For years email has remained unbeaten in its effectiveness, from reach to conversions. With over 4 billion worldwide, there are more email accounts than Facebook and Twitter combined, not to mention the fact that 90% of emails get delivered to the intended person compared to just 2% of Facebook fans that see your post. Additionally, email marketing yields an average 3,800% ROI, a huge £38 return for every £1 spent, up from £24.93 in 2014. For many retailers this makes email marketing just as important today as it ever has been. So rather than fall into the habit of blanket weekly campaigns, why not look to leverage customer data to segment and create targeted personalised campaigns that inspire engagement.

Why should you segment?

There are a whole host of benefits to segmentation, with the bottom line being more targeted campaigns that encourage engagement, and most importantly sales. Segments can be as granular and as targeted as your data allows, but even broader and basic segmentation can positively affect campaign engagement. Unsurprisingly segmented and targeted emails can generate up to 58% of all revenue. There are plenty of reasons why segmenting your email lists work and benefit you.

Different types of customers

Even within a niche business with a limited catalogue and small customer base, there will be several types of customers.  Whether you cater to a mix of trade customers and end users, or your products appeal to a range of demographics, your customer base can be divided into distinct groups with their own problems and needs.

It stands to reason that blanket campaigns will only appeal to these customers to varying degrees, depending on how directly the message answers their specific needs at that time. By segmenting your email list based on customer type you’ll be able to send more targeted campaigns with offers, product suggestions and information that satisfy their specific needs. In fact, segmented campaigns have been shown to generate 63.03% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns.

Different customer journeys

All customers, regardless of industry or market, will be at different stages in the sales cycle at any given time. Maybe they’re a new customer who purchased a gift, or maybe they’ve just made their third purchase in as many months. It doesn’t matter whether they haven’t purchased anything yet or have just downloaded your e-book, it’s important you understand where your customers are in their path to purchase.

Whatever the case, segmenting your email list based on customer ecommerce data can help you to create and send campaigns that engage with customers through relevant & timely messaging. Ranging from a tailored offer to encourage that first purchase or a special reward to celebrate a customer’s fifth order; targeted email campaigns like these provide the right content, to the right customer, at the right time with a positive impact on sales. For example, automated transactional emails have 8x more opens and clicks, and general 6x more revenue than any other type of email.

Different customer relationships

The relationship your customer has with you will vary depending on their affinity with your brand & products. Not only do these different relationships require different offers and information, but you can actually nurture relationships and improve inertia. Segmenting your email lists can help you do just this.

Customer ecommerce data can reveal your loyal customers based on purchase frequency and average order value, or highlight dormant customers who haven’t ordered in awhile. Sending targeted email campaigns to engage these customers can result in happier, loyal customers thanks to a new VIP status, or re-engage a dormant customer with a discount code for their next purchase. Such personalisation can result in 14% higher click through rates and 10% higher conversions. Not all customers can be turned into loyal ones but sending targeted campaigns based on their behaviour can certainly help.

Ecommerce and MailChimp

In terms of improving customer engagement, nurturing relationships and driving sales, integrating your ecommerce data with MailChimp is a must.

Ecommerce360 for Magento customers using MailChimp lets us capture order information, including tracking visitors from email campaigns to the website and sending order information to MailChimp. This means that every time a new purchase is made, the order information is automatically sent to MailChimp.

With this purchase data in MailChimp, you can start to segment your email lists to capture customers at different stages of their customer journey or based on customer type. These segments can be as granular or as broad as you need by combining up to five segment conditions.

Once you’ve integrated your ecommerce store with MailChimp, you can choose from a selection of pre-built segments or create your own custom segments based on ecommerce data. Segments can range from subscribers who have yet to make a purchase to custom segments targeting customers who have purchased from a specific product category within a certain time frame. The possibilities include being able to acquire, re-engage and upsell to customers.

How to segment with Mail Chimp

In your MailChimp account navigate to the Lists page and select the list of subscribers you want to work with.

Click the segments drop down menu and select Create A Segment.

Select the segment conditions you think will work to create your segment. MailChimp offers a wide variety of conditions that can be used in combination with each other. Depending on how complex your segment is, it may take some trial and error to get the right combination of conditions.

Select Preview Segment to view the segment subscribers and check whether the conditions achieve the desired result. If not, click Edit to go back and change the conditions.

Once complete, click Save as Segment and enter a segment name in the Save Segment pop up. Ensure that Auto-Update at the bottom is selected if you would like MailChimp to automatically add and remove subscribers as they meet or stop meeting the conditions set. Unchecking this box will make the segment a static segment and cannot be altered or edited later on.

If you already have a list of subscribers that you want to use for a segment from your ecommerce data, you can also paste addresses or upload a CSV file. To do this simply select the Static tab after navigating to the Segments drop down menu on your list, and select either paste in address or upload CSV.

View your completed segments by going to your Lists page and selecting Manage Subscribers from the drop down on the list you want to work with, and then click segments.

You can view the MailChimp step by step guide here, including how to go back and edit a segment and how to delete a segment.

Once you’re done you can create targeted campaigns with messages, offers and updates that are personalised to your segments. This may be one off campaigns with an exclusive offer for VIPS, or you can even set up automated campaigns designed to follow up on customers who have purchased a specific product or performed a specific action on your site. With such a wide variety of conditions and combinations to create your segments with, the possibilities for targeting and engagement are endless.

If you want to know about how you can start using your email marketing to target, engage, build relationships and drive sales, contact one of our team today.