Segments can be hard. And confusing. And everyone is saying you “should be segmenting your list to better target your customers” and you’re just thinking “I don’t really know what that means.”
Not every busy business person has time to sit down and segment lists, creating different emails for this group and other emails for that.
So here, I’m going to walk you through 3 dead-easy email segments to set up in MailChimp that require little-to-no effort from you. This probably isn’t the highly evolved strategy your business coach wants you to be using, but hey, we’ve all gotta start somewhere.
Plus, these segments can be super duper useful.
Moderate – Highly Engaged Subscribers
I would love it if everyone on your list is a totally engaged super fan who eats up everything you send. But chances are, not everyone does. Bummer, right? So how do you know who to send those slightly more promotional emails to? Do you just send them to your whole list and hope for the best?
You can, of course, no one’s going to stop you. But here’s the thing – those who have lower member ratings may not be totally warmed up to you yet. They may not be absolutely in love with what you’ve got to offer… yet. So don’t rush into it. Give those hesitant people a bit of space.
If you’re going to send a promotional email, send it to those who love you.
When you’re in your list, click on the “Manage subscribers” drop down and select “Segments”
Then “Create Segment”
Set your segment conditions to “any”, “Member Rating” “is greater than” and select four stars.
Then click “Preview Segment”.
You’ll be given a list of subscribers who currently match those conditions. Then in the upper right-hand section of the list, select “Save as segment”.
Name your segment whatever you would like and is easy to remember. Your subscribers won’t see this name, so don’t stress too much about it!
And then make sure “Auto-update” is selected so that MailChimp adds and subtracts subscribers automagically based on your conditions in the future.
And click “Save”.
Okay, if you’ve got to the end of this section and you’re thinking – yeah, but if I send it to my whole list, don’t I increase my chances of making a sale?
Let me ask you this: are you trying to make a sale out of desperation? If you are, that might be something you can bring up with your business coach or mindset mentor next time you’re booked in with them.
From my perspective, sending your more promotional material to those with whom you’ve already got something pretty good going on is far less risky than trying to persuade someone who might only just know you to buy your stuff.
Location based segment
Have you ever been sent a newsletter with event information that was in a different state? A different country? Like, unless it was something AMAZING, you’re unlikely to even think about travelling just to go.
If you do in person things like events, meetups, trainings etc., skip the whole “sending this to my entire list” fiasco and focus in on those who matter – those who are actually in the area.
For example, if you have most of your events in Melbourne, create auto-updating segments based on Melbourne.
When you’re in your list, click on the “Manage subscribers” drop down and select “Segments”
Then “Create Segment”
Then, set your conditions to “Location” and “is within” and then choose your distance (it’s in miles), and then type in your location.
Important: “Validate Location” to make sure it’s correct.
Then click “Use This Location” and “Preview Segment”
Then “Save as segment”
Name your segment whatever you would like and is easy to remember. Your subscribers won’t see this name, so don’t stress too much about it!
And then make sure “Auto-update” is selected so that MailChimp adds and subtracts subscribers automagically based on your conditions in the future.
And click “Save”.
Hey, MailChimps location data isn’t perfect. Hell, it can sometimes be a bit wrong. BUT having somewhat more accurate data is better than having none at all.
Low-Unengaged Subscribers
New subscribers typically have 2 stars. However, if someone has been on your list for a while and they are between 1-2 Stars, they’re low/possibly unengaged or their emails might be bouncing.
These people might be lovely and amazing, but they’re not helping your list to stay healthy and active.
It’s exactly like the Highly-Engaged Subscribers, but with less than 2 stars.
You can do a few things with this segment. BUT each time you do any of the following, I recommend adding in date-based conditions to the specific campaigns. You don’t want to send the below emails to new subscribers, but people who have been on your list for a while now and are unengaged. So perhaps start with targeting those who have been on your list for a few months, but are unengaged.
Re-engagement campaign
For example, create a re-engagement campaign – e.g. ask them exactly what they need from your emails.
Send less frequently
Another thing you can try is if you send lots of emails, send to these people less frequently. They might be feeling a bit burned out by the frequency of your emails. For example, if you send a newsletter every week, you might only send low subscribers once a fortnight or every three weeks.
Ask them to unsubscribe
Or, if they’ve been hanging around for months and are still unengaged, it’s okay to ask them to unsubscribe. People who are just hanging around doing nothing aren’t helping you. Don’t hold onto them. Offer an easy way out.
Remove them from the list
You can also just remove people from the list. If they aren’t even opening your emails to unsubscribe from them, maybe they need you to end the relationship instead. It’ll be okay, trust me.
Whee! Now go away and implement these segments
So, there you have it. Three simple segments that can take your MailChimp game to the next level. Sure, it’s not the epic sales funnel, multi-branched monstrosity that you may have heard about, but these are simple segments that can improve your email game.