Struggling to boost your email open rates? You’re not alone. Most marketers say improving engagement is their top challenge.
Unsegmented email lists often result in generic messages that fail to resonate, frustrating subscribers and undermining conversions.
The solution is to segment your email list, enabling personalized campaigns that resonate with your audience.
By targeting specific subscriber groups, you can increase open rates by up to 14.31% and click-through rates by 100.95% (Mailchimp, 2017).
Why it matters to Segment Your Email List
Email list segmentation helps to provide value and is far more productive than sending a random mass of emails.
Breaking your audience down into segments gives you the relevant content you want to share and the opportunity to provide value, thus driving better engagement.
Below are some reasons why segmentation is essential to your email marketing efforts:
✅People want relevance, tailored emails meet the needs of subscribers, and provide their readers with an accurate sense that you understand the value they are seeking.
✅Purposeful relevance bonds subscribers with your brand and increases open rates.
In fact, 80 percent of consumers are more likely to engage with a brand that offers personalized experiences.
If you want to customize WooCommerce emails without code, try Spark Editor, the brilliant drag-and-drop email customizer simply for WooCommerce. No tech skills needed, build professional, branded emails in minutes.
Key Benefits of Email List Segments
✅Lower Unsubscribes / Better Deliverability:
Most subscriber seeks relevant emails that provide value.
When you provide relevant emails, there is a far lower chance of a subscriber not wanting to engage and subsequently unsubscribe, report spam, etc.
When this happens, it raises your delivery rate of your future emails.
Campaigns that are segmented see an average open rate of 14.31% more than non-segmented campaigns.
✅Higher ROI / Higher Revenue:
Targeted emails generate more conversions. Focusing your emails on targeted subscribers is a great way to optimally generate revenue per email.
✅Stronger Sender Reputation:
When a sender receives a lot of engagement from a batch of recipients/ subscribers, this signals to email providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc) to prioritize delivering your messages to the inbox.
✅Grab Attention Amidst Crowded Inboxes / deliver relevant, meaningful content:
By sending targeted email communications, you can deliver relevant content that cuts through the noise of overflowing inboxes.
✅Build Loyalty and Lifetime Value:
Personalized communication fosters trust, encouraging repeat purchases and long-term customer loyalty.
Effective Segmentation Approaches to Get Results Right Away
🔸Demographic Segmentation:
Curate emails by age, location, gender, or income level. For example, the SaaS application that targets young professionals can highlight budget pricing options to the lower-income demographic.
🔸Behavioral Segmentation:
Study a customer based on their purchase activity, who opened your emails, and who has a spike in web activity.
Mailchimp’s 2023 newsletter study shows that segmented campaigns based on purchase history had 14.31% more open rates when compared to individual users.
🔸Psychographic Segmentation:
Use client values, interests, or lifestyle more than demographics. A provider of a WordPress plugin can target eco-friendly customers by sending them email content promoting the reduction of fossil fuels in their next project, ensuring it meshes with their attitude.
🔸Technographic Segmentation:
Segment by technical ability and what device they are using. If users primarily open an email on a mobile device, they may prefer a shorter email or reflect that preference by clicking through to the website.
🔸Stage of Customer Journey:
Match the user’s point of interest based on their stage in the funnel: awareness, consideration, decision, or retention.
Per Hubspot’s research, segmented emails for customer retention clicks are 18% better than emails that are not segmented and serve to nurture customer loyalty.
🔸Source of Acquisition:
Segment the subscriber based on acquisition source; for example, they subscribed from a webinar versus your blog.
Customize messaging that is reflective of their entry point at least to some degree, so it resonates with their experience.
Building Your Segmentation Framework
To boost email open and click rates, a solid segmentation framework is key.
👉Start by auditing your current email list to identify available data points like names, purchase history, or engagement metrics.
👉Use tools like Mailchimp or HubSpot to uncover gaps in subscriber information.
👉Next, set clear objectives for each segment. For example, aim to re-engage inactive subscribers or upsell high-value customers. Clear goals ensure your campaigns align with business outcomes.
