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You may think you’re trying to sell your products or service in your emails.

Some people would say you’re wrong.

You never actually complete a sale in an email – that happens on your web site. So your email, they say, should sell a click to your site (slide 31). Then on your site, you can talk details like price to sell the product.

Jay, whom you may have met in a webinar, disagrees. He much prefers prices listed right within emails. Then he can weigh all his options without clicking anywhere for more information.

So… should you list prices in your emails or not? Let’s discuss this.

They Say: Entice Now, Sell Later

When people check their email, they have dozens of things on their mind. To get a reaction from them, your email needs to be irresistible.

It needs to paint an alluring picture. To make them want your product so badly, they can’t look away, and they’re itching to click through and find out how to get it.

Talking price would break the spell.

This may sound fantastical, but it’s got a practical benefit: back on your site, you have plenty of room to counteract any negative reaction someone may have to the price. See for yourself:

In their emails, French Connection creates a desire to buy without alluding to price at all. Back on their site, they keep selling readers on the product for at least one (and up to three) pages before mentioning the cost.

Finally, when they do list the price, they counter it with the idea of owning the entire coordinated outfit and a feeling of urgency that, if the jacket isn’t sold out yet, it may be soon.

Jay Says: Present Your Price As Soon As Possible

Some consumers, like Jay, are tougher sells. They’re not as entranced by the spell you’ve woven. These tougher consumers believe there’s always a flip side, and they don’t want to spend their time clicking around to find out what it is.

So, seeing no price, they shrug and delete your email. Then they go respond to messages with prices displayed, like this one from Tiger Direct.

“If I’m going to buy something, I’ve already done the research as to what it is, and now I just want to know where I can get it and for how much,” he says.

The Verdict

Whether or not you include prices in your email depends on two things:

1. Your audience. Every business attracts a different kind of following. Does your readers want to be swept off their feet and trust you to tell them what’s worth buying? Or are they more cynical and want their information up front?

Maybe you have an audience of bargain-hunters, for whom a good price is paramount. Or maybe for your readers, price is no object as long as they’re getting the best.

2. Your brand image. Do you compete on price? Or do you have well-established competitors who sell cheaper, but can’t match the quality you provide?

If you’re not sure how your readers feel or what exactly you’re competing on, you can always run a split test to find out.

Either Way, Send Value

This doesn’t just mean 15%-off offers – those are a dime a dozen. It means being helpful. Not just promoting products your subscribers just might want, but truly anticipating their needs and concerns, then thoroughly meeting them.

For example, this email from retailer Dorothy Perkins not only presents two outfit ideas for each pair of trousers, it explains what you’d wear the outfits for.

And here, Uncommon Goods‘ message (very creative for an HTML retail email) starts with the problem, then offers products as fun solutions.

What’s Your Price Preference?

Do you list prices in your emails? Do you feel that helps you sell more products?

Or do you keep mum about money ’til you’ve got your readers on your site?

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It’s every email marketer’s challenge: creating just the kind of messages that subscribers will enjoy and respond to.

The straightforward solution is simply asking each subscriber what they’d like to receive.

Asking at sign up can make your form too long and off-putting. So ask for preferences in an email survey instead.

You’ve seen how surveys can help you deliver more targeted email campaigns, now here’s a nuts-and-bolts look at how to set it up.

Survey Says: Put a Little Work In Now…

Setting up an email survey is going to take a few minutes. But we do mean it when we say few – it’s not complicated. Plus, do it once and you’ll get answers from subscribers forever! Here’s how:

1. First, write up a broadcast for your current list with your survey questions in it. List the optional answers people can choose from.

2. Then, link each answer to its own thank-you page. By tracking visits to these pages, you’ll see who clicked on each answer.

3. Don’t worry about tracking visits to those pages yourself – our system will do it. Just toss our email analytics onto each page, and you’re good to go.

4. You’ll want to make sure to get these answers from every subscriber possible. So copy the HTML of your broadcast into a follow up message so future subscribers can choose their preferences as well. Remember, the earlier you set the message in the follow up sequence, the sooner each subscriber will get emails customized to their preferences.

