Email Segmentation Tips: 10 Strategies for Increasing Your Conversion Rate
Marketing has witnessed revolutionary changes and significantly developed in the past few years. Today, marketing generally, and online marketing, especially, is all about the personalization of the message to address the specific conditions and interests of the customer. Gone are the days when the marketer used to create one mass message and send it to all the targeted users. Therefore, today’s marketer indeed needs to be acquainted with email segmentation as an efficient means to enhance the conversion rate of your business. Experienced, reliable marketing service providers, such as eSputnik, could provide you with useful email segmentation services and advise you on how to make the best out of it. Following, we present 10 email segmentation tips or strategies to increase your conversion rate. But first thing first, let us know more about email segmentation, levels of information on which segmentation is based, and conversation rate.
What is email segmentation?
The email segmentation process is about dividing the emails of users/customers into different categories according to well-set criteria. To set valid criteria, you need to learn about various aspects of your subscribers, including preferences, purchase habits and history, etc. The aim of segmentation is the personalization of your email messages; in other words, it helps you present relevant emails to your different users and thus takes your email marketing to a new level. To picture it better, let us say you are a footwear retailer; building an email marketing strategy based on segmentation involves dividing the subscribers firstly into men and women. Then, you can go deeper, making sub-categories out of the two primary divisions you have. This categorization is dependent on aspects such as the purchase history of the customer, information about their preferences that you could ask them to provide, and more. This way, you can create sub-divisions based on prices, shoe colors, shoe types, including high-heels, sneakers, boots, etc.
What is the conversion rate?
Email conversion rate, or shortly ECR, stands for the percentage of users who respond to your emails and either become customers or do the action you desire. It is an efficient method to identify the number of those who ideally and physically react to your email marketing. Once you have the relevant data, you can easily calculate your conversion rate by dividing the number of purchases or actions done by the total number of delivered emails; then, multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage. In case the conversion rate is below the average of your industry standards or below your set expectations, then you probably need to try different strategies to boost the conversion rate, such as applying more advanced segmentation, for example.
Levels of data and segmentation
eSputnic divides the subscriber data into four types on which are based four levels of segmentation. First, is basic data, including name, gender, location, etc. which can be collected from the contact list; second, ESP data which is extracted by monitoring the users’ activities and reactions towards the mailings. This level of data includes the number of opens and click-through within a set period. It aids you in identifying the email types preferred by the users, for example. Third, is CRM data, which includes sales, product categories, average order value, etc.; and finally, is the external data extracted from the visitors’ behavior on the website and mobile app, including visited pages and sections, viewed products, and last visit time.
Segmentation strategies to increase the conversion rate
1 Base segmentation on the right criteria
To have efficient email segmentation, you firstly need to set the base properly and rightly. The base here is the criteria upon which you are going to divide your email subscribers. And always remember that doing it the right way may cost you time and money. Yet, approaching segmentation wrongly, without real experience, will indeed cost you more and more.
2 Start with proper demographic segmentation
Before you move into more complicated and advanced segmentation levels, make sure to fulfill basic segmentation firstly. The demographic element is one of the most reliable basic segmentation strategies. It is quite simple, yet could aid in forming the right base for advanced segmentation.
3 Move your segmentation to the advanced level
Advanced segmentation is an excellent option for those who seek to boost their email marketing. It is a level of segmentation in which aggregation and granularity are employed to process dynamic data in a specific period. In other words, it allows you to benefit from real-time data processing and deep data granularity.
4 Depend on the purchase history
Let the purchase history of your customers guide you while segmenting them. It is a decisive element on which you can base a successful email segmentation, for it gives you valuable information on the preferences of your customers and what they frequently buy.
5 Employ surveys
Preparing a survey from time to time and asking your customers to fill it can be a valuable source of information. These surveys provide you with demographic data and helpful information on the individual tastes and preferences of your customers. Analyzing this data, you will be capable of continually upgrading your messages to meet their changing needs.
6 Automate the segmentation process
Automation has grown a massive trend in the world of business during the past few years. Automating the segmentation process and the workflow of created segments raise their efficiency considerably.
7 Focus on the time since last purchase
It is quite an efficient segmentation strategy that can uplift your conversation rate, notably. It helps you identify active or frequent buyers and those who are not. Doing this allows you to address each category suitably. For example, you can regularly update the loyal customers with new products, promotional deals, discounts, etc. For the non-frequent customers, offer them personalized discounts on the products that interested them and drove them to make the purchase decision.
8 Let subscribers segment themselves
It is another reliable segmentation method suggested by Devin Beverage on Databox. It includes offering the subscribers different email campaigns and letting them enroll themselves in whatever they prefer of the given choices.
9 Pay new subscribers appropriate attention
Do not let the great attention you naturally tend to dedicate to loyal or frequent buyers distract you from the new subscribers. Transforming them into buyers would probably demand effort and a well-prepared email campaign. A welcoming message that lists what you are going to provide in future emails is a good start.
10 Encouraging subscribers to complete the action
Sometimes subscribers start the desired action, whether filling the subscription form or buying one of your products, but do not complete it. In this case, you could send them reminding emails to finish the actions. To encourage them to do so, include a mention of the benefits of subscribing or maybe offers related to the products they were going to buy.
We hope that these strategies and information will be of benefit to you along the long yet rewarding road of email marketing.
