Email Segmentation – 13 Parameters That Get Conversions

Marketers trying to grab attention in their customers’ flooded inboxes use email segmentation as their secret weapon. Customers are much more likely to click on a personalized email than spam. It’s no wonder that segmented email campaigns can improve revenue by 760%.

Email marketing is a strategy of compiling customer’s emails and sending them promotional emails. Email segmentation takes email marketing to the next level. By categorizing users into similar groups, personalizing emails becomes streamlined. Segmenting users by demographics, behavior, and more allows your business to market directly to a group’s shared values and traits.

No matter who your customers are, personalized emails allow you to speak to them directly. In this guide, we’ll review the benefits of email segmentation and different parameters that will help you sort your customer database for conversions.

What are the benefits and impact of email segmentation?

A robust email segmentation strategy is a powerful way to personalize your brand’s messaging. When speaking to a unique group of people, you instantly improve your brand’s relevance to customers. Engagement and conversion rates will skyrocket as a result. Segment-specific content allows for improved targeting and personalized messaging among users. As a result, customers are more likely to stay engaged and unsubscribe less frequently.

Unsurprisingly, the ROI of email marketing is surprisingly high. For every $36 for every $1 spent. Couple that with a smart segmentation strategy, and your email strategy is set up for success!

If you’re at a loss for words, we can help. Our email segmentation digital marketing agency has experts ready to write engaging copy for your business.

Implementation of Email Segmentation

Deciding to segment your email marketing list is easy. Actually collecting the data and planning your strategy is the hard part. It’s time to do some research into your audience and create your content. Follow these steps when implementing your email list segmentation.

Data Collection and Analysis

As your email subscribers start rolling in, dig into your customer data. The majority of the data you receive about your customers will likely come from a form on your website. Customers will likely give you their email address, name, and location. You can easily segment your customer base based on what they tell you in your form.

Once you know the basics about your customers, you can start digging into analytics. Discover more about users’ behavior and their method of acquisition to your website. Tools like Google Analytics can help you sort these actions by UTM, website visits, and more.

And there you have it! You’re ready to start creating segment-based emails. Use an email marketing tool like Mailchimp to make your life easier. You can upload customer data, segment lists, and even schedule emails using this tool.

Creating Segmented Lists

With a substantial email marketing list, you have a variety of email segmentation options at your disposal. It’s a fun and creative process determining how you will segment your users. However, you need to establish criteria first.

It’s essential to determine what data points you actually have as opposed to what you want to collect. For example, you can probably create a demographic segment with initial customer data from a form. A purchase history segment and cart abandonment segment may interest you, but you’ll need to collect some behavioral data before you can start measuring those. Define what data you have now and what data you will collect for segmentation in the near future.

Your segments will only be as good as your data. It’s imperative to keep an accurate customer database with up-to-date data on your customers. Your customer database will help you keep track of every customer’s journey in the sales funnel and retain them.

Crafting Targeted Email Content

Start creating relevant email content and see your segmented lists shine! Your email segment content should serve the dual purpose of selling your brand’s story as well as speaking directly to each segment. Each segment will require you to speak a bit differently. Create personas for each segment to speak more clearly to them. Flesh out the main takeaway they should receive from your email.

Visuals also go a long way. Use engaging images and videos in your emails to speak directly to the persona in your segment. Website design also feeds into your overall email marketing strategy. Users should be able to navigate to a relevant and attractive landing page if they choose to learn more from your email.

#1 Example

See an example of this email segmentation based on interests. The user expressed interest in the jacket but abandoned their cart and navigated off the page. Vuori uses ad copy that’s simple but convincing in nature. They make their call to action with a link to the item and subtly encourage urgency in making the purchase.

#2 Example

Brands may also partner with your company for email marketing opportunities. In this example, the neighborhood app Nextdoor used segmentation for its partnership with The Farmer’s Dog. The user received an email with a pet food promotion based on their location and the fact that they own a dog!

#3 Example

Segmenting users by active vs. inactive can help create some compelling email copy. Take these types of emails from Fresh Thyme Market. This user hadn’t been to the store in a while, so they segmented them as an inactive customer. They sent a simple but intriguing promotional email for $5 off a $30 purchase. People love deals, so not much more copy was needed!

#4 Example

After a user takes a survey, companies have a wealth of information on what they’re looking for in a product. Briogeo recalls that this user had an issue with dry, lifeless hair. They offer new product recommendations based on their responses to the survey with direct links to shop now.

Creating customized segments and writing email copy takes plenty of planning and research. If you’re in need of an email segmentation digital marketing agency, contact our experts.