5. Ready? Send out your broadcast! Now next time you send an email, you’ll have data to segment by. Make sure the message goes to the right group: just search your subscribers by “web page visited,” choose the page related to the right group and send to that segment!

(And if you’re not sending this as a follow up, you can use your broadcast’s QuickStats for even easier segmentation!)

Survey Says: It’ll Pay Off Later!

You can use that to send custom versions of your emails out to the different segments you’ve found with your survey. You’ll be able to customize your emails according to…

…who wants only coupons and sales offers, and who wants all your emails no matter what they are

…who wants updates on a specific topic, and who’d rather not hear about it

…who wants weekly emails, and who only wants to hear from you monthly

And Survey Always Says Thank You!

You may have noticed that every time a survey participant clicks on an answer, they’ll be taken to a new page.

This gives you an opportunity to thank people for answering. Also, confirm that you’ve noticed their preferences – they’ll be getting your emails their way from now on!

What Would Your Survey Say?

Surveys let you gather lots of data to segment by. You’ll also get a look at your list’s interests and habits as a whole.

What sort of information should an email marketer ask for from their subscribers? What would you ask for?

Tell us in the comments!

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Does it really matter if you schedule your emails for specific days and times?

Some marketers think so. Others don’t. You can certainly peruse your reports for days and times that draw good response in your own campaign. But what if you don’t find anything conclusive?

To help you figure out your scheduling strategy, we took a look at when some of the Big Guys send. Do any of their approaches work for you?

Weekday Mornings

Newegg sends on weekdays, two or three times a week. With the exception of some (strategically planned?) Black Friday emails, they send between midnight and 8 every morning – perfect timing for pitching their electronics and digital products to the 9-5 techie crowd.

Weekday morning sends can also work for promoting office supplies and industry equipment or sharing job postings.

Friday Afternoons

The Container Store, before mid-June, sent with haphazard timing. Since then, they’ve sent every Friday afternoon. Their emails arrive just as their readers’ focus is shifting from the work week to managing life at home – a good time to suggest containers that can help one do so.

Friday afternoons can be ideal for sending emails about local events, home remodeling tools, concerts, art shows – anything useful for planning weekend activities.

Several Times a Day

Bluefly offers a different deal every day, sent at 7 a.m. More often than not, they also send a reminder around 3 before subscribers go offline for the evening.

Such a high frequency can work for limited-time offers or for sending out updates during an event. But be careful with this frequency. You’ll need to provide a lot of value for subscribers to put up with two or more emails in a day.

(Almost) Every Day

Yoga Journal sends Tuesday through Sunday. On Mondays, people are busy digging out from work accumulated over the weekend. After they’ve caught up, YJ sends them a new idea to try in their spare time each day, whether it’s a backbend to battle fatigue or creating yogic space with natural materials.

Subscribers who are counting down to an event or working their way toward a goal may appreciate a daily (or almost-daily) nudge. Whether to skip a day of the week depends on your readers, so check your open rates to see if it makes sense for your campaign.

At Lunch Time

Offbeat Bride sends daily, so brides-to-be get as much advice as possible before the Big Day (and the wedding-obsessed get their fix). OB emails arrive around noon for fun lunchtime reading.

Other ideal lunchtime content might be lighthearted news reports, quick tips or advice, daily inspiration or hobby-related digests. Who doesn’t want something fun and uplifting to read while they chomp?

As News Breaks

Fox News sends updates throughout the day, whenever a big story breaks. Subscribers choose their categories of interest, getting an email or two for each on any given day.

Immediate emails could work well in fast-paced industry, with alerts for software releases, real estate listings and the like? The immediate timing assures readers that they’re the first to get the scoop.

To Schedule or Not to Schedule

Do You Already Time Your Emails?

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People don’t really want your products. They’re not out searching for your service.

They want easier lives. They want to be entertained. They want their struggles extinguished and their problems solved.

This, then, is how you sell to them with email marketing: solve those problems. Stamp out those struggles.

Focus on meeting people’s needs in a way that positions your product or service as their solution. In other words, do what these eight marketers did.

