I use a really simple way that helps me make my email newsletters more effective. It’s called segmentation.
What is segmentation?
Not all your customers are interested in the same things you offer. What appeals to one person may not matter at all to another. Segmentation is the act of dividing lists of people by their interests into different groups.
Some of your customers may be interested in the upcoming four course wine dinner and others may be into the $1 sliders on monday. By grouping them into two separate lists, you’ve “segmented” them. Segmented lists allow you to send emails to the people that will find them interesting, useful, a perfect fit for them. Without segmentation, you are sending messages to many people that are not interested.
What does this do for you?
By sending your customers emails that speak to them individually, you’ll not only increase your open, click-through, and response rates. But you will communicate with them on a personal, more meaningful level. This leads to stronger, more productive relationships.
Problem: You have a huge list already without segmentation or a way of knowing who likes what.
My Solution: When I create an email campaign, I speak to all the segments at once, in different sections of the email. I then create a link that says: To learn more about this upcoming wine dinner, click here. When the guest clicks the link they are taken to a page on the restaurant’s website that says: “ Your interest has been recorded, thank you, and you will hear from us soon.”
My email provider allows me to take all the clicks and create a new list with them; I would name it ‘Wine Dinner’ and then save it forever. That way the next time I can just email those people a detailed all wine list email first, and mention it in passing in a more general one.
We do this for our clients at GuestFeed, it’s a tool we love to use. What do you think?