Today, most business owners understand the importance of email to their overall marketing strategy. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are using the best practices!
One important practice that goes overlooked is contact list segmentation. This means organizing your list into specific segments so you can tailor your messaging to the folks within those segments.
If this sounds complex, it’s really not! Let’s start with why it’s important, then get into the “how.”
Why segment your contact list?
The reason you need to segment your list is because your contacts are not all the same. Certain groups of your contacts have different interests and wants, which requires a different messaging strategy.
Here’s an example...
An art gallery that holds professional exhibits and offers children’s art classes is going to have at least two lists: Art Exhibit Attendees and Art Class Students. Easy enough, right?
See, sending one general message to both groups wouldn’t be nearly as effective as delivering a separate, targeted email that speaks to the interests of each group.
Simply put, contact list segmentation enables you to send the right information to the right contacts. And the more targeted your messaging is, the more ROI you’ll experience on your emails.
Your customers will engage with you in the form of higher email open and click-through rates. Ultimately, this means increased sales!
Ways to Break Up Your Send Lists
The logic behind breaking up your contacts into lists is pretty basic. It all depends on 3 factors:
What information you have on them
What information you'd like to get from them at some point
How you store that information in Constant Contact
Here are two common ways to find out about your contacts and then group them into effective lists...
Gather Contact Information With Sign-up Forms
One way to segment your contacts into lists is to use a sign up form to ask them about their interests.
For example, say you own a salon and offer four basic services: hair, makeup, nails, and skin care.
You would create a list for each of these services in your email marketing platform. When people visit your website and complete the sign up form, they would have an opportunity to check off those services of interest to them.
Once they submit the form, they will automatically be added to whatever list they checked off.
Pro tip: Need help creating a custom sign up form? Reach out to the email marketing experts at Sprout! We’re here to help you grow your contacts.
Create Smarter Lists With Click Segmentation
If you don’t have a sign up form, click segmentation is a great way to begin segmenting your contacts.
With click segmentation, your contacts are added to specific lists based on what they click on in your emails.
Keeping with our salon example, let’s say you send an email that offers tips on reducing dry skin during the winter and then includes a “click to learn more about our skin care services” button.
This button would be linked to your skin care contact list, so when people click on it, they are automatically added to your skin care list.
Cool, right? This way, you can use this list to send a future email about your skin care services
Want Better ROI on Your Email Marketing?
We want that for you, too! It just makes sense that your clients will interact more with email content that’s tailored to them.
If you're ready to start sending more effective emails that really deliver, give us a shout! We’re always evolving our approach to sending better emails. Best of all, we do it for you, start to finish.