Selling Solutions

These businesses had jackets, tickets, and memberships to sell. But they knew better than to just send a message saying, “Stuff on Sale!” Instead of stuff, they sold:

Style

Every morning, most women, many men, nearly every girl and even a handful of boys stand in front of their mirrors and demand, “What should I wear today?”

Usually, the mirror doesn’t answer back. So Neiman Marcus did instead.

With five new outfit ideas, shoppers need to find a way to recreate the looks themselves. And since they’re already on the Neiman Marcus site…

Entertainment

Instead of tickets, Brooks & Dunn present something fun to do with your pals. They even offer free tickets (and a party bus!) to one lucky winner.

You don’t necessarily need a giveaway (though they’re a great way to ramp up interest). The key here: if you’re selling an experience, keep the focus off the fees and on the fun.

Time

With the subject line “Could you use more time?”, The Container Store pretty much guaranteed themselves a high open rate.

Find a way to grant your subscribers that most precious of commodities, and they’ll not only want to click the “buy” button, they’ll be grateful to.

Street Savvy

The Motorcycles Only newsletter shares pro riding tips so bikers can talk the talk with the biggest and the toughest.

The best part? The email doesn’t actually give the answer – it explains the question further, then leads readers back to the site!

Kid-Friendly Recreation

Harry & David sells pre-assembled gifts, delivered straight to the recipient. It’s a perfect holiday option for busy families.

And since happy kids make happy parents, H&D threw in an activity for the little ones – with a prize designed to promote their signature product.

Adventure

REI had GPS units to sell, so they repackaged them as opportunities to “Navigate With Confidence.”

And the rest of the subject line promises “Easy-to-Use GPS Units.” Not only is your journey safe (your GPS will keep you on the beaten path) it’s also easy – perfectly manageable for the everyday consumer.

Parenting Solutions

Giggle knows that parents worry when their tots embark on a liquid diet or a three-month PBJ binge. especially with childhood obesity rates burgeoning in some areas of the globe.

With their “healthy eaters” broadcast, Giggle offers not only the products that can help, but suggestions for how to use them.

Try It Yourself

The key to selling solutions is first finding out what your subscribers want, then figuring out how your products can deliver it. Ask yourself:

1. “What do I have?” Make a list of your assets – long weekend hours, quirky salespeople, an overstock of flat irons.

2. “What do they need?” Consider basic human needs – safety, friendship, freedom. Then ask what your customer base wants – foolproof site editing, ways to impress their coworkers, a good night’s sleep?

Now match them up. And when you’re ready to make the sale, remember to explain what buyers will really be getting!

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Email segmentation is a funny thing.

Used well, it’s one of those little extras that separates professional email marketing campaigns from disparate sequences of “spray and pray” messages. It gets more of the right message to the right people at the right time, and it amplifies your response.

Used poorly or mistakenly, however, it can amplify the wrong kind of response.

A pair of emails I received the other day demonstrate this and give us a chance to see how we can respond to our own segmentation mistakes.

Let’s have a look…

Borders “Store Closing” Email

Below is an email I received from Borders advertising 40% off due to a store closing:

(Click image to see full email)

This is a nice way to tell Sacramento area customers about a chance to pick up some books on the cheap. As a sender, you could reasonably expect an amplified response rate to this email, since you’re targeting people near that store who have likely shopped there before.

Thing is, I don’t live in Sacramento. Or California. Or West of the Mississippi. Borders sent the email to all subscribers.

From a technical standpoint, this email is just a segmentation “whoops.” Borders meant to send it only to subscribers in the Sacramento area. It’s embarrassing and they probably lost some subscribers (in this case, the mis-segmentation likely amplified their unsubscribes and complaint rate).

Next Up: The “Correction” Email

A couple hours later, this email shows up:

(Click image to see full email)

This “correction” email makes sure I know that I can’t take 40% off any products unless I go to the Sacramento store.

From a technical standpoint, Borders “corrected” their mistake. Might have lost a few more subscribers who didn’t see the first email, but so it goes. There was nothing else they could have done, right?

Right?

