How to segment your database

Segmentation means that you can divide your database into smaller chunks of people who may share a certain characteristic and treat each group as a separate audience for targeted email shots.  By dividing your database into sections you can conquer them through focused, targeted and personalised communications which will result in the formation of better relationships and an improved response to the campaign.

Start with a strong offer: New subscribers are a perfect audience as they open and click more frequently than older ones.  So take advantage of this and use this opportunity to send a really good, targeted offer to secure loyalty early in your relationship.

Get to know the interests of loyal customers: Make sure you make a clear distinction between new subscribers and clients.  Use the knowledge you have built up of long-term customers wisely and provide them with relevant offers which will result in a better campaign performance and increased loyalty.

Explore all segmentation avenues: You can base segmentation on a wide variety of different categories including geography (your subscribers home or work address), demographics (gender, age, nationality etc), geo-demographics (e.g. women aged between the ages of 30-45 who live in London) and psychographics (interests, hobbies etc).  Also take a look at the frequency or date you last contacted your database and target this section accordingly.

Segment your database into cold, warm and hot leads: Take a look at your database and segment it according to cold leads (people you don’t have a relationship with yet), warm leads (those you have had dealings with in the past or who have expressed an interest in your organisation) and hot leads (current clients or recent purchasers).  Don’t ever assume that the same offer will appeal to these 3 different groups.

Use automated emails wisely: Some people are slow to react so automated emails can be very handy to remind customers who may not have reacted to a previous offer. The result is an increased performance of your campaigns.

Things to remember when segmenting your database: Make the segments specific (the more specific the target group, the better the results); ensure there is a clear link between the segments and the subject of your mail out.  Don’t underestimate the value of personalisation either.  Segmenting is one thing but take this one step further and make sure you personalise your marketing message to each individual, either within the message, on the subject line – or both!

Bear in mind a few over-targeting pitfalls: If you define a profile too finely you run the risk of creating a micro-niche that is too small to yield worthwhile results so avoid putting too many behavioural segments together.  By balancing reach and relevance you’ll have the makings of a perfect marketing campaign.

This article is a summary of eCircle’s newsletter "Inside Digital Marketing". If this article was forwarded to you as a recommendation and you wish to receive further news from the email marketing sector yourself you can subscribe here.