Divide and e-conquer – segment your emails like a boss

Email segmentation is where it’s at. Be brave and make the time upfront. You will reap the rewards of a few small changes.

If you have an email database (yes, I know, some still don’t), and have enough capacity to send out a regular email ‘to all’, then you definitely have enough time to quickly adapt content to potentially get more opens.

We’re not talking massive overhauls here – minor tweaks taking seconds could have a demonstrable impact.

Of course, it is easier to send the same to all. All I implore is, that after reading this, you try NOT TO.

By building up knowledge about your customers and their background or experience, you can segment and send more engaging, relevant and even personalised messages.

As Neil Patel says: “In 2019, Campaign Monitor revealed across several industries, the average open rate was 17.92% and the average click-through rate was 2.69%.

That means that over 82% of people don’t open emails and that about 97% of them don’t bother to follow any of the links.”

Those numbers are insane. And here are some practical tips to help you change that for your business, brand, organisation and – crucially – your objectives.

Don’t spray and pray

Sending your whole database the same email – subject line, images, content – is sometimes needed due to time pressures or other constraints, yet should be avoided where possible.

You can segment your mailing list in a number of ways, if you have the information from sign up in your database (location, age, gender for B2C and seniority, sector and so forth for B2B). [see below if you don’t have this data]

My one piece of advice is to start small. Once you see positive activity, you can go further. For instance, in the B2B world, begin by segmenting by type of company or industry and using language appropriate to them.

This takes time upfront, but done correctly, you'll not only improve both your open and engagement rates, in turn you’ll see an improvement in your conversion rates – more people clicking through the CTA to your site.

Only email addresses? A/B test time

Nothing more than emails in your database? No problem, and still no excuse.

Well, there actually is a problem, and you need to revisit this, looking at what and how you gather your information.

Of course, it is easier to send the same to all. All I implore is, that after reading this, you try not to. Give your next email a tweak with these in mind, even if not ready to segment your audience:

  • Think who the reader is – could you show more personality/point of difference?

  • Change a subject line to be more funny/engaging;

  • Ask a question;

  • Make it shorter than you normally would;

  • Be more intriguing/teasing; or

  • Use more, or fewer, acronyms or jargon

Test and learn – see what makes the difference, measure the (topline) results and you’ll go one of two ways:

1) it didn’t work, you know to not try again,

2) it did work, and you can use this experience to inform other activity.

No harm, no foul.

Personalisation: the {firstname} of the game

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Getting the first name for ‘Hi {firstname}’ is so valuable, as is knowing the company/sector/region/seniority of the person you’re contacting as your organisation or brand.

Personalising subject lines can improve open rate by 26%, according to Campaign Monitor.

More great email titbits here from Campaign Monitor, including the triumvirate of relevant, timely and ‘comes from a person’.

If in doubt, ask an expert (I did) – Mark Daniels, Head of Digital, The Big Table Group:

“Two things: use your subject lines wisely, especially if you are using a generic message to your database. The subject line is the difference between an email being opened and an email disappearing in to the bin.

“And from a GDPR perspective, remember you shouldn't be holding data unnecessarily. So many Boards focus on how many people are in the database rather than the quality of the data; as a result, the CRM managers aren't getting rid of disengaged contacts from the database to keep their numbers higher. This just means you're sending emails to people who haven't opened emails in months if not years.

It's a waste of your ESP (email service provider) license cost and detrimental to the performance of the email.”

Thanks to Mark for his insight – you can find him on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/markjdaniels and check out his brilliant job-seeking podcast (currently on hiatus) www.desperatelyseekingsalary.com/podcast.

Want to ask a question or have a chat? My LinkedIn and Twitter are always open.