By: Nathan Chambers, Gaynor Strachan Chun and Susan DeMatei
Research shows that your email success can be significantly improved if you enact a campaign list segmentation strategy – MailChimp reports that segmented emails can increase open rates by +15% and click through rates by up to 100%.
Segmenting your email list allows you to deliver more personalized and relevant content to specific groups of customers. Not segmenting your list results in higher customer attrition. On average, over half of those who subscribe to email lists end up throwing the email in the trash when it hits their inbox.
For your customer, there are many reasons why they will be more likely to open an email from a brand that delivers content that is more relevant to them in a timely manner. One of the most important reasons is it shows them you understand their needs and wants. In other words, it delivers a more personalized experience.
For you and your brand, the value of email list segmentation is quite simple – increased ROI. Segmenting your email list drives increases in loyalty and lifetime value (LTV).
Let’s look at it from your customer’s perspective. They were at the winery, they filled out a customer information card, or made a purchase and shipped bottles home; they either asked or were aware they’d be added to the mailing list and are hoping for special offers, events, or other news. This is a transaction of trust. As a payback for their trust in you, customers expect to get something of value back, on a reliable basis, and not so often that it adds to their in-box clutter. If the only thing you offer them is random, or generic, you violate that trust.
But where do you start? Here are 7 effective ways to segment your email list and leverage other data to increase your email ROI.
#1: Demographics: The simplest way to segment your list is by demographics. Age, gender, job title, native language, etc. These traits, individually or combined, can help you understand what products or offers they are more likely to be interested in.
#2: Survey Results: People like being asked what they want and need. Rather than overloading your opt-in function, use your list to conduct surveys. This way you can create a more complete picture of your target audience. Ask about interests, needs, why they chose your brand.
You can then use your survey results to segment by interest, sending content that is relevant to the different interest groups. Maybe you have a group of customers who love recipes and like to cook. Target them with an email about a new wine and include a food and wine pairing recipe element. This will greatly increase your rate of engagement with this customer segment. The more they engage, the more likely they are to keep an eye out for further emails. Repeating that engagement until it becomes a regular habit.
#3: Sending Frequency: Nobody likes their email box to be overloaded, even if the emails they are receiving might be relevant to them. Understanding the optimal cadence for your emails can be difficult. Use your email engagement data to understand the best frequency. The ideal frequency may also vary by segment.
#4: Geolocation Segmentation: The easiest and quickest way to segment your database is through geography. For instance, target people in a certain area for events, or shipping offers based on weather. When they joined the mailing list, they felt a connection. Your customers expect accountability, integrity, and accuracy. Geolocation segmentation offers many benefits beyond email campaigns. “Taking the winery on the road” brings the winery and the wines to those who may not make it back to your tasting room. Your winery can develop relationships with retailers or have Wine Club members host a tasting at their home in a key market.
#5: Page Views: Where do your website visitors spend most of their time? By analyzing your page views, you can better understand what your visitors are looking for and even segment content to them. Are they looking for the hours your tasting room is open? The send them tasting room information. Are they looking at the gift set page? Send them a vertical package offer. One of the easiest segmented communications in this group is to target a resend to people who opened an email and went to the landing page of the product for sale but didn’t buy. These retargeted communications might be just the reminder they needed to complete the purchase. Whatever messaging you choose to play with, when you tie your email segmentation to website visits, these insights to create more relevant content for your emails.
#6: Purchase Cycle: Understanding the purchase and repurchase cycle of different groups of customers is invaluable. It allows you to build customer behavior profiles and each profile type will respond to different email approaches. If a customer has just signed up for your mailing list, they will want an introduction to who you are and what you offer. A case or library magnum offer is not for this group who are just getting to know you. What you want to do with customers early in their life cycle with you is reduce barrier to trial, so give them single or double bottle offers with your best-selling wines. Save the big purchases for when they become loyal members (and then segment on their past purchases – see below). With the purchase cycle in mind, you can tailor email content and timing based on customer behavior, increasing your likelihood of conversion.
#7 Past Purchases: By analyzing what your different groups of customers are buying, you build an understanding of what products interest them and what products don’t. This allows you to create target segments for each product type and only send information or offers about products you know will interest them, increasingly your likelihood of securing a sale. Additionally, it signals to the customer that you care about their preferences and are not sending them emails about products they would never buy.
For instance, imagine you decide to send a special offer email on a new vintage of a particular wine. If a group of your loyal repeat customers have never purchased that varietal, why would they care? New members will appreciate the email and may make a purchase because they’re trying new things, but most consumers show you through purchase action what they’re interested in. Send them too many emails that don’t apply and they’ll ignore it or, worse yet, mark it as spam or unsubscribe.
Implementing These Strategies
Don’t try to tackle all these segmentation strategies at once. It’s more valuable to master one of these strategies before developing the next one than it is to fumble with implementing all of them at once. Baby-steps count. Start with one idea with a goal to try out a new segmentation each month. Then you’ll see what your database responds positively to, and you can play more in the areas that resonate. The single most important thing is to at least try segmentation in all your campaigns. Doing so will undoubtedly increase your success rates and metrics for your ongoing email marketing.
Susan DeMatei, Nathan Chambers and Gaynor Strachan Chun work for WineGlass Marketing, a full-service direct marketing firm operating within the wine industry in Napa, California.
