Are you sending the same email to every single subscriber on your list? If so, you might be missing out on a treasure trove of potential engagement—and I’m not talking about the kind you find buried in your backyard! Email segmentation is a game-changer in the world of email marketing, yet it’s an often-overlooked tactic among bloggers. You know, the kind of strategy that can actually help you reach the very goals you envisioned when you first started building your email list. In this article, we’re diving deep into what email segmentation is, why it’s crucial for your blog’s success, and how you can tailor your messages to resonate with different segments of your audience. So let’s roll up our sleeves and get started, because the treasure of targeted marketing awaits! If you’re ready to explore these strategies in detail, LEARN MORE.
Email segmentation is one of the most important email marketing strategies you can use. Unfortunately, not enough bloggers use it.
It’s a strategy that can help you achieve the goals you originally set out to achieve when you started your email list.
In this post, we cover what email segmentation is, why it’s important for your blog and ways you can segment your audience.
What is email segmentation?
Email segmentation is an email marketing strategy that involves grouping your subscribers into different categories.
These categories can be based on a number of different parameters, such as the products your subscribers have purchased from your store or specific interests they have within your niche.
The point of email segmentation is targeted marketing.
If you have a segment in your email list that’s only populated with subscribers who have purchased Product A, you can send special promotional emails to only that segment that demonstrate how your new product, Product C, is related to Product A.
You can even use this segment to send reorder reminders if your product is something your customers will eventually need more of.
This is just one example of what email segmentation is and how it can do a lot to increase your conversions.
The 6 primary types of email segmentation
You can segment your audience in many ways, but these are the most common, especially among bloggers:
- Interest
- Progress
- Purchase history
- Actions and behaviors
- Demographics
- Preferences
1. Interest
Hopefully, you already know what your niche is and are creating content for topics related to it.
There are probably several sub niches you could break your primary niche into. Some of these sub niches might represent different interests your audience has within your niche.
For example, if you crochet, you might have specific types of crochet projects you like to work on and others you don’t find as enjoyable. You might love making granny squares and throw blankets but hate making plushies and clothing.
As the owner of a crochet blog, you could create segments in your email list for these different types of projects so your subscribers only get emails for tutorials they’re actually interested in.
This is a simple example of how an interest-based email segment is meant to work.
2. Progress
Some of the content on your website will be made for absolute beginners in your niche. Other content will feature more advanced techniques and strategies only those with experience in your niche would understand.
At the same time, it might be useful for beginners to learn those advanced techniques early on.
It’s up to you to determine two or more progress levels for your niche and whether or not articles for each one would be useful for the others.
If not, consider adding those progress levels as segments for your email list.
Here are examples of progress-based segments for a skateboarding blog:
- I don’t own a skateboard – Complete beginners
- I know how to ollie but don’t know how to kickflip – Owns a skateboard and has been practicing, but has only mastered skateboarding’s most basic trick
- I know how to kickflip – A popular yet difficult trick for beginners to do, so it’s a pretty good indicator of a skater who’s left the beginner phase
3. Purchase history
This one may not be as useful to bloggers, but it’s something you should be aware of, especially if you plan on offering your own products in the future.
What this type of segment does is categorize your subscribers based on the products they’ve purchased from you.
Some email marketing service providers have a special tag you can integrate with your ecommerce platform to tag subscribers who have purchased specific products automatically.
This is how you can send special promotional emails to subscribers based on their purchase history.
4. Actions and behaviors
The platforms email marketing service providers use have what’s known as “automation.”
This a set of actions the application takes based on triggers you set up.
For example, in Kit (formerly ConvertKit), you can have subscribers segment themselves with what’s known as a link trigger.
If you have a skateboarding blog, you can ask this question in one of your first emails to new subscribers:
Which option best describes your experience level in skateboarding?
I don’t own a skateboard.
I know how to ollie, but I don’t know how to kickflip.
I know how to kickflip.
You can attach a link trigger automation to each one of these options and assign your subscriber to a corresponding segment based on the option they click on.
This is just one example of how to segment your subscribers based on the actions they take while they’re subscribed to your list.
