Email Segmentation: 3 Ways To Boost Your Response

It doesn't really matter what type of business you're in: your email subscribers, at the very least, should fall into the simple, categories of responders, newbies, openers and deadbeats. Your main goal in segmenting your list in this fashion is to get as many people as possible on the responders list. How do you do that? By following these tips to encourage action by your other subscribers:

You have two goals to shoot for when you get a new subscriber to your email or newsletter. The first is to find out what the new subscriber likes or spends their money on. The second is to move them to your responder list, a list of recipients that click on links in your emails, visit your site and even purchase things. The key to doing this is capitalizing on the new subscriber's addition to your list. Start by creating a set of new subscriber discounts. Create a promo code. Once you've done that, send out an email to your new subscribers featuring the promo code with a link backed by analytics. That way, once the subscriber clicks on the link, you can see what pages they go to when they browse your site to use the discount code. Once they've clicked on a link, they can automatically be added to your responders list segment. But the real meat to this exercise is finding out more about them so you can keep their interest in the long run by sending ultra-targeted emails.

When you send out an email to a deadbeat – someone who never opens your emails, regardless of the reason – it might seem like you're wasting your time and money. And at some point you have to realize that these people may never open your emails, so you might be better off taking them off your list. But you can give it one last shot before you let them go, by way of a re-confirmation email. Send an email to your non-openers with a link asking them to re-confirm their desire to receive your newsletters. Make certain that your subject line says something like "reconfirm your subscription to....". If a reader is interested in what you have to say, they will open the email and click on the link. Why they never open your emails, who knows, but they will reconfirm if you're important to them. However, for the people who never open your emails and don't click on the reconfirm link, you can strike them from your list without any guilt at all.

Your segment list of openers contains people who have presumably opened your newsletter or emails in the past, but never clicked through to your Website, browsed or made a purchase. However, remember that some people view emails through the preview pane and these may count as opens in your tracking and reports, so not everyone on this list is actively seeking out what you have on offer. The bottom line, though, whether these emails are being opened up or previewed, is that your email is being seen. Your goal is to get these openers to click on a link and visit your site. You can do this by sending out a online survey. Ask your openers what products or services they'd like to see more of. The key to sending a survey to your opens is to find out more on what they're looking for. If you can gather data from these subscribers that tells you what they want to see, chances are you can create a targeted campaign that convinces them to not only view your email, but follow through on a purchase.