How do you use segmentation to improve your email deliverability and reputation?

The more you know about the contact the easier it is to engage them. Imagine it like a conversation with someone you just met and all you know is their first name. The conversation probably will not go very far, but if you know more about them, their job, the company they work for, their favorite sport or food, etc., it becomes a lot easier to engage in a meaningful conversation. The higher the engagement, the better your email reputation is, and the higher your LTV will be.

Most organizations progress through different stages of personaliztion. In the first stage, companies begin by segmenting audiences into major groups and target campaigns to each audience such as customer lifecycle stage, product affinity, loyalty tier, engagement, region, and so on. The next stage aims to personalize individual content items within campaigns by key customer attributes. Real-time behavior triggers the next phase of personalization, where customers receive campaigns at moments that matter to them most. Finally, campaigns become truly 1 to 1 when not only customers receive them at moments that matter, but even the content is truly personalized to their behavior using machine learning and predictive tools.

Taking your time to analyze your contacts is of the utmost importance. This will allow you to segment them, and know their habits. Every campaign or sequence you send out allows you to gather more information about your contacts. Their habits; when do they open, click, reply, buy, etc. If you can narrow down a window to when a contact is more likely to engage, use that information to your advantage. Some of this may seem trivial, but the goal is the LTV of a customer. Think of it this way, stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc., all keep certain hours and run sales on very certain days. This is done by analyzing their customers and sales. If everyone shows up at 11:00 am at your store, make sure you are open and ready for business.

Reach out to people when they want to be reached out to. Your subscribers are just like you; they're creatures of habit. In an overly simplified world you could get away with clustering customers based on when they're opening your messages and automations. This is not good enough in 2023 and beyond. Customers expect deeper levels of personalization and the ideal way to optimize for timing and frequency is to tailor each message's timing for each individual. You can do this by first analyzing when people are opening and creating time-windows for each customer. For example: Amin opens emails between 1PM and 5PM and then sending messages between those times to derive the optimal time for Amin.

Key segmentation considerations in email marketing: - Segmentation by stage in the buying journey - Segmentation by pain point/topic of interest - Segmentation by level of engagement with brand/content - Segmentation based on product usage behavior If you aren't clear on where your prospects are in their journey, or what their pain points are - ask them! Set up opportunities through surveys, webinars, polls, registration questions, etc. that allow them to share the information you need to better target them.

Segmentation can be massively useful as an aid to customers. One method is to use content to encourage and reinforce buyers' trust in the product. For example, people who have bought your product might not know all of the benefits of continuous use. You can easily run a campaign to them that lets the buyer know: - What's useful about the product - How much they may be able to benefit from it so far since they've had it - What benefits they can see as they continue to use the product

I think it goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyway. Don't buy a list. Aside from targeted lead magnets, landing pages, opt-in forms, and welcome emails that appeal to specific segments, look for opportunities that attract subscribers who are more likely to engage with your content and convert into loyal customers. Partner with other businesses that have your audience and collaborate with them to bring more value to that same audience so that those who haven't heard about you will then sign up for your email list.

Deliverability is generally determined at the inbox provider level (like Gmail or Microsoft) and many tools exist to provide insight into inbox placement. Use these insights to not only build segments that allow you to suppress and rebuild the reputation with an inbox provider, but as a way to understand how engagement (or a lack thereof) is leading to these issues with deliverability. Deliverability problems are very common and a natural consequence for companies that take a one-size-fits-all approach to their messaging. The more relevant, personal, and timely your messages are, the more engaged your audiences tend to be and thus less likely to have issues with deliverability.

Businesses can further refine their segmentation by incorporating purchase history and behavioral data into their strategies. By analyzing past purchases, product preferences, and website interactions, you can create segments based on these factors and send highly personalized emails that promote relevant products, offers, and content. Dynamic content technology enables you to personalize your emails to each individual subscriber, displaying relevant product recommendations, content suggestions, and localized information based on their unique preferences and behaviors.