Email marketing software allows you to classify your customers so that you can target them with the precise style of offer that will entice them to buy. All you need to do is pick the relevant criteria. Here are some you should consider although, as ever, much will depend on your product.
Personal
Take care with generalisations. Gender, age, location and employment are very broad brushes. If you are selling items to be used on holidays you might think that surfboards should be sent to the younger subscribers and deckchairs to the more ancient. However, email marketing software will show those who defy age and gender stereotypes.
Many subscribers might not tell you their age but the returns will let you classify them by their responses. It is their purchasing preferences that provide essential data.
Timing
Even those new to email marketing know that timing is vital. The best open rates might come on a specific day, or time of day. Your product might be triggered by an event. Study your returns then group your subscribers by way of their preferences with regards opening emails.
History
There is a norm for the lifecycle of your subscribers. After, perhaps, a year most might tend to lose interest or look elsewhere. A special offer at a tested time could keep them in the fold. If someone has bought a printer then they might well require inks after a couple of months.
B2B
The specific role, regardless of job title remember, of a subscriber will define what kind of offer you put before them. If they make purchasing decisions all well and good, but what about those who have to make a business case? Will they appreciate a different style of email?
Your product details, such as whether it is seasonal or if specific occasions increase demand, are the kind of things that differentiate subscribers.
This just skims the surface of segmenting email lists. Much will depend on your product, your capacity and, most importantly, your returns from email marketing software. Remember too that a subscriber might fall into more than one category. The days of sending out the same email to all your subscribers should be in the past.
