How to Use Segmentation

At this point we’ve covered:

• Capturing subscribers
• Writing emails
• Email flows and when to use them

There’s a remaining nuance we need to address.

Everyone on your email list is different.

Since each person is at a different stage of their relationship with your startup, it doesn’t make sense to blast them all with the same emails.

That’s where segmentation comes in.

What is segmentation?

Segmentation involves splitting your list into groups based on data you get from subscribers.

Then your email flows come into play to automatically deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.

You can automate all of your segmentation with simple if/then statements.

• Say you own an online pet supplies store:
  • If someone opens an email and clicks on the link to a resource titled, “best dog beds of 2020”, then they get added to the ‘dog owners’ email flow.
    
    
• Imagine you run a B2B SaaS product with a freemium model:
  • If someone uses your product each day for 5 days in a row, then they’re added to a “high potential” nurture sequence that goes for an upsell.

The benefits of segmentation include:

1. Increased performance (and in turn, revenue)
2. Increased email deliverability, (which is what our next section covers in detail).

Proper segmentation can result in increased open rates and CTRs, and decreased spam reports and unsubscribe rates.

In fact, marketers generate 760% more email revenue from segmented campaigns. 760%. That’s not a typo.

Here’s how you can create a segmentation system:

1. Set goals
2. Create groups
3. Automate data capture and execution
4. Write emails for each segment

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1. Set goals

What’s the goal of your segmentation? To sell a product? To get people to download an app?

The answer to this question will guide your segmentation strategy. You can create segments that will help collect the data necessary to split your list properly to achieve your goal.

Here’s an example:

If your goal is to sell more products, you might want to segment out high purchase intent subscribers—you can capture data on email open rate, and CTR to focus only on your most engaged potential customers.

2. Create groups

Create your segmentation groups to accomplish the goals you set above.

Here are some of the most effective ways to split your list:

2a. Demographics

It’s common practice to group based on demographic data, like age, gender, etc. Demographic groups work best for businesses that sell different products to different groups of customers—like a clothing store who sells women’s and men’s clothing.

2b. Email engagement and behavior

You can split your list by how actively they engage your emails. Say you want to filter out high purchase intent subscribers and send them specific messages that get them to convert. You can split based on engagement metrics like open rate and CTR.

You can also split your list by email engagement. Try sending an email with multiple options and segmenting based on which one subscribers click.

Here’s an example from Brooks:

Brooks sends this email early on in a flow. They ask subscribers to select what they’re most interested in. Their response gives Brooks useful data that allows them to segment properly. If a subscriber clicks on the male trail runner photo, then they’ll enter a flow that caters to this persona.

2c. Website behavior

What people look at on your site can tell you all that you need to know about what they’re looking for. Splitting your list based on site activity is interest-based segmentation.

For example, take abandoned cart emails: shoppers often add an item to their cart and bounce without purchasing. The act of adding an item to the cart can trigger an abandoned cart email and split the shopper into a high purchase intent group for retargeting.

2d. Funnel stage

Try splitting your list by stage of the funnel— those who just discovered you vs. those who are considering buying from you a second time.

Here are a few metrics to look at that will help you split by funnel stage:

• Amount of time on your email list
• Amount of time since last purchase
• Email stats like open rate and CTR
• Number of page views

Your email automation tool (like Customer.io or Mailchimp) will help you set up flows based on the funnel stage metrics above.

Here’s an example flow:

1. Customer signs up for your email list
2. They click a blog post
3. They hit 5 page views
4. You send another email to them instead of waiting a full week

3. Automate data capture and execution

Good data is non-negotiable when you’re segmenting. The data you collect determines how you split your list. Without data, you have no way to group subscribers and deliver personalized messages.

Almost all data collection can be done within your ESP. For more complicated data collection, you might need a CRM like Hubspot, which stores more data about your subscribers than standard ESPs like Mailchimp, Drip, or Customer.io.

There are two types of data that you’ll want to know: implicit and explicit.

Implicit data is information you gather from subscriber behavior or your analytics tools. Think what pages subscribers use, and what resources they download.

Explicit data is information your subscribers give you directly, like their name, DOB, and address. You can typically get explicit data by form submissions or surveying your audience.

Best practice: Since people generally don’t like filling out forms, ask only what’s critical and use implicit data for the rest.

4. Write emails for each segment

This is where you go to work using everything you learned early about writing great emails. Create all of your emails in advance for each segment within your ESP.

Once finished, you’ll have an automated email engine that will be working on your behalf 24/7.