Mastering Email Marketing List Segmentation: 11 Key Elements for Success

There’s nothing more frustrating than opening an email only to find out that its contents aren’t relevant to you at all. Before clicking off, you unsubscribe from the sender’s email list.

It turns out that many of the sender’s email subscribers are opting out similarly. And it’s happening more often than usual. Even though the average email unsubscribe rate is 0.26% across all industries, this particular sender’s unsubscribe rate is more than 1%.

What did they do wrong? Why are members of their email marketing list unsubscribing in droves?

There’s a chance that the sender has a low-quality email list. And there’s an even greater chance they didn’t segment this list — a double-whammy.

In the guide, we’ll share eleven simple tips to improve your email marketing efforts so you never suffer above-average unsubscribe rates.

What Is Email List Segmentation?

Email list segmentation is the process of dividing an email list into smaller groups based on specific criteria such as demographics, behavior, pain points, or interests.

Why is breaking down the larger list into smaller, targeted groups so important?

The average email bounce rate across industries is 0.63%. Anything above this number could signal that it’s time to refresh your email list.

More importantly, it’s time to embrace the power of email list segmentation. After segmenting your list, it allows you to send your subscribers the most relevant information based on their interests and preferences.

The result?

• Higher customer loyalty rates
• More subscriber retention
• Increased engagement
• Improved targeting
• Better ROI

So, it’s no wonder that 78% of marketers say that subscriber segmentation is one of the most effective email marketing strategies.

11 Best Practices to Effectively Segment Your Email Marketing List

Are you ready to unlock the true power of your email marketing list? Use these eleven best practices to improve open rates and boost conversions.

Remember, there are different ways to segment your email list. While there’s nothing wrong with only using one type of segmentation, you can maximize your results by using multiple.

Of course, whatever type you choose will depend on your industry and your business’s unique needs. Let’s take a closer look at each strategy in more detail.

1. Demographic Segmentation

Demographic data includes personal characteristics of your customers, such as:

• Organization type
• Location
• Gender
• Job title
• Age

These characteristics help you group customers. It’s a great way to segment users if you don’t want to get too granular with past purchasing or behavioral patterns.

For example, TourRadar segments emails using location information to send epic deals on adventures near their subscribers.

Screenshot by Britney Steele

2. Geographic Segmentation

Segmenting your email list by geographic area may be useful if you own a business where location influences purchase decisions.

Use your email marketing software or CRM to segment your audience into different cities, states, or countries. From there, you can deliver prospects customized pages, locally relevant content, and personalized discount codes.

3. Customer Lifecycle Segmentation

Customer lifecycle segmentation involves dividing your customer base into distinct segments based on where they are in the buyer’s journey.

Use data from purchase history, abandoned cart rates, pain points, and feedback.

Amazon is a master at this segmentation tactic. Here you can see they sent a catch-all email to a user who was previously searching for (but didn’t purchase):

• Living room cabinets
• Insulated bottles
• Winter gloves

Screenshot by Britney Steele

The goal? Inspire the potential customer to return and finish their purchase. The email is unique to this specific user, giving it a higher probability of converting a lead into a customer.

4. Purchase History Segmentation

You can segment your email marketing list based on the time since the last purchase:

• Purchases in the last 30 days: This segment of customers often purchases from your business. You can send them a ’personal picks for you’ email’ with customized product recommendations.
• No purchase in 90 days: Send re-engagement emails to encourage these inactive customers to convert by offering freebies or discounts.
• No purchase in 30 days: These customers may need a push. Create a reactivation email campaign that shares the best-selling product recommendations. Then, you can follow up with an offer they can’t refuse.

Here’s a great example from Delta Air Lines, which offers discounts on winter getaways.

Screenshot by Britney Steele

5. Engagement-Based Segmentation

Segmenting customers based on their engagement with your brand can help you create targeted campaigns and more personalized email experiences.

Engagement-based segmentation incorporates how subscribers interact with your email campaigns, which might involve tracking open rates, bounce rates, CTA clicks, etc.

It also considers behavioral data, such as abandoned cart rates, abandoned form rates, opt-in frequency, website activity, event/webinar attendance, etc.

Both of these factors will help you create separate segments based on a customer’s engagement with your brand. For highly engaged customers, you can send exclusive offers and promotions, VIP content, or loyalty program updates.

On the other hand, you can send inactive customers re-engagement emails that include freebies or discounts to entice them to come back.

Sending survey or feedback requests, educational content, webinar/event invitations, product updates, and abandoned cart reminders can also effectively warm up cold leads. Here’s a great example of a survey email from Abercrombie & Fitch.

Screenshot by Britney Steele

Now that you’re familiar with the different types of email segmentation, you might be wondering, where will you get all this data? And how do you organize it?

Use cloud business intelligence (BI) tools, which can connect to your cloud data sources, such as your email marketing platform, CRM system, or website analytics, and help you find patterns, trends, and insights within your data.

For example, you can use cloud BI tools to understand how your subscribers interact with your emails, what topics they’re most interested in, what actions they take after opening your emails, and more. You can also use Airtable to collect and manage your data for effective segmentation.

6. Create Lead Magnets

The primary role of lead magnets is to build and expand your email lists.

For example, House of Joppa, an online retailer that sells high-quality Catholic jewelry, uses a discount code for 10% off the first purchase to score email addresses from potential customers. It’s simple and effective.

