With so many people involved in the B2B sales cycle, email segmenting is a must. You’ve got to be sending the right message to the right person at the right time. However, mapping messages to segments can be a challenge for those new to email marketing, so it’s a good opportunity to help your B2B clients.
In this post, I’ll explain the benefits of mapping messages to segments and how you can help your B2B clients do this.
Why segment an email list?
When you divide an email list into separate groups or segments, as they’re known, you’re identifying subscribers who share a common trait, behavior, or interest.
You do this to send subscribers more tailored emails and content that’s relevant to them. GetResponse found that automated emails sent based on subscriber behaviors had higher open rates and click-to-open rates, hitting nearly 40% open rates in some cases.
The more relevant the emails, the higher the engagement rates, conversions, and inbox placement rates. Plus, the lower the costs because you can trim your list to only the active people (which saves money because email marketing providers often charge by the subscriber).
It appears that many companies are wasting money by not segmenting their lists because nearly 70% aren’t personalizing the emails at all.
What if you don’t do email segmenting?
If you don’t segment a list, you get low inbox placement for the messages because most spam filters look at engagement rates as one of the factors for deciding if it’s spam or not.
When the messages are marked as spam, it also notifies subscribers that it’s marked as spam, leading them to believe you ARE spamming them and they’ll not want to do business with you.
As mentioned previously, a non-segmented list can waste your money since you’re charged by the subscriber, and they’re not engaging or buying from you.
How to map segments to email marketing campaigns
Now that you know why it’s essential to segment an email list, let’s look at how you can help your B2B clients map their campaigns to their segments.
(Since each email marketing provider handles segmenting differently, I won’t go over the steps to do that; you should dig into your provider’s help documentation for the details.)
1. Look at existing segments
Ask your clients if they have any existing segments already defined. If so, see how many they have and who they apply to. Many clients have too many segments defined because they’re getting too granular with them. It’s best to start with general segments and grow from there, such as “new customer,” “inquiry,” “asset download,” “purchasing reps,” “product managers,” etc.
2. Look at email campaign types
Email campaigns may span several segments, so it’s essential to look at the campaign details. You need to know who your client is targeting and why to determine which segments are appropriate. For example, the “new customers” segment probably isn’t a good fit for the “renewing customer” email campaign, but the “close to renewal” and “recently expired” segments are.
3. Match existing segments to email campaign types
Now it’s time to set up the email campaigns for each segment. Again, each email marketing solution does this differently, so refer to their help documentation for the details. Your clients will likely set this up themselves in the app, but they’ll use your recommendations for it.
4. Use this process going forward
You and your clients can use this process as many times and for as many campaigns as needed. And it’s quick and easy to adjust to add new segments to their list or create new email campaigns.
Email segments are an essential part of email marketing, but they can be challenging for clients who haven’t done it before or are confused about the process.
Use these steps to walk them through it and then set them up for success by documenting the process so they can use it later. Plus, you’ll earn twice on the project: once for helping them go through it the first time and another for documenting it.