👉Then, determine the minimum viable segment size for statistical relevance. Typically, 100-500 subscribers per segment, to ensure meaningful results without overcomplicating your strategy.
👉Create segment hierarchies and priorities to focus on high-impact groups, like frequent buyers or recent sign-ups, before tackling niche segments.
👉To fill data gaps, establish a data collection strategy. Use sign-up forms, surveys, or WordPress plugins like OptinMonster to gather details like location or preferences progressively.
Advanced Segmentation Techniques
Elevate your email marketing with advanced segmentation to boost engagement.
According to a 2023 DMA study, segmented campaigns drive 30% higher open rates than non-segmented ones.
Here’s how to implement sophisticated strategies for maximum impact.
📌Predictive Segmentation
Use AI-driven tools to forecast subscriber behavior. Identify those likely to purchase based on past interactions or assess churn risk by analyzing disengagement patterns.
This targets high-potential subscribers effectively.
📌RFM Analysis
Segment by Recency (last purchase), Frequency (how often they buy), and Monetary Value (spending amount). Prioritize high-value, frequent buyers for exclusive offers.
📌Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Projections
Identify high-value prospects by estimating future revenue based on purchase history. Focus nurturing efforts on these subscribers for long-term gains.
📌Sentiment Analysis
Analyze customer support interactions to gauge sentiment.
Segment positive or frustrated subscribers for tailored re-engagement or loyalty campaigns.
📌Multi-Variable Segmentation
Combine demographics, behavior, and psychographics in decision trees for precise targeting.
Map complex subscriber profiles for personalized content.
📌Seasonal Buyer Patterns
Track cyclical engagement, like holiday purchases, to time campaigns effectively.
Target seasonal buyers with relevant offers.
Creating Compelling Content for Each Segment
Crafting emails that resonate with each segment of your list is key to boosting open and click rates.
By tailoring content to specific audience needs, you create meaningful connections that drive engagement and conversions.
Here’s how to create compelling content for different segments.
🎯Personalizing Subject Lines
✅Make It Relevant: Personalization could include any piece of segment-specific information, such as names or interests (e.g., “Sarah, Check Out These New Features for Your Team!” for the SaaS user segment).
✅Highlight Their Interests: Keep subject lines focused on what your target segment cares about, such as discounts for price-sensitive buyers, as opposed to product updates for active buyers.
✅Clear and Short: Aim for between 40-50 characters, especially for mobile device visibility.
✅Match Them: For business-to-business segments, maintain a slightly more professional tone, while targeting younger segments through a friendly, conversational style.
✅Vary Length: Keep email copy short, punchy, and to the point for low engagement segments.
For segments with a high engagement with your content (and who have permitted you to take up some of their time), send more detailed content.
✅Be Simple: Talk normally, stop using jargon, and use simple language to explain the value your audience gets from your offering (for example: “Our new WordPress plugin feature will save you time“).
✅Segment-Specific Imagery: Select images that correspond with the interests of the segment, as millennials may relate to lifestyle imagery and techies might prefer screenshots of the product in action.
✅Brand Consistency: Stick to brand colors and fonts, but tailor imagery preferences to each segment of the audience, e.g, bright and uplifting colour for the creative professionals segment of the audience vs a clean, sophisticated design for the executive segment.
✅Mobile Optimization: Images should be optimized for mobile versions, they should load fast, and retain their visual quality on small screens.
✅Behavior-Based Calls-to-Action: For frequent buyers, using “shop now” will help boost purchases, while “learn more” with prospects in the awareness/stage of the segment.
✅Emphasis Urgency for High-Intent Segments: Add urgency language for offers, for high-intent segments, including claims with time limits, e.g., “Claim Your Discount Today!”
✅Button Treatment: Take a test, use different colours, combinations, and texts on buttons for each respective segment, and find which phrases and colors drive higher clicks.
✅Segment-Based Offers: Certain segments may receive preferred offers, such as loyal customers, who can receive unique discounts and free trials as new subscribers.
✅Content Hierarchy Structure: Keep major themes and offers as high up in the email as possible to ensure relevant content is available.
Most decision-stage users prefer product-related benefits as their first piece of content.