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However, lead magnets also offer a valuable opportunity for segmentation and can take many forms. Here are a few additional examples:

• Product demos
• How-to guides
• Case studies
• Checklists
• Templates
• Webinars
• Ebooks

The type or topic of the lead magnet can indeed be a powerful tool for segmenting subscriber lists. This segmentation method is based on your audience’s specific interests and needs, which are indicated by the particular lead magnet they opt for.

For instance, a subscriber who signs up for the House of Joppa 10% off coupon is primarily interested in purchasing. They’re likely to be more price-sensitive or deal-driven.

Segment these subscribers into a “warm leads” list. Tailor your emails to focus on product deals, discounts, and promotions. You might also include information about product features, benefits, and customer testimonials to encourage purchases.

Meanwhile, subscribers who download a guide on Spring fashion trends are likely to sit in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey.

Place these individuals in a “content” segment. Your emails should focus on fashion advice, trends, new arrivals, and style guides. This approach nurtures a relationship with this audience segment by providing value through content,‌ leading to sales down the road.

7. Send Welcome Emails to New Subscribers

Targeting new subscribers is an important part of email marketing list segmentation. A welcome email is a great way to introduce them to your brand and what you offer.

They’re also the perfect opportunity to learn more about them, especially while you’re still at the top of their minds.

One example of an onboarding email is this one sent by Ashley Furniture, which aims to encourage users to explore more about Ashley by providing them with discount codes, style guides, sweepstakes, and company news.

Screenshot by Britney Steele

The more users interact with these calls to action, the more effectively they can segment their email list.

Remember, these new subscribers are in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey. Based on their interactions with your welcome emails, you can then segment them into future drip campaigns according to their specific needs.

For instance, if you notice users loving buyer guides, create a separate group and keep delivering valuable content. And if new users keep visiting your “discounts” page, seize the opportunity to send them irresistible offers.

8. Collect Information About Your Subscribers

The most important step in email segmentation is getting to know your subscribers.

You do this by collecting information about them. Use surveys, customer feedback forms, interviews, focus groups, social media, and other sources to understand your subscribers’ needs. Use surveys, customer feedback forms, interviews, focus groups, social media, and other sources to understand your subscribers’ needs. Consider also using Google Scraping to identify trends and conduct competitor analysis seamlessly.

Conducting this market research will help you uncover pain points and discover key characteristics of different customer segments. You can tailor your email marketing campaigns to drive the highest possible engagement.

After collecting information about your subscribers, you can create buyer personas to represent the different sub-groups of your target audience. Your buyer personas should include information like:

• Narrative descriptions to bring them to life
• Demographic details
• Names
• Photos

Doing so will give you a more vivid picture of your target customers’ goals, frustrations, and interests. That said, use your email marketing platform to create multiple lists or tag contacts with different labels using the information you’ve gathered.

You can manually sort these subscribers, or they can assign themselves to groups by signing up for a specific list or by clicking certain links in your email.

Or, you could use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to sort customers automatically based on their online behavior.

Campus.edu, a community college, uses a custom form to gather applicant information.

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Prospective students can complete the form by answering straightforward yet insightful questions, such as their desired start date or major.

Collecting this information allows for more precise audience segmentation, which is key in driving nurturing, meaningful connections.

9. Tap Into the Power of Personalization

Get valuable insights into your customers’ needs by creating a survey or quiz.

Hims, known for its innovative solutions in addressing ED and other health concerns, has mastered the art of personalized email marketing through the clever use of quizzes.

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By leveraging the power of these interactive questionnaires, Hims not only gathers vital information from its clients but also creates hyper-personalized email campaigns that truly resonate. These quizzes help clients self-assess their health needs, providing valuable insights into their specific concerns, preferences, and objectives.

Whether it’s product recommendations, educational resources, or lifestyle tips, each email will meticulously address the unique needs and interests of each client. They send emails when clients are likely to engage, addressing immediate concerns and providing solutions precisely when needed.

10. Set Up Behavioral Triggers and Automated Workflows

Use marketing tools to set up email workflows triggered by specific actions or conditions.

With these workflows, you can send targeted emails to specific segments based on predefined triggers. Imagine that one of your email subscribers visited your website and added a product to their cart, but they never returned to the cart to complete the purchase.

You can set a trigger email that reminds the customer about the abandoned item they left in their cart, which includes a direct link to complete the purchase.

For example, ATT sends customers a reminder email about their abandoned cart containing an Apple iPad Pro during Black Friday.

Screenshot by Britney Steele

By applying this business process automation strategy across all email segments, you can streamline your email marketing processes, maximize efficiency, and achieve greater success in engaging and converting your audiences.

11. Eliminate Bottlenecks With Email Marketing Software

There’s more to drafting an email and hitting send, hoping to fill your sales pipeline with leads. Audience segmentation takes hard work, persistence, and a little bit of trial and error.

So, if email creation is a bottleneck in your current workflow, an email design builder like Chamaileon can optimize your email creation workflow without compromising quality.

That way, you can free up resources and devote time to better list segmentation. It’s all about working smarter, not harder. And adding the right tools to your tech stack helps you move the needle faster.

How? You can focus on the process that craves your utmost attention: fine-tuning your email list into perfectly segmented groups.

Wrapping Up

Knowing your customers is‌ the most important principle of any marketing strategy.

That’s because when you get key insights into your customers and their needs, you can create highly targeted email marketing campaigns that resonate with them.

Test out different email segmentation strategies until you find a combination that engages potential leads, boosts conversion rates, and provides offers that customers can’t refuse.

Are you ready to move the needle on your email marketing ROI? Chamaileon is here to help.