A behavioral segment is a segment you can set up based on the behaviors of your subscribers. Some email marketing service providers have default behavioral segments that trigger automatically based on different parameters.
For example, your email marketing service provider can identify subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in a while.
A segment like this allows you to send re-engagement emails to inactive subscribers to encourage them to open your emails. If they still don’t open them, you can unsubscribe them to “clean” your email list of inactive subscribers.
5. Demographics
This is a simple segment that largely depends on the data your email marketing service provider stores for individual subscribers and whether or not you’re able to create segments for those data points.
If not, you’ll have to use automation to have subscribers segment themselves by demographic.
Demographics include data points like age, gender, location, industry, job title, language and things of that nature.
6. Preferences
Some of you have simple email marketing strategies. You send one newsletter to your entire email list every week.
Some of you get a little more technical than that and send one “digest” email every week but also an email every time you publish a blog post, promotional emails for your products, and maybe even a few “just because” emails every now and then.
Not every subscriber is going to want to receive every email you send. That’s the point of email segmentation. It helps you fill your subscribers’ inboxes with emails that are highly relevant to them.
Still, you can create additional segments based on your subscribers’ preferences. These segments group your subscribers into different categories based on the types of emails they’d like to receive from you.
The benefits of email segmentation
Email segmentation is important for a variety of different reasons, but it mainly boils down to these:
- Better open rates
- Increase in sales
- Increase in engagements overall
- Higher return on investment (ROI)
- Fewer unsubscribes
- Helps you avoid spam filters
- Gives you a more optimized email marketing strategy
Let’s work our way through this list, starting with the first three benefits.
A lot of bloggers make the mistake of thinking of their audiences as one large entity who all have the same goals and interests. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Email segmentation allows you to use your email list to target the different subgroups that exist within your audience. You’ll see higher engagements overall, which means more of your subscribers will open your emails, click the links within them and complete purchases (or use your affiliate links).
Naturally, you’ll start to see a higher ROI as your email list actually becomes one of your best marketing channels.
When your subscribers receive emails that are relevant to their goals and interests, they’ll also be less likely to unsubscribe from your list.
All of this activity can do a lot to help you avoid spam filters your subscribers’ email clients use.
For example, if you’re a Gmail user, you may have noticed how your spam folder sometimes contains legitimate marketing emails you willingly subscribed to. But because you haven’t opened an email from a certain sender in a while, Gmail took it upon themselves to start sorting emails from that sender into your spam folder.
Increasing your engagement rates among your entire email list can prevent email clients like Gmail from labeling your messages as spam.
Lastly, email segmentation allows you to take a more comprehensive approach to email marketing rather than doing what most bloggers do: sending the same newsletter to all subscribers whenever you publish a new blog post.
It helps you optimize your entire approach to email marketing.
How to implement email segmentation
This is a pretty significant topic by itself so we’ll summarize a few strategies here.
First, take a look at your current email marketing service provider and see what segmentation features they offer. This will give you a pretty good indicator of what options you have for segmentation.
You should also consider how you want to segment your audience and whether or not you should use multiple segmentation options, such as using one set of segments for your products and another for audience interests.
You should also look into any automation features your email marketing service offers.
If they don’t offer much, see if they integrate with ConvertBox.
ConvertBox is a lead generation tool you can use to not only capture new subscribers but also segment them using a variety of different techniques, such as multiple choice options in an email form or even quiz results.
Some of its form templates are focused on segmentation. But you can add multiple buttons and form steps to any form, allowing for a lot of possibilities.
Click here to learn more about ConvertBox.
When it comes down to it, how you segment your email list will largely be based on the needs of your audience and the capabilities of the email marketing service provider and/or email capture software you use.
Final thoughts
Whilst email segmentation is often forgotten about, it presents plenty of benefits.
You’ll see lower unsubscribes, better conversions, more sales, etc. That all makes it worthwhile.
And while you can segment your list in many different ways, the primary types to focus on include; interest, progress, purchase history, actions and behaviors, demographics, and preferences.
Now, go out there and start segmenting your email list!
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