7 data points for better segmentation

The key to great email marketing (or, just marketing, in general) lies in understanding your audience on a deeper level. 

You simply cannot blast campaigns today (well, you can, but it depends on the purpose of the campaign and a few other things) Today, it's all about segmentation—the art of crafting tailored messages for distinct groups within your customer base. 

But where do you begin? 

Good segmentation starts with data collection. Having the right data points will help you understand your audience on a deeper level and send tailored messages that are likely to get a favorable response.

1. Demographic Information 

Demographic data refers to objective and observable traits such as age, gender, location, language, and marital status. 

In email marketing segmentation, demographic data helps you understand who your subscribers are.

For instance, age based segmentation will help you craft different messaging for     millennials & gen z audiences. Gender based segmentation can be particularly relevant when promoting gender-specific products or services. Location based segmentation will help deliver relevant content related to local events, promotions, or store openings.

However, demographic data alone may not provide a complete understanding of your audience's motivations or behavior. Combining it with other data points leads to even more effective email marketing segmentation.

2. Psychographic Information

Psychographic data refers to information about your shoppers’, values, personality traits, lifestyles, and world-views. These data points help you understand your audience on a deeper level by considering their motivations, preferences, and psychological characteristics.

Some people might be interested in the quality of the products or the price while others prioritise sustainability and convenience. Some may have different personality traits like introversion/extroversion, adventurous or risk-averse, this information not only helps you with better emails but also what messaging your ads and landers contain.

Use surveys, social media monitoring, customer interviews, or analyzing website and purchase behavior. 

Once you have gathered the data, you can segment your email list into smaller groups based on shared psychographic characteristics and create personalized email campaigns that speak directly to each segment's unique preferences, motivations, and needs.

3. Purchase History

Past purchases can reveal a lot of insightful information about a shopper. What kind of products they purchase, what the purchase value is, did they use discounts or not–all these will help you shape future campaigns.

Think about this, for example. If someone has bought 5 times in the last 120 days without using discount coupons, would you send a discount offer to them for your upcoming sale. 

Why would you take a hit on your margins when someone is willing to pay full price?

Analyzing customers' past purchases can reveal patterns, preferences, and buying habits. It enables you to segment customers based on their buying behaviour, such as high spenders, frequent purchasers, or occasional buyers.

4. Engagement Metrics

Engagement metrics data measures how subscribers interact with your email campaigns. These metrics provide insights into how recipients engage with your emails, such as opening, clicking, or converting on your desired call-to-action. 

By analyzing these engagement metrics, you can find who your most engaged subscribers are.

Most of your regular campaigns should only go to your engaged subscribers. This will improve your sender reputation and deliverability.

5. Customer Feedback

Customer feedback data in email marketing refers to the information and insights gathered from customers regarding their experiences, preferences, opinions, and suggestions. This data is collected through surveys, feedback forms, reviews, or direct communication with customers. When used for segmentation in email marketing, customer feedback data helps categorize customers based on their feedback, allowing you to create more targeted and personalized email campaigns.

For example, segmenting based on customer satisfaction levels allows you to address the needs of different groups. You can create separate email campaigns for highly satisfied customers, customers who have expressed dissatisfaction, or customers who are neutral. This segmentation enables you to tailor your messaging and offers to each segment's specific needs and concerns.
Similarly you can consider other aspects of customer feedback data like product or service preference, improvement suggestions, communication preferences to tailor your campaigns

6. Website Behavior

This data helps segment your email list based on users' actions, behaviors, and interests exhibited on your website. By understanding how visitors navigate, engage, and interact with your website, you can create targeted and relevant email campaigns that cater to their specific needs and interests.

Some examples of website behaviour data that can be used for segmentation:

• Page visited
• Content downloads
• Time spent on site
• Abandoned shopping carts
• Exit pages
• Subscription to blog
• On-site searches

7. Zero-party data

Zero-party data collected through surveys, quizzes, and forms can reveal a ton of insightful information about your customers.

Here are some examples of zero-party data:

• Interests
• Favourite products
• Color preferences for fashion brands
• Birthday or anniversary information
• Goals and objectives

If you 0P data by industry, download this file. You’ll find what kind of data to collect for different industries.

By collecting and using these to create customer segments, you can create hyper-personalized campaigns that drive engagement and purchases. 

Remember, segmentation is not just a buzzword; it's an essential strategy that allows you to truly understand your audience and tailor your messaging to their specific needs, preferences, and behaviors. 

See you on a different blog post. Your subscribers are waiting for that personalized email experience!

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Thanks for giving our blog a read, if you're exploring more on this topic, you might find this helpful:

The A-Z Guide to Customer Segmentation