✅Social Proof: Display social proof in the form of testimonials or related case studies to show evidence that your offers work for their type of business.
For people cognitively invested in a service like SaaS, they will be comfortable learning and taking their time with the offer.
Testing and Optimizing Your Segmentation Strategy
To maximize your email segmentation’s impact, consistent testing and optimization are key.
A structured approach ensures your campaigns drive higher open and click rates while delivering measurable results.
To fully realize the potential of your email segmentation, you’ll need to continuously test and optimize.
Having a systematic approach will help you ensure your email campaigns increase open rates and click rates, while providing valuable information for measuring results.
🔸A/B Testing on Segmented Campaigns
👉Testing the Following Variables: Test out traffic-driving subject lines or calls-to-action (CTA), and send times per segment for maximum engagement potential.
For example, test out discount or sale-centric CTAs with recent buyers, versus value-driven CTAs with prospective buyers.
👉Sample Size: Test groups should have a large enough sample size to produce statistically valid results, typically at least 1,000 subscribers per test group.
🔸Tracking Incremental Improvements
👉Tracking Your Segment Metrics: You’ll want to track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions over a specific period to measure the performance of your segments over time.
👉Iterative Development: Measurable results from every campaign can be used as insights to make adjustments to your content, timing, or segment qualifications for continual improvement.
🔸Cross-Segment Insights
👉Sharing Similarities: You may find a shared likeness amongst segments, for example, some subscribers may respond and engage with video content.
👉Sharing Knowledge: You may be able to use similar campaign strategies in one of your higher-value segments to a less-engaged segment.
🔸Measuring Your Segmentation ROI
👉Bringing in Revenue: Calculate the revenue generated per email sent per segment, so that you will be better able to assess your return on investment.
👉Cost-Efficient: Balance out your effort against costs such as valuing your time, as well as keeping your business profitable.
Avoiding Common Segmentation Mistakes
Email segmentation can take your open and click-through rates to the next level, but segmentation mistakes can hurt your efforts.
Here’s how to avoid common segmentation mistakes and avoid a potential disaster for your email campaigns.
✅Stop Data Decay:
Subscriber information can get stale; stale information can translate to irrelevant emails and bad engagement.
Audit your list regularly to flush out inactive subscribers or to update info (i.e., addresses, emails, etc.) so your campaigns remain on target.
✅Don’t Over-Segment:
You can make too many segments and overwhelm your team and dilute your focus.
Focus on and prioritize the segments that will have the most impact, which could include purchase history or type of engagement, so you can maximize results without wasting staff resources.
✅Don’t Under-Segment:
Sending out unapologetically generic emails will run the risk of sending irrelevant emails that will put you on the unsubscribe radar (and not in a positive way).
Distinguish segments like new subscribers or new donors from loyal customers and deliver unique content to each of these segments that drives clicks and engagement.
✅Don’t Fall for Confirmation Bias:
Deciding you know what your segments want can jeopardize your analysis.
Instead, validate your assumptions with A/B testing so you can make decisions based on your data, which will get you closer to the best results possible.
✅Balance Resource Allocation:
Make sure you are allocating your resources to the high ROI impacting segments.
Don’t allocate too many resources to low-value groups; these low-value groups can turn into time-consuming spenders of resources instead of dollar-generating potential.
✅Don’t Become Inconsistent in Your Brand Voice:
Emails produced from segments will likely not be your “brand” or the same level as your “brand,” however, they must always be the voice or style of your brand to continue engagements and build trust.
Conclusion
Email list segmentation is an ultra-effective technique for enhancing engagement and increasing open and click rates.
By customizing your campaigns for specific subscriber segments, you can provide more relevant, more personalized content to your audience.
Good segmentation not only boosts ROI and conversions but also enables businesses to foster greater relationships with their customers and build brand loyalty.
Creating great segmentation is a continual process, so regularly testing and improving is vital for dictating your results.
With the right segmentation process in place, you will outperform competitors in saturated inboxes and position yourself for continued email marketing success.
Start segmenting today and reap the benefits from your emails’ full potential.