6 Easy Steps to Email Segmentation - Rob Van Slyke 4-2010

Advanced Email Marketing Tips 6 Easy Steps To Email Segmentation

Email Segmentation Quick Reference
Create Email Marketing Segmentation Plan
Add tracking variables to URLs or make sure they are all unique
Export your click report
Sort by URL and add attributes to each group
Upload new attributes
Send relevant content to each target audience
Let’s get into the details…

Email Segmentation Strategy
Present different topics in the same email
Topic A, B & C
Segment clicks on Topic A into Bucket A
Examples – what conclusions can you draw from:
Retirement Planning vs. New Family Planning
Older vs. younger demographic
Retirement Planning Consultation vs. Retirement Planning 101
Earlier or later in the buying cycle

Tracking & Email Segmentation
Manual Segmentation
Export your click report and sort by URL
Automated Segmentation
Setup rules and sit back

Manual Email Segmentation
Tag each link with your segments or make sure each link is unique to a segment
yourdomain.com/retirement-planning-consultation.html?segment=A yourdomain.com/retirement-planning-101.html?segment=B
yourdomain.com/retirement-planning-consultation.html yourdomain.com/retirement-planning-101.html OR
Export your click report and sort by URL
Add new columns for segment attributes
Upload modified records to your ESP
Example on next slide…

Full size image on blog: http://emailmarketingtips.verticaltraction.com/2010/03/02/6-easy-steps-to-implement-an-email-segmentation-strategy/

Tagging Links Explained
The stuff after .html:
yourdomain.com/retirement-planning-consultation.html?segment=A
The ? after .html tells the web server it’s not part of the page name – just extra information
segment=A makes segment the variable name and A it’s value.
If your link already contains something like .html?something=X then all you have to do is add your variable to the link like with the & sign: yourdomain.com/retirement-planning-consultation.html?something=X&segment=A
The & allows you to create a second tag or variable on the link and your web server will most likely ignore the extra information
NOTE: Variables won’t break your link and most web servers will ignore them.
Your page will still show up. Test it. If you use a CMS that looks for variables,
follow bullet 3 above.

Sending Email to List Segment
Some ESPs make targeting segments easy
Select attributes at time of send
Create a report based on attributes and send to that report
Countless other methods…
If you don’t have this feature, upload each segment to a separate list

Automated Email Segmentation
Some ESPs have logic to filter and segment recipients based on behavior, including:
Clicks, opens, page views, data uploaded via API
Create a filter based on clicks:
Prep your links as shown previously in the manual segmentation example
Create a rule or filter based on the link or the variable in the link

About
I’m a 15-year veteran of interactive marketing
For the past 6 years, I have focused on email marketing and squeezing out every last percentage point possible in email response rates
Rob Van Slyke
Interactive Consultant
[email_address]
713-681-7771
vertical traction
GET A GRIP on your web marketing strategy
Advanced Email Marketing Tips Blog
http://emailmarketingtips.verticaltraction.com/
http://www.verticaltraction.com/

Follow Me Online
http://emailmarketingtips.verticaltraction.com/
http://www.twitter.com/robvanslyke
http://www.linkedin.com/in/webmarketing
http://friendfeed.com/emailmarketingtips

6 Easy Steps to Email Segmentation - Rob Van Slyke 4-2010

by vertical traction on Apr 16, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 15

Statistics

6 Easy Steps to Email Segmentation - Rob Van Slyke 4-2010 — Presentation Transcript