The “Technical Whoops” From the Subscriber’s View

Like any other “whoops” you might make, a poor segmentation can negatively affect customers’ perception of your business. It can dissolve the relationship you’ve worked to build with them.

Mistakes – or rather, your response to them – can also strengthen that relationship. And this is the real lesson from Borders’ example.

Borders saw their mistake and immediately went into “damage control” mode. Evidently they feared customers were going to show up to all Borders stores and demand 40% off, which confused store employees were unlikely to honor.

In doing that, they missed a HUGE marketing opportunity.

See, as a subscriber, the “whoops” email pointed out that someone else was getting a better deal than me.

And all the correction email did was re-emphasize that comparatively, I was getting a raw deal (Borders even included the body of the original email in the correction – really driving the point home).

While leaving well enough alone may not have been the best option, I’m fairly certain it was a better one than inciting subscriber jealousy. (After all, aren’t subscribers likely to take a cue from man’s best friend and resent the unfairness?)

Would it really have been so hard to give all subscribers a coupon for 40% off of one item?

It’s not like they haven’t done it before – here’s an email they sent me about a week before the store closing one:

(Click image to see full email)

Talk about a great opportunity to present an offer with legitimate urgency: “We screwed up, here’s a coupon for just as much off as the Sacramento folks got – but it’s only good until the Sacramento store closes on January 3rd!”

Lessons: What To Do When Segmentation Goes Wrong

1. Decide Whether To Do Anything.

   Yes, mis-segmentation is bad. But does sending a “correction” email make it better? If not, does any email make it better?

   If not, you may be better off not sending one at all, and just moving on.

2. Fess Up.

   If subscribers are aware that something’s amiss (even if they’re not quite sure what), own up to what happened.

   Remember, you’re trying to build a relationship with subscribers. You need their trust. Honesty goes a long way toward getting it.

3. Make Lemonade.

   Look for opportunities to turn your mistake into everyone’s gain.

Know someone who would benefit from this? Share it with them!

In two previous posts on email segmentation, we discussed how to target several groups of subscribers who have not yet purchased products/services from you yet.

These are all groups of people you can target to make your email marketing more effective, and I do strongly recommend thinking about how you can make your campaigns more relevant through segmentation.

But if you’re a believer in the idea that a customer is more likely to buy from you again than a prospect is to buy from you once, you’ll want to pay special attention to today’s tip:

It’s Time To Segment Customers

You’ve worked hard to get subscribers to the point that they’re willing to make a purchase from you. Why not build on that initial success?

By segmenting customers, you can:

• Reward them for their loyalty
• Drive repeat purchases
• Encourage them to refer new business to you

(I’m sure you have a few other ideas on emailing customers – share them below!)

How to Segment Customers

To do this, you need to first have installed the Email Web Analytics script on your site. (See the instructions for doing so.)

Once you’ve done that, you have 2 options:

1. Use web page tracking.

   We’ll track which pages of your site subscribers go to. You simply need to look for whether or not subscribers land on your order confirmation page.

   If you only sell one product, or all your products are the same price, this is sufficient. It doesn’t, however, allow you to easily see on what days/weeks/months your campaigns generate the most revenue (the 2nd option does that).

2. Use goal tracking.

   This takes a couple steps to set up, but it lets you track the revenue your email campaigns generate over time. It also lets you segment subscribers based on how much money they spend (which you can see in their subscriber records).

To Use Web Page Tracking:

Use the “Web Page Visited” search criterion:

As with the “Message openers” segment, you’ll click inside the long text box to select the web page you want to use to segment subscribers – in this case, your order confirmation page.

To Use Goal Tracking:

1. On the “Analytics Settings” page, set up a Goal Web Page.

While setting up your goal, you can either choose a fixed revenue value for the goal, or you can pass custom revenue information to us on an order-by-order basis. An example of this appears below.

1. Once you’ve chosen your method of tracking, you’ll go to the “Leads” page and segment using either the “Web Page Visited” criterion:

or the “Sale Amount” one:

There are also detailed instructions for setting up goals in the Knowledge Base.

Once