Top 12 parameters for an email segmentation strategy

The parameters you can use for your email segmentation strategy are endless. Try these top 12 parameters to start your segmentation list.

1. Demographic

Personalize your emails by segmenting by demographics. Determine what demographic information is available to you about your customers. Some common demographic segmentation strategies are age, gender, marital status, or income. For example, financial service companies will want to speak to a younger crowd about investments differently than a more established, older crowd.

2. Behavioral

Tap into your analytics for an in-depth look at users’ behavior. Behavioral parameters help create impactful promotional emails. Some behavioral parameters may include past email interactions such as click-through rate. Or it might be their purchase frequency, cart abandonment, or engagement with particular content on our website. Reel your customers back in with a powerful retargeting email based on their past activity.

3. Geographic

Where your customers are located matters when creating email segmentations. Geographic parameters like location, region, country, and time zone are essential for segmentation. You can promote certain events for your company based on a person’s proximity to its location. Similarly, the weather matters for apparel companies. When it’s winter in New York, segment these users so they don’t see any product recommendations for flip-flops.

4. Psychographic

Psychographic parameters take behavioral targeting a step further. As you study your customers’ behavior, dig in further to understand some of their personalities, hobbies, interests, and opinions. By understanding a person’s deeper motivations, you can curate your emails to fit their lifestyle and values. If you’re a company that promotes yoga, you might learn some of your customers are health-conscious and enjoy running as well. Segment these running users for additional product recommendations.

5. Customer Status

The longevity of your customer’s history with you matters when creating email segmentations. Segment your email list in a multitude of ways such as new, potential, loyal, and inactive customers. New customers will need additional guidance to understand your additional products and services. Your inactive customers could use a reminder to come back. Don’t forget about those loyal customers though. They need to be continuously nurtured through personalized recommendations and promotions.

6. Acquisition Source

Reach customers how they want to be reached. Acquisition source segmentation is a savvy way to segment users by how they originally found you. Use a parallel method to engage them again in a similar way. Depending on if they found you in person or online, you can introduce them to the other parts of your business. People who found you through the website could receive an email about nearby brick-and-mortar locations. In-store visitors could use an intro to your services online.

7. Interaction Frequency

You wouldn’t knock on the same door for hours if no one answered. The same idea applies to email segmentation. Consider how often users interact with you in your emails. Define users as active, somewhat active, or inactive depending on their interaction rate. A high email open frequency and purchase frequency could warrant more frequent emails with promotions. Less frequent buyers need an email reminder every now and then, but they shouldn’t be bothered incessantly.

8. Online Behavior

While 99% of customers check their email every day, chances are they’re not spending all day looking at messages. That’s why considering their behavior online as a whole is a valuable segment. Analyze browsing preferences, social media interactions, and activity on third-party platforms for online behavior segments. Heavy TikTok users may respond better to video-based emails.

9. Customer Lifecycle

Everyone is a new customer at some point. Map out the entire buyer journey by using customer lifecycle segmentation. Start a welcome series for prospective customers, leading them to convert and become new customers. Choose from either drip or nurture campaigns to engage these new leads. After feeling engaged, “regular customers” can get repeat promotional emails to avoid becoming inactive customers.

10. Job Title

If you’re a B2B company, you’ll want to segment your email marketing strategy by job title. Segmenting by job title allows companies to market to different stakeholders in an organization. A junior-level project manager might receive promotional emails. Meanwhile, decision-makers like the CEO should receive emails with stronger calls to action and your contact information.

11. Survey Results

People like a good survey. Depending on your company, you may benefit from featuring a survey on your website. For example, a makeup company uses a survey on their website to ask what kind of skin concerns a person has. The result is product recommendations based on their dry skin. As a result, you as a company also get important intel on the customer’s product preferences or problems. Segment your emails based on their results to give them more product recommendations.

12. Cart Abandonment

We’ve all mulled over a purchase before abandoning our cart. This is an excellent opportunity for email segmentation. Segment users based on the products they considered purchasing. Send an email reminding them of these products with high-quality images and an accessible link back to the product page. This personalized message is sure to get some repeat customers.

13. Custom Segments

If you’re reading through these segment ideas and thinking they won’t apply to your niche, that’s where custom segments come in. Custom segments are highly customizable and can be applied to any industry. For example, your website may use a ton of unique UTMs. You can segment email marketing by those unique parameters. The options are endless!

Hire a digital marketing agency now

Effective email segmentation involves research, planning, and measuring of results. If you don’t see the open rate you’re looking for, continue to experiment with your segments. It’s important to maintain ethical and careful with your customer’s data.  All users should have the option to opt out of your emails at any time.

Allow our email segmentation digital marketing agency to help you manage the daily complexities of email marketing.