5 Keys To Using Email Segmentation To Your Benefit

One of the great promises of email marketing is to ‘get the right message, to the right people, at the right time,’ with the expectation that you will get the ‘right result.’ The fulfillment of this promise involves audience segmentation. 

You could say that a successful, sustainable audience segmentation will provide value in the mind of a customer beyond the message of constant discounting.

There are 5 elements that can make up successful, sustainable audience segmentation. 

1. A verifiable acquisition method for your list. This means no purchased or borrowed lists. Your list should have been acquired via a direct method, usually a form on your website, that allows you to gather emails and the authorization to market to them. There is no shortcut or any way to circumvent this first step and create a successful segmentation strategy over time. Doing your email acquisition in this manner provides a solid ground on which to build your segmentation strategy.
   
   
2. Multiple, specific ‘languages’ to address multiple segments. Sometimes you hear companies talk about how they have dozens, hundreds of segments in their database. They can segment through product selection, recency of purchases, number of purchases, and a large number of demographic qualities for their audience. That’s great. But if all you can do with that segmentation is offer your list discounts, then you only have one language to speak to all your segments: discounting. If that language allows your business to succeed, then great. However, many businesses find that constant discounting, segmented or otherwise, eats at their brand’s quality and makes them seem ‘cheap’ compared with others. A successful, sustainable segmentation strategy involves more than the language of discounting, even if it is broken down by segments.
   
   
3. A clear view of your product’s lifecycle. Be clearly aware whether your product can be replaced, accessorized, re-used, or consumed (like vitamins, for example). Segmentation that does not understand the product cycle risks becoming spam in the mind of the recipient because the utility of the messages is only in the mind of the company, not the customer. Segmentation that works well addresses the product life-cycle because it is helping the customer get the most value for their investment in the product.
   
   
4. A clear strategy for your segmentation approach. A modern data-driven system like Klaviyo allows you to segment your customers in many different ways: behavioral, demographic, by Customer Lifetime Value, etc. However, If you are going to create segments, they should fall within a coherent strategic approach that builds your customer and your sales at the same time. Combining product-cycle understanding with additional demographic and behavioral information can help you add value (other than discounting) in your email-mediated conversations with your customers.
   
   
5. A constant testing mindset. Unless your audience is extremely limited, chances are that your messaging (delivered via segmentation) will have to change over time. Often, messages that worked for a while mysteriously stop being effective. At the very least, most, if not all, of your email delivery should involve subject line testing. Subject lines are fungible and not recyclable - except in automations, when the emails will not be going to the same inboxes all the time or the transactional nature of the email excuses the need for a precise subject line (‘Here’s your order confirmation from X’). Subject lines allow you to play with ideas for your segment and measure their effectiveness. Often, you may find that a successful subject line can lead you to new content to add to the email, and to the website, that encourages the results you are looking for. It is even better if the subject line’s underlying theme is tested over several campaigns to ensure you understand its importance to the segment it relates to.

A thoughtful approach to segmentation that builds upon a customer-centric strategy is very likely to help you succeed in your email-driven efforts. Good segmentation gives meaning to to ‘get the right message, to the right people, at the right time,’ in the context of whatever you are trying to get across, in circumstances dealing from Business to Business or Business to Consumer.