Email list segmentation is a critical component of any successful email marketing campaign. Building custom segments is a highly valuable practice, but many organizations tend to overlook the benefits of segmentation.
Segmentation affords us the opportunity to improve our messaging and calls-to-action based on the target audience, and testing our segmentation enables us to get to know our customers and behavior even better. Understanding our existing customers and prospects should drive cross-channel acquisition efforts, and allow us to better identify and target new subscribers.
Most email service providers (ESPs) provide tools for A/B testing, allowing email marketers to monitor the performance of emails with different variables — subject lines, link placement, etc. — and send the higher-performing variation to the remainder of the target audience. Testing your segments, however, allows you to monitor how emails perform with highly targeted groups and will provide valuable insights about your prospects, allowing for more advanced segmentation strategies — ultimately driving increased opportunities to maximize conversions.
Get to know your audience better, improve messaging and drive more conversions with these three methods for segment testing.
Purchase History. Are you sending an email announcing a new product release? Consider testing a group of past-purchasers, and build your segment based on the value of your customers’ previous purchases.
Establish parameters that are relevant to the cost of the product you are promoting; for example, if you are promoting a $50 product, split your segments into individuals with a past-purchase history of $50 or more versus $50 or less. Which segment is more engaged with the email, and which is converting at a higher rate?
Engagement Metrics. Another methodology for measuring segments is by analyzing engagement metrics. Evaluating open and click-thru rates tend to be the top metrics, but what is the rest of your data telling you about your segment? Are there any notable trends, such as increased open rates on particular days?
Is there a segment of subscribers with historically low engagement metrics? Consider a re-engagement campaign targeted at inactive subscribers to improve overall email performance.
Demographics. Segmenting based on demographics such as age, gender and geographic location can provide more nuanced data about your customers’ online behavior and interests.
Consumers across different generations will likely have different online behaviors and preferences: males and females may respond to ads differently and people who live in different parts of the country might have different needs. Break your segments out according to the demographics you identify as differentiators and test your theory.
Developing an understanding of how these different factors affect your marketing efforts will help you drive more effective campaigns and ensure that you are targeting the right prospects. Make sure your message is reaching the right people to maximize the ROI of your email marketing.
This story first appeared on MarTech Today. For more on marketing technology, click here.
https://martechtoday.com/3-methods-to-test-your-email-segmentation-and-increase-conversions-232683
About The Author
Jennifer Videtta serves as Third Door Media’s Senior Editor, covering topics from email marketing, analytics and marketing automation to project management. With over a decade of digital marketing experience, she has held in-house management positions overseeing digital marketing operations, and agency roles, advising enterprise marketers on maximizing their martech capabilities. Jennifer formerly organized the Inbound Marketing Summit and holds a certificate in Digital Marketing Analytics from MIT Sloan School of Management.
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