Make your email list work harder, by being smarter

You can’t get away from the fact that sending an extra email is going to give you extra sales. So how do you make the list work harder, without the subsequent risks of winding up in the junk folder thereby scuppering your medium and long-term campaign responses?

Two words: segmentation and targeting.

You must stop thinking of your list as just one list full of people with average behaviour. Because that’s not what your list is. Your list might have people on it that open every email you send, and also some that open just occasionally. It might also have people on the list that have not opened for several years.

Conversely, your list will also contain people who purchased recently, or who purchase frequently. Whoever they are, you probably know who on your list are more likely to purchase and who are not.

Immediately, you have separate segments, which could help you mail smarter, not harder. Let’s take the most responsive segment first, say those that have opened an email from you in the last seven days. If your normal “average” email frequency is weekly, then choose this more reactive segment to mail an extra campaign to! What’s wrong with adding those most likely to purchase as well?!

If you are targeting an extra campaign at those more likely to respond, you are going to get a good response rate. This will help improve the reputation of your IPs, leading to improved inbox placement in the future. The diagram below, suggests some potential frequency segments. The detail of the segments will be different on a business-by-business basis, or even by product type, but you get the picture.

When it comes to managing mailing frequency, using simple segmentation to increase overall mailing volumes is a good place to start. Frequency isn’t just about sending more or less emails to everyone; it’s about sending the right amount of emails, to the right people. The premise is simple; if people like your emails (they regularly open and engage with them), send them more; if they don’t, send them less.

This is only part of the overall story, but the correct management of mailing frequency, is a quick win and will easily give you a positive return for your extra effort in the segmentation.

Tim Roe, Head of Deliverability and Data Segmentation, RedEye