Using Segmentation

Hi Brian back again, I trust you are suitably motivated after the last blog post? I hope you have had some good weather, we have had quite a reasonable summer this year here in the UK. Here is the latest, about using segmentation.

Segmentation of your email list is vey important, as important as getting the list in the first place. Why? Check this post.

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Using Segmentation Features

There are many different ways to segment your lists. You’re then able to divi up your subscribers, while being able to better understand what they are most interested in.

Some methods of list segmentation will be more effective than others depending on what your qualifiers are. For example, age segmentation would be more valuable, and important, to someone marketing to only seniors or to college students than to someone selling weight loss products.

It’s up to you to decide what segmentation will work best for your subscriber list. You do have a customer persona? But it’s important to always test different types of filters so that you can start to group subscribers based on the demographics that make it easier for you to target.

Here are some various types of segmentation you might want to use, and a little bit of information about why each one could be useful:

Segmentation by Gender

This segmentation could be extremely useful if your products are mostly useful or of interest to one gender. It can also be helpful if you have a different version of your products for different genders, or if you want to promote gender-specific affiliate products. Additionally, it could be helpful if you promote a product that might offend or alienate one gender.

Segmentation by Age

Age segmentation is especially useful if you’re marketing to a very specific age-related group. For example, if you’re marketing to high school or college students or seniors, you might want to segment your list according to age.

Employment Status

Segmenting by employment status is especially useful if you sell products geared toward business and employment.
For example, you might want to send emails about a resume-writing guide to those who are currently unemployed.

Geographic Location

Segmenting by location can be beneficial if you have different versions of your product for different languages. It could also be very important if your product only applies to people who live in a certain area, or is more beneficial to people who live in certain places.

Purchase History

Purchase history is one of the most useful segmentation types, because it can let you know if a subscriber is a “deadbeat” or not. A deadbeat subscriber is someone who has not made a purchase from you within a specific length of time. You can either remove those people from your lists, or you can tailor your promotions specifically to them in order to potentially increase response.

Purchases

You can also segment by what they purchased, how much they spend, how often they bought from you, etc. By segmenting this way, you can send certain promotions to people who spend the most or least, those who buy rarely or often, or those who buy specific items.

Relationship Status

If you sell products that relate to dating or relationships, this type of segmentation could be extremely vital. For example, you might not want to send an ad for “how to get your ex back” to someone who is married, because it might damage their current relationship if their partner sees it and thinks they’ve requested the information. And if someone is single, they probably won’t be interested in a product about how to keep a marriage happy.

Abandoned Shopping Carts

If your list works with your ecommerce system, you may even be able to segment your list according to people who have abandoned their purchases. It’s been discovered that up to half of all ecommerce transactions are abandoned before the sale is completed. If you segment these people, you can send them a message tailored to asking them why they abandoned their purchase and what you can do to get them to complete it.

Read History

If you segment your list according to who actually opens your emails and reads them most often, you can reward those who loyally open your messages most often with special incentives. Then you can tell those who rarely read your messages what they’re missing out on by not reading them!

Further Thoughts about using segmentation

As you segment your lists, remember that these factors can change. You probably won’t have a way to allow your subscribers to update their information in your system directly. So someone who is single when they subscribe could get married, and someone who is unemployed when they subscribe could get a job. But, some autoresponders allow changing of name details, always have a means through support or an annual quiz/questionair/survey to update.

Still, segmentation is extremely useful in many ways. It will allow you all kinds of ways to improve your list’s responsiveness, from sending the right messages to the right people, to removing deadbeats and tailoring messages to specific groups.

Well, that’s it for now…

Until next time…

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