In Part #1 of this blog post – which was delivered in Email #6 of my 7-part subscriber-exclusive E-course on how to add instant oomph to your email marketing – I provided an actual demonstration (in situ!) of how emails can be customized to segments of your mailing list based on data collected from your subscribers during signup. In Part #2 of the post (below) – I’ll talk about:
- Why it all starts with the newsletter signup form
- Why data isn’t evil (in fact, it’s smart)
- How to get data from your subscribers
- Examples of how you can use segmentation to deliver emails that are more relevant to different segments of your mailing list
First, here's a quick re-cap on what is email segmentation.
The theory behind segmentation is that if you can identify groups of subscribers within your mailing list based on certain criteria and then tailor messages that will specifically appeal to those subscribers, then they will be more likely to respond favourably to those messages, boosting your engagement and conversion rates. It’s basically an advanced way of personalizing emails to individuals within segments that you define within your mailing list.
Sounds pretty logical, and you’d think that virtually all email marketers would be segmenting their email campaigns at every opportunity to get optimal results, but as it turns out, segmentation is still a fairly underused practice. These days, most decent ESPs (Email Service Providers / Platforms) make it pretty easy to define segments and deploy messages to specific groups within a mailing list, so the “advanced” part isn’t in the technical process.
Sounds pretty logical, and you’d think that virtually all email marketers would be segmenting their email campaigns at every opportunity to get optimal results, but as it turns out, segmentation is still a fairly underused practice. These days, most decent ESPs (Email Service Providers / Platforms) make it pretty easy to define segments and deploy messages to specific groups within a mailing list, so the “advanced” part isn’t in the technical process.
The biggest challenge to email segmentation is in collecting the data from subscribers that makes it possible to classify them into segments in the first place, and then knowing when and how to use this data effectively to maximize subscriber engagement.
It’s this challenge that still poses a barrier to email segmentation for many email marketers despite being well aware of its benefits.
Here are just a few stats that demonstrate just how effective email segmentation can be:
- Relevancy is the marketer’s secret weapon, and the fastest path to revenue. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened and marketers have found a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns. (Source: Campaign Monitor)
- Segmented email campaigns achieve 14.31% higher open rates and 100.95% higher clickthrough rates compared to non-segmented email campaigns.
(Source: Mailchimp)
- Audience segmentation is the most popular tactic among marketers to improve email engagement, with optimized copywriting, personalization and design the second, third and fourth most popular respectively.
(Source: HubSpot Research, North American Survey, Jan – Feb 2020)
It all starts with newsletter signup forms: They need to be minimal, but not useless.
Many newsletter signup forms include a field to enter an email address, and that’s it. The main argument for keeping signup forms minimal is that it offers the least resistance for people to subscribe. If all they need to do is type their email address, the whole thing is over in less than a second. Easy peasy.
But the consequence is that you don’t know a thing about them. Nothin’. Zip. And that means there’s not much you can do in the way of targeting them for specific messaging.
In contrast, a signup form that requests too many details can be so daunting, it turns people off from subscribing altogether. The trick is to get a few details that will allow you to have at least a basic idea of who your subscribers are so that you can customize content to them based on your most important identification criteria.
But the consequence is that you don’t know a thing about them. Nothin’. Zip. And that means there’s not much you can do in the way of targeting them for specific messaging.
In contrast, a signup form that requests too many details can be so daunting, it turns people off from subscribing altogether. The trick is to get a few details that will allow you to have at least a basic idea of who your subscribers are so that you can customize content to them based on your most important identification criteria.
You need to request just enough info in your signup form to be able to perform at least basic segmentation that’s relevant for your business.
For example: If you sell beauty products, it’s helpful for you to know your recipients’ favourite brands or product types, so that when a new line of lipsticks is launched or there’s a new special from Clinique (for example), you can promote them precisely to those who are most likely to be particularly receptive to the specific offer.
Or if you’re in real estate, you need to know which of your potential clients are looking to rent or buy and their ideal property size, so you don’t promote five-bedroom mansions for sale to students who are looking to rend a one-bedroom or studio.
Or if you run a sports equipment store, you want to know the primary sport your subscriber is into, so that you don’t promote boxing gloves to cyclists.
