I spend A LOT of time talking about segmenting your list for better performance.
And often hear segmenting sounds like too much work, or it’s too complicated…
But I bet if you took a moment and thought about it, you’re already segmenting and didn’t even realize it. 💡
Have you ever…
- Sent an email to ARC readers?
- Put multiple platform links in a new release email and analyzed which link got clicked the most?
- Sent a re-engagement email to your subscribers?
- Offered up an unsubscribe, last-ditch-effort pop-up to see if you can entice a reader to stick around? (side note: Mailerlite offers you a super-simple way to do this without feeling icky – Welcome Sequence In A Weekend teaches you how!)
- Sent a bonus epilogue to readers?
- Offered your list the opportunity to join your FB Group?
Chances are pretty good you’ve started segmenting, even if it’s only in your mind. You just need to recognize that data is useful and decide how you want to use it to grow your writing business.
So, you may be asking “How can I customize the experience of every single reader who joins my list by creating segments and automating what happens to that reader?”
Luckily I have answers. Let’s dive in!
How Segments Improve Your Open Rate and Click Rate
If you are consistently sending every email to your entire list, small list or large, you’re doing your business a disservice.
Segmenting is where the magic starts to happen.
When we segment our readers into groups and then send them emails that they’re looking for, our click rates climb because, jackpot, they’re finding more value in what we’re saying.
Imagine you have a list of 5,000 subscribers.
You run a simple segmentation experiment and divide your list into 3 segments.
- Those who have opened and clicked in the past 6 months.
- Those who have only opened in the past 6 months.
- Those who have NEVER opened an email. Ever.
And your results may look something like this:
- 1000 people for segment 1. With a 100% open rate and a 20% click rate.
- 1000 people for segment 2. With a 55% open rate and an 8% click rate.
- 3000 people for segment 3. With a 3% open rate and a 0.38% click rate.
So, let’s say you decide to send your next email ONLY to segment 1 and 2 and segment 3 gets nothing.
Your open rate will most likely land around the 50-65% open rate mark and you’ve included a few links, so your click rate is probably landing around 11%.
Do this a few times, and now you’re sending the algorithm strong indicators you’re not spam due to your high open and click rates, and those both start to climb.
This is segmentation 101, welcome to my masterclass.
How To Manage Those Who Never Open Your Emails
Wondering what to do with those 3000 people from our example above?
Let’s talk about the rif-raf. ☠️
Those that after segmenting your list you’ve found have done exactly nothing.
No opens.
No clicks.
Nothing.
The thing is, you don’t want to ditch them without a second thought.
You need to test them and see how they respond because there could be some very valid reasons why they haven’t opened any of your emails.
Here’s what I do.
Twice a year, I make contact. 👽
I have a Re-Engagement Automation Template.
It’s simply a very attractive man, offering them a very FREE book.
Take it or leave it.
The automation gives them 5 days.
Then it shuttles those that take it, into my general segment of openers.
And those that don’t take it? Well, they’ve been around for 6 months, now they’ve been offered an attractive deal and they’ve still not engaged.
They’re dead to me. ☠️
They are removed from my list after I export their information should I ever need to produce it for legal reasons.
And that my friend, is that.
Leave a Reply