How to increase sales in the online store by segmenting sheets of email-mailings

According to the eMarketer survey, 39% of marketers who segment email lists are claiming that this will increase the number of open emails. 28% say that this makes it possible to reduce the rate of refusals to subscribe to the newsletter and another 24% are confident that this allows you to increase sales and profits.

This is a fairly convincing statistics, but so far most online stores do not pay enough attention to the segmentation of sheets for email newsletters. They continue to send the same offers with discounts and the same goods every day.

In this article you will find tips on segmentation of mailing lists from Ed Hallen and understand why it is very important to use segmentation and how this can help your business.

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Borrowing ideas from B2B marketing

In the fall I bought a sofa.

Before making a choice, I went to 3 stores and searched hundreds of furniture sites. On several sites, I subscribed to the newsletter to get additional information about the furniture and the company. I am still subscribed to these newsletters and most of them continue to send me the same content as a year ago - “Super Sale”, “20% Discount Only Today” ... Well, you understand.

If it were not a sofa, but a software or service, then mailings would be built differently.
Depending on my behavior on the site, I would be segmented at the stage of subscribing to the newsletter. I would get a buyer's guide. If I showed further interest, I would be offered a demo. Then, as the final push, I would get the cases that convinced me of the correct choice of service.

Webinars and useful materials at first glance seem unsuitable for online stores, but the whole thing in the approach to segmentation and mailings.

1. All lead attention

Different companies give different definitions of what a lead is. But in any case, the concept is one. Each email address is treated as a potential buyer.

2. Conduct through the funnel stages

B2B marketers see email marketing as an opportunity to lead a buyer through all stages of a purchase: from finding a product to making a purchase decision and the purchase itself.

They pay attention to the indicators of interest in the purchase (searching the page with prices indicates a greater interest in the purchase than viewing the article in the blog) and use certain content to solve questions that arise for users when choosing a product. Before making any purchase, users conduct research. They read information about products, read reviews, and if possible, they watch the product “live”. Each of these actions brings a person closer to buying a product.

Online stores should help potential buyers go through each stage of the decision to purchase and send only those mailings that match their interests.

3. View from all sides

When a sale can bring tens of thousands of dollars or more profit, it is not surprising that b2b marketers pay a lot of attention to divide the mailing list into small segments or even into individual users.

This approach can work for online stores, even with a large number of buyers. Potential buyers can be divided into segments for mailings, depending on their behavior on the site.

7 ways to segment subscribers

Many marketers and online store owners are not aware of which segments you can create and what to do with them.

Segmentation lists for mailing lists depend on the goals that your online store pursues. There is no option that fits everyone, but there are many ways to segmentation that will suit you and help you get started on segmentation.

Buyers and non-buyers

The first thing first. It is necessary to divide the audience into those who made purchases and those who did not.

The purpose of communication with customers is to return to the store and push for the next purchase. The purpose of communicating with those who have not yet bought anything is to find out their interests and conduct it through the sales funnel: from the first visit to the site, before making a purchase decision.

Purchase history

What did your visitors gain? Remember, your goal for this group is to push for the next purchase. With data from previous purchases, you have several options for segmentation:

• for goods that are purchased at a certain frequency (cosmetics, printer cartridges, perfumes, foodstuffs), you can start by sending letters with a reminder that the buyer can order the goods again. It is only important to establish the time frame through which the product ends. For example, for cosmetics - it's a couple of months, for food - a week.
• online clothing stores can help shoppers to create complete images of the clothes that they have already bought from you. If you have a multi-brand store, then you can segment buyers by what brands they buy most often and send such users letters with reviews of new products of this brand or information about discounts on the brand.
• for electronics, you can use the purchase data to offer additional accessories to the purchased equipment.

Customer interests

What products did your customers watch and what products were left in the basket for the last month? Sending useful information about the products that visitors viewed or put in the cart can help in the decision to purchase.

Continuing the example of a sofa, a user who chooses a sofa would be useful to get an article on how to fit the sofa into the general interior of the room or how to choose the color palette of the interior.

Geography

Online stores are certainly very popular, but some products are mainly chosen offline. For example, cars. Using geography data you can invite potential buyers to come to the nearest store and see what they want to buy. Adding information about the location of the store in the newsletter will help users find a store when they walk nearby.

In addition, proper use of data on the place of residence of the buyer can help in shaping the reputation and positive attitude towards the company. For example, last winter in New England was long and cold. And so, imagine, in one of these winter evenings, when everything is covered with snow around you receive a letter with the subject: “Has it covered with snow? Here you get a 20% discount. ” Unusually agree.

For an example, see the letter from Ann Taylor using the user’s location data:


But if you received such a letter basking somewhere in the sun, then the same effect did not work.

Customer Reviews

Your store is something like an online community. In each community, there are leaders who create content, and there are those who do not write anything, but at the same time study the opinion of leaders. Product reviews are no different from this.

Meet your customers and see who is ready to respond to your requests to write a review about the purchase. If every time after purchase in the online store you send a letter asking you to leave a review, then most likely you will annoy your customers.

Therefore, if after the first or second request the client does not leave a review about the product, then he does not want to share his opinion and no need to send such letters to him.

NPS

NPS (Net Promoter Score) or Consumer Loyalty Index is a metric for measuring customer commitment to your company. Measuring the NPS loyalty index involves several steps:

1. Buyers are invited to answer the question “What is the probability that you would recommend a company / product / brand to your friends / acquaintances / colleagues?” On a 10-point scale, where 0 corresponds to the answer “I would not recommend it in any way”, and 10 - “ Be sure to recommend. "
2. Based on the estimates obtained, all customers are divided into 3 groups: 9-10 points - product / brand promoters, 7-8 points - neutral consumers, 0-6 points - critics (detractors).
3. Direct calculation of the NPS index. NPS = Proportion of Critics.

As a rule, online stores use survey forms to identify the level of a given metric. If you have this information, then it's time to start using it for your email marketing.

So, for buyers with a low NPS index, you can send a letter with information that the company is ready to listen to the opinion of the buyer and change something in the company based on feedback. If the buyer is heard, his level of satisfaction will increase.

For customers with a high NPS index, you can use additional relationship building channels. This is an excellent group that can be invited to create content, like the Tiffany campaign Love Everywhere, where users mark romantic places on the map. This group is also great for newsletters asking for feedback on a product or service.

Mobile shoppers and shoppers in stores

Segment shoppers based on where they prefer to shop: in the store or use mobile devices. Buyers who use mobile phones to work with your online store may be interested in the release of a mobile application, while buyers who come to your store may be interested in information about offline promotions.

Repeat

So, now you are ready to plunge into the world of email newsletters segmentation. It is important to always remember:

• every email you have on the mailing list is a potential buyer.
• The goal of your email marketing is to educate people and help you get through the sales funnel: from researching offers to buying decisions.
• Send users relevant content based on what they are interested in at the moment and help them make a choice.

For segmentation of online store users, you can use the Convead service. It has the ability to create segments by traffic sources, geography, purchase history and perfect user actions.