Of course – you COULD promote all of these things to ALL of your subscribers not knowing a thing about them, but if you consistently promote stuff that’s completely irrelevant to certain subscribers, they’ll grow tired of the irrelevance of your emails and most likely unsubscribe.
Asking your subscribers for minimal details during signup can be as simple as requesting just one or two extra details besides their first name and email address (like ‘what species is your pet’, ‘favourite sport’, ‘favourite cuisine’, etc.). This should allow you to create emails that are far better targeted than you could if you didn’t have this extra detail or two.
Or if you’re in real estate, you need to know which of your potential clients are looking to rent or buy and their ideal property size, so you don’t promote five-bedroom mansions for sale to students who are looking to rend a one-bedroom or studio.
Or if you run a sports equipment store, you want to know the primary sport your subscriber is into, so that you don’t promote boxing gloves to cyclists.
Of course – you COULD promote all of these things to ALL of your subscribers not knowing a thing about them, but if you consistently promote stuff that’s completely irrelevant to certain subscribers, they’ll grow tired of the irrelevance of your emails and most likely unsubscribe.
Asking your subscribers for minimal details during signup can be as simple as requesting just one or two extra details besides their first name and email address (like ‘what species is your pet’, ‘favourite sport’, ‘favourite cuisine’, etc.). This should allow you to create emails that are far better targeted than you could if you didn’t have this extra detail or two.
But isn't data 'evil'? Well, it depends.
There are some who argue that when marketers collect data about their users, it’s an “invasion of privacy”, and that’s sort of true. Why ‘sort of’? Because although privacy laws now deem user data that’s collected without their knowledge or consent as an invasion of privacy – it doesn’t forbid (for now) the collection of data, as long as it’s being done with their knowledge and consent. And while some data can be kept private, some cannot (and I’m not even talking about obvious privacy violations where data is collected without the users’ knowledge and then used maliciously, for personal gain).
There are three main types of data that can be collected when a user visits a website: One is first-party data that’s collected by website owners via various forms (like shopping-cart activity), analytics tools and locally-operating cookies, and stored in databases they control and for which they can take measures to keep ‘private’. There’s also zero-party data, which is information that is provided voluntarily by people to brands or marketers by completing forms, questionnaires, surveys, polls, etc. And finally, there’s data collected via third-party cookies that allow marketers to track and optimize website performance, analyze audience volume and reach, and target them when running online ads and promotions in social media. Website owners must comply with privacy laws by including a clause (usually via some sort of pop-up or in their website’s privacy policy) informing users that cookies are in fact present, and that if they choose to browse through the site they are doing so with the knowledge that the cookies are present.
The problem with third-party cookies is that they transmit data about the users’ demographics and browsing behaviour to the various third-parties who provide the cookies in the first place, at which point you no longer have control over how the data is used, or knowledge of which other third parties (including advertising networks) it is shared with beyond the ones you’re aware of, and how much of the users’ privacy is actually invaded, although when we see ads for brands whose websites we visited (even briefly) suddenly follow us around the internet, we know a cookie was in play.
Since the invention of the cookie, internet users and marketers learned to accept this trade-off of user privacy for business-boosting insights as the norm whether they like it or not, despite feeling ‘wrong’ on so many levels. But alas, in an era where user privacy has become a supreme ideal, the end is finally nigh for the third-party cookie, with anti-tracking policies championed by the EU’s GDPR, the US’s CCPA, Facebook with its ‘Off-Facebook’ “clear history” tool, and Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser by 2023. This will significantly lessen the variety of data types that companies will be able to collect about their users and it will force them to work harder to glean business-boosting insights, so it remains to be seen just how much more transparent and ethical data collection will become once third-party cookie depreciation is complete.
Since the invention of the cookie, internet users and marketers learned to accept this trade-off of user privacy for business-boosting insights as the norm whether they like it or not, despite feeling ‘wrong’ on so many levels. But alas, in an era where user privacy has become a supreme ideal, the end is finally nigh for the third-party cookie, with anti-tracking policies championed by the EU’s GDPR, the US’s CCPA, Facebook with its ‘Off-Facebook’ “clear history” tool, and Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser by 2023. This will significantly lessen the variety of data types that companies will be able to collect about their users and it will force them to work harder to glean business-boosting insights, so it remains to be seen just how much more transparent and ethical data collection will become once third-party cookie depreciation is complete.
Permission-based Email Marketing is a bit different. When you place a newsletter signup form in your website so that people who WANT to hear from you can subscribe voluntarily – that mailing list is YOUR asset as a marketer or business owner. Social media networks, advertisers and search algorithms can’t access it. The only people who can, are you and your ESP (Email Service Provider/Platform), and they too are legally bound by super-strict privacy regulations. The technology provided by many ESPs includes sophisticated features that allow you to track the performance of your emails and target messages to certain segments of your mailing list based on a variety of criteria, like their geographical location, interests and preferences and their level of interaction with the emails and their content. This content, when tailored for maximum relevance to those people based on these criteria, performs far better than one-size-fits-all content sent in ‘batch and blast’ email campaigns to your entire list.
Admittedly, when people subscribe to newsletters – even of their own volition – many of them are not aware that their interaction with the emails they receive can be monitored for the purpose of personalization (unless there’s reference to it in the website’s privacy policy and the subscribers take the time to read it), so there are some privacy advocates who argue that email marketing is just as much a violation of user privacy as data collected via third-party cookies. However, while it’s true that there is certainly room for more transparency from marketers about how they plan to use data obtained via their ESPs to target and optimize content for individual subscribers – it’s also true that first-party and zero-party data obtained via ESPs can be kept far more ‘private’ than data obtained via typical third-party cookies, which is also shared with their providers and not just the website owners. Also, it’s far easier for disconcerted subscribers to opt out of marketing emails than it is to delete third-party cookies from virtually every website they visit, so it’s not entirely fair to equate email marketing with general third-party data collection methods.
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Check out my post on Why Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection update will be a pain in the butt, but not a death blow for Email Marketers.
Check out my post on Why Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection update will be a pain in the butt, but not a death blow for Email Marketers.
So: If you’re transparent with subscribers about your intention to use ESP data to provide a more personalized experience, treat their privacy as sacrosanct (unlike spammers who completely ignore the whole notion of privacy and give all email marketers a bad name), never share it with anyone, and use the data you collect about them to provide content that’s more relevant
and therefore far more likely to appeal to them AND achieve your goal in sending it to them in the first place, I call that a win-win. Is that evil? I don’t think so. I think it’s smart marketing. And let’s not kid ourselves – rule #1 in smart marketing is “know your target audience”, and no other medium allows marketers to do that quite as well, or as ethically as Email, in my humble opinion (unless they’re spamming, profiteering scumbags, in which case they wouldn’t be ethical no matter which marketing channel or data source they use anyway).
So how do you get more details about your subscribers?
There are a few primary ways for you to collect data about your subscribers beyond the minimal details they provided during signup. The two I want to focus on in this post are:
1) By asking them to provide more details, and
2) Progressive profiling (behavioural data)
1) By asking them to provide more details, and
2) Progressive profiling (behavioural data)
1) Ask them!
There are two ways to do this. One, is to encourage your subscribers to update their email preferences from time to time, especially if you add a new detail to the ‘update profile form’ that’s pertinent to your upcoming marketing activities. Many newsletter footers include a permanent “Update subscription preferences” link that allows subscribers to update preferences which then sync automatically with their profile in the mailing list. In most cases these preferences relate to things like the frequency of the newsletter, which of the sender’s newsletters they’d like to receive (if there are a few to choose from) or unsubscribe. It’s rare that the preferences page also include an option for subscribers to add or edit details about themselves, but it’s totally doable.
“Update Your Profile” pages can usually be accessed from a link in the footer of many standard email templates, so if your ESP provides this feature, you might want to include details in your subscriber profile page that were NOT requested in the signup form in your website and are completely optional. As more people voluntarily provide these details to you, they can be added to various segments you create from time to time, to help sharpen the focus of your email marketing efforts. And if you want draw more attention to it rather than rely on the traditional footer link alone, you could add a subtle call-to-action that’s part of the design of the newsletter, for subscribers to update their preferences.
TIME OUT (just for a sec): Here’s the part where I’m going to ‘practice what I preach’ and ASK you – if you’re already on my mailing list – to tell me more about yourself! Just look for the ‘update your profile’ link in the footer of one of my previous emails (or a future one) and fill out whichever details you feel like sharing.
BAM! And that’s how it’s done folks 😉
The other way to get additional details from subscribers that were not requested during sign-up, is to send them emails from time to time, specifically requesting these details via a poll, survey or some sort of questionnaire (see more in idea #3 below), explaining how the provision of these details will enable you to send them content or offers that are better suited to their personal preferences and interests.
Whichever way you choose – in the era of prioritizing user privacy, the more transparent you are with your subscribers about your intentions when collecting data and your commitment to respecting their privacy, the more amenable they will be to providing those extra details. The more data you accumulate about your subscribers over time, the more efficiently you will be able to identify the various subscriber details and attributes that make sense to segment messages for. If they don’t all cooperate with your invitation to learn more about them, that’s fine. It’s totally their prerogative whether or not to share details about themselves.
Whichever way you choose – in the era of prioritizing user privacy, the more transparent you are with your subscribers about your intentions when collecting data and your commitment to respecting their privacy, the more amenable they will be to providing those extra details. The more data you accumulate about your subscribers over time, the more efficiently you will be able to identify the various subscriber details and attributes that make sense to segment messages for. If they don’t all cooperate with your invitation to learn more about them, that’s fine. It’s totally their prerogative whether or not to share details about themselves.
2) Use progressive profiling (behavioural data).
Even when you don’t have a lot of data about your subscribers, you can still segment them into groups based on their interaction with your emails over time (hence “progressive” profiling). For example, using your ESP’s reporting features (depending on how sophisticated they are) you can establish which subscribers consistently click on certain types of links in your emails, which allows you to create reasonably accurate segments of subscribers based on subjects or offers that interest them, or on their level of activity (so that they can be rewarded) or inactivity (so that they can be re-engaged).
Despite the challenges of segmentation due to lack of data about subscribers, progressive profiling seems to be one segmentation method that email marketers do feel comfortable with, most likely because it doesn’t rely on information provided by the subscribers themselves.
Here are some ideas on how to use different types of data to oomph up your emails using segmentation:
The data that makes sense for one company to segment by may not necessarily be relevant for another, so deciding what criteria is important for segmentation purposes should really be based on your specific business requirements and email program’s goals. The types of data suggested below are relatively common, but if your business caters for a niche audience, then obviously you should request details that are relevant for your segmentation purposes. If you own a pet store, for example, it would make sense for you to know what type of pet your subscribers own so that you’re not bombarding some of them with dog-food promotions when they in fact own goldfish.
Even when you don’t have a lot of data about your subscribers, you can still segment them into groups based on their interaction with your emails over time (hence “progressive” profiling). For example, using your ESP’s reporting features (depending on how sophisticated they are) you can establish which subscribers consistently click on certain types of links in your emails, which allows you to create reasonably accurate segments of subscribers based on subjects or offers that interest them, or on their level of activity (so that they can be rewarded) or inactivity (so that they can be re-engaged).
1. Segment subscribers according to their interests.
If you send emails about a variety of subjects, like “home & lifestyle” for example, and you want to single out subscribers who are interested in a specific subject, like cooking, you could create a segment for “all people who clicked on the link to your Recipes page in at least 3 campaigns”. You would then know with relative certainty that the people in that segment are great targets for a cooking/recipe-themed campaign (etc.)
2. Reward your most engaged subscribers and attempt to re-engage inactive ones.
Use your ESP’s reporting features to identify and create a segment for people who regularly interact with your emails (for example “all people who clicked on at least one link in each of your last 10 campaigns”). Those are your super-engaged subscribers, so you might want to send them an email to reward them for their interest and loyalty, whether it’s with some sort of freebie, or even just a ‘thank you’ note to acknowledge their loyalty and let them know you appreciate it.
Conversely, you can also create a segment that includes subscribers who have been consistently inactive for a long time (haven’t clicked on anything in any email for six months or more) and create a campaign especially for them, reminding them of the value of your email program, encouraging them to check out some of your latest or most popular recent content, and even asking them straight out to express their interest in remaining subscribed to your newsletter by clicking a link within the email, and making it clear that if they don’t, they will be removed from your mailing list.
This may sound harsh, but remember that in many cases, you pay your ESP based on the number of contacts in your mailing list, so culling ‘dead weight’ from time to time (maybe once per quarter) – or in other words people who are clearly disinterested in your emails – helps to maintain the integrity of your mailing list and gives you a more accurate picture of your email program’s performance in general, because when you want to know your open and click-through rates, it helps if the measurement doesn’t include subscribers in the ‘dead weight’ category.
Conversely, you can also create a segment that includes subscribers who have been consistently inactive for a long time (haven’t clicked on anything in any email for six months or more) and create a campaign especially for them, reminding them of the value of your email program, encouraging them to check out some of your latest or most popular recent content, and even asking them straight out to express their interest in remaining subscribed to your newsletter by clicking a link within the email, and making it clear that if they don’t, they will be removed from your mailing list.
This may sound harsh, but remember that in many cases, you pay your ESP based on the number of contacts in your mailing list, so culling ‘dead weight’ from time to time (maybe once per quarter) – or in other words people who are clearly disinterested in your emails – helps to maintain the integrity of your mailing list and gives you a more accurate picture of your email program’s performance in general, because when you want to know your open and click-through rates, it helps if the measurement doesn’t include subscribers in the ‘dead weight’ category.
3. Create a poll or survey ahead of a specific promotion that will identify subscribers who would be most interested in it.
If you want to create a segment around a specific question you might have about your followers, for example, “what’s their biggest home improvement priority at the moment” – you could create a poll and then create segments based on the results, and send super-targeted follow-up emails to each segment. For example, you could send gardening-related content/promotions to those who said their biggest priority is to improve their backyards. Or if you own a deli and have just started stocking a new line of gluten-free products, you could promote it to those of your subscribers who are specifically interested in gluten-free products. A simple poll or survey could get you this sort of data. Here’s how to create a poll with MailChimp (other ESPs may also have their own trackable poll features too).
4. Customize content based on geography.
Sometimes your products or news are applicable to everyone no matter where they are in the world, but in some situations you might have promotions or information that is only relevant to subscribers in specific cities or countries, so knowing which country your subscribers are from can help sharpen your messaging so that you’re not sending certain people content that’s irrelevant to them. For example if there’s a public holiday in France that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world, and you want to send an email campaign around it, obviously it would make sense to only send it to your French subscribers.
These sorts of campaigns are easier to run if you have team members based in other national or international locations who are aware of local goings-on, so if you do have them, you might as well use them to boost sales or engagement!
Some ESPs already have geographical data about your subscribers ‘built in’ to their platform, but if not, you could add the ‘country’ detail to your signup form, or if it’s not absolutely mandatory for your day-to-day marketing activities, you could add it to your “Update Subscription Preferences” page and let people update it themselves if they want to.
Other campaigns you could run based on geolocation might include:
These sorts of campaigns are easier to run if you have team members based in other national or international locations who are aware of local goings-on, so if you do have them, you might as well use them to boost sales or engagement!
Some ESPs already have geographical data about your subscribers ‘built in’ to their platform, but if not, you could add the ‘country’ detail to your signup form, or if it’s not absolutely mandatory for your day-to-day marketing activities, you could add it to your “Update Subscription Preferences” page and let people update it themselves if they want to.
Other campaigns you could run based on geolocation might include:
- If you know there’s a national holiday, cultural milestone or sudden, one-off local occurrence coming up in a certain country – you could be creative and appeal to the relevant subscribers with content or a promotion that makes sense to them based on where they are.
- Has there been a cold snap in New York? Or a heat wave in Sydney? Take advantage of extreme weather conditions in specific locations to send a relevant promotion to subscribers in those locations only. For example, if it’s in freezing New York you could run a promotion offering soups, or scarves, or heaters. Or if it’s in scorching hot in Sydney you could run a local promotion on air-conditioners or on activities that can be enjoyed indoors where it’s nice and cool.
- Is there some sort of massive TV broadcast you know of in a particular country? Leverage the excitement around it to create a relevant promotion.
Knowing your subscribers’ geographical location can also help you review your email performance based on which country they’re from. For example, if you can see from ongoing analysis that your Canadian subscribers are particularly engaged with your emails (even if you hadn’t intended it), you might decide to tailor a promotion specifically for your Canadian audience in order to maximize sales.
5. Customize content for particular age groups.
There are a couple of reasons why knowing your subscribers’ birthday could be helpful:
1) Sending Birthday Emails – if your ESP includes automations based on the ‘birthday’ detail – helps to endear yourself or your brand to subscribers since you “remembered” this special day and rewarded them for their loyalty by offering some sort of birthday gift, whether it’s a free download, discount or coupon. And even if you don’t actually sell anything or are able to offer a tangible gift, you can simply send a greeting (as fun or creative as you like), and they’ll still think it was lovely and thoughtful of you. 🙂
2) Sending age-specific content or offers – Knowing the age of your subscribers can help you classify them into age brackets that can sometimes help you target certain messages for maximum relevance. You could even use different tone and vocabulary to appeal to different age groups. For example, you might have something to offer that’s particularly relevant for college students but not really for anyone else, or for people of retirement age and no one else (etc.).
1) Sending Birthday Emails – if your ESP includes automations based on the ‘birthday’ detail – helps to endear yourself or your brand to subscribers since you “remembered” this special day and rewarded them for their loyalty by offering some sort of birthday gift, whether it’s a free download, discount or coupon. And even if you don’t actually sell anything or are able to offer a tangible gift, you can simply send a greeting (as fun or creative as you like), and they’ll still think it was lovely and thoughtful of you. 🙂
2) Sending age-specific content or offers – Knowing the age of your subscribers can help you classify them into age brackets that can sometimes help you target certain messages for maximum relevance. You could even use different tone and vocabulary to appeal to different age groups. For example, you might have something to offer that’s particularly relevant for college students but not really for anyone else, or for people of retirement age and no one else (etc.).
6. Use purchase history data to send targeted promotions (or content) to people based on their previous purchases.
This one’s also a no-brainer if you have easy access to this data, so that you can send people relevant content based on their recent purchases. The problem with this approach is that in some cases the content sent as a result of a purchase isn’t always relevant. For example, a friend of mine once bought a watch (online) through a particular retailer, and for the next few months kept receiving emails from that retailer trying to interest him in more watches. Something was obviously flawed in the automation process here, because it should have been taken into consideration that once someone buys something, why would they want to buy the same thing (or something very similar) again so soon? Needless to say, my friend unsubscribed, and so would anyone else once their tolerance level was exhausted.
The smart way to segment based on purchase history is to consider the type of items that were purchased and then send targeted offers (in a timely and respectful frequency) about complementary items. For example, if someone just purchased an airline ticket for a vacation or business trip, there’s no need to sell him another vacation or business trip so soon after this purchase, but it would make sense to send an email with hotel recommendations or local attractions. Or if someone just bought a new bed, you could send them an email offering bed-linen options. Or, if someone just download a whitepaper on email marketing, you could send them an email recommending other whitepapers that may be of interest.
There’s never a “hotter” time to strike a shopper with an additional relevant offer than at checkout time or just after the purchase, but only as long as the offer makes sense, otherwise it’s just plain pushy and annoying.
The smart way to segment based on purchase history is to consider the type of items that were purchased and then send targeted offers (in a timely and respectful frequency) about complementary items. For example, if someone just purchased an airline ticket for a vacation or business trip, there’s no need to sell him another vacation or business trip so soon after this purchase, but it would make sense to send an email with hotel recommendations or local attractions. Or if someone just bought a new bed, you could send them an email offering bed-linen options. Or, if someone just download a whitepaper on email marketing, you could send them an email recommending other whitepapers that may be of interest.
There’s never a “hotter” time to strike a shopper with an additional relevant offer than at checkout time or just after the purchase, but only as long as the offer makes sense, otherwise it’s just plain pushy and annoying.
TO SUM UP:
Segmentation isn’t always necessary for every email you send, but if you identify situations where tailoring messages for certain subscribers would boost their relevance significantly and you have access to data that allows you to create the necessary segments in your mailing list, then it would be a missed opportunity not to do so.
