• Sign-Up Source Tags. Tag your users on the basis of the form that they used to join your email list. eBook download, webinar registration, and Facebook shopping are some sign-up sources that you can apply for your brand. 
• Action Tags. Tag them by the action they’re taking within your emails or on your website. Common actions include support tickets, cart abandonment, clicking CTAs, etc. For Makeque, tag users who abandoned their cart and offer them a limited time discount to encourage purchase.
• Status Tags. They help send emails to users on the basis of how engaged they are with your brand. These tags indicate the status of each user in terms of behaviour, activity or engagement. Common examples include loyal customers, engaged, no purchase in 90 days, etc. Makeque, for instance, can send a re-engagement campaign for users who didn’t make any purchase in the last 90 days.
• Interest Tags. Tag your users based on what they like or dislike. People love to see content about what they love. The best way to know what your users like is by asking them. Take a short email survey to find out what they’d like to hear about, it can be product launches, discount codes, etc. This information will help you create and send better emails. In addition, these emails will drive more clicks and improve engagement rates.

How to Use Email Tags

Learn how to tag emails in apple mail, Gmail and Outlook.

• Apple Mail. Email tagging in Apple mail is called “Flagging”. You can flag emails in seven different flags. Use Smart Folders to help you flag emails better.
• Gmail. Tagging in Gmail is called “Labelling”. You can add tags in your mobile app or via the web. You can create and use as many labels as you like. There’s a limit at 5,000 but people rarely ever use so many tags. In addition, you can also assign colours to your tags. Add labels to transform your mailbox into a better, organized space. 
• Outlook. Tagging in Outlook is called “categorizing”. Create as many categories as you like, assign different colours and then apply them to anything in Outlook. In addition to emails, you can add tags to contacts, notes, tasks and calendar events. Unfortunately, you can’t add tags using your mobile phone. However, you can add categories to folders. In addition, archive this folder for ease of use.

How to Add Tags In MailsenPai

Easily add tags in MailsenPai. Here are a few ways to do so:

• Tag Imported Contacts. Automatically add a tag to contacts that you import from a list such as a TXT file. In addition, you can use lists from a CSV or a third-party app. Every single user on the list will be tagged.
• Tag Manually Added Contacts. To manually add tags, you need to add the tag into the  “Quick Add Field”. That’s all, you’re done!
• Tagging Links. Did you know that you can also tag users when they clock on a particular link in your email? Simply add the tag when you hyperlink an image or text inside the MailsenPai email builder.
• Tag in Automation. MailsenPai allows you to add tags to your users on the basis of the actions they take within automation.

These tags will provide a greater understanding of how your users engage with your content. This helps sort them on the basis of what they like and don’t like. 

Tips and Best Practices

Email tagging is easy and fun. However, it can lead to a lot of problems if not done correctly. Here are a few tips and best practices to keep in mind:

• Plan tags. Don’t randomly create tags. Instead, plan your keywords on the basis of marketing personas. This will help you create highly personalized emails. It’s wise to keep the demographics, customer journey and behavioural patterns in mind when choosing tag names. 
• Brainstorm with your entire team. Take suggestions from your team members for ideas on how your users should be grouped and labelled. You’ll find better ideas when you include other departments such as the customer service team. 
• Use hierarchies and high-level categories. In addition to using clear names, you need to create hierarchies. These will help you better target your customers and drive more sales.
• Be careful with symbol usage, letter case and spellings. Plan and predetermine your tags and categories. This will ensure that you don’t have duplicated variants. For instance, you are about to launch an email marketing campaign for “Instagram Users”. However, you find out that you have hundreds of users tagged as “IG users” or “Insta Users”. 
• Automatically generate tags. Use a CRM or email marketing software such as MailsenPai to generate automatic tags. These apps and software allow you to go deeper with your email marketing campaigns. 
• Archive or clean up old tags. Check your tags quarterly or biannually. You’ll notice that your tags have evolved over a specific period of time. Therefore, you’ll need to clean up old and irrelevant tags from time to time. If you’re unsure of a tag and don’t wish to delete it, then archive it. 

In Conclusion

Email tagging is a helpful tool. It allows you to grow email lists and segment them. You can segment them on the basis of their interests or purchase history. 

Therefore, it helps create optimised and targeted email campaigns. 

We hope our guide helps you create email tags and send better marketing campaigns. 

Have you started using email tags? What are some of your most-used email tags? Tell us in the comments section below!