By Mac Cassity
Have you ever heard of list segmentation? If you are new to email marketing, you may not have. But you will soon realize that it can increase your conversions and is well worth finding out more about.
What Is Segmentation?
List segmentation refers to the fact that you can send emails to a specific portion of your list instead of to everyone. A blanket email—one that everyone on your list will receive—can be a good choice if you have news or information that would benefit everyone. But list segmentation allows you to speak directly to the needs of a portion of your audience and often results in a better return.
Prospects vs. Customers
Let’s suppose you own an Internet store that sells various items for the garden. Your emails may have resulted in 15% of people actually buying something you have advertised as being on sale on your Web site. A further 30 percent of recipients clicked through to look at what you had on sale but didn’t buy anything. Everyone else did nothing.
Now you could decide to send an email targeting those subscribers who bought a product from you in the past. The fact that you aren’t sending it to everyone means you can be more personal and more relevant to that section of your subscriber list. How about thanking them for their recent business and offering them a discount on any products they choose to buy from your Web site during the next week?
As you can see, you are rewarding your paying customers with something that casual browsers will not get. There are lots of other ways you can segment your email list to get more out of it as well.
Segmenting by Sale Size
You could target customers who typically spend more money than most. Instead of offering a small percentage discount for a small spend offer a larger discount for one or more purchases that are over a certain amount of money. Use the information you have to hand to gauge what price point to appeal to. Remember, too, that experimenting with list segmentation is crucial if you want to make the most of it.
Demographics
You can also think about demographics. These relate to where people live, their occupation, age and various other associated factors. The chances are you could use one or more of these to channel your offerings and appeal to people in a more intimate way.
Precision Results
No doubt you can see now why list segmentation is so important. It’s true that it takes a bit more work, but that work will be rewarded. The more precise you can be with your emails and who you send them to, the more revenue you can bring in as a result. How many times have you received emails that weren’t relevant to you or your needs? Proper list segmentation can reduce the chances of this happening and ensure that everyone is better taken care of.
The bottom line is that Internet marketers who delve into list segmentation and experiment with reaching different groups of people in different ways habitually get better results from their mailings. Put yourself among their number and learn more about list segmentation today.
About the Author
Mac Cassity is a seasoned internet marketer with more than 13 years of
experience in making money online. His Web site www.PerfectNetworker.com has allowed Mac to grow and service a client base in the tens of thousands and reach a presence in more than 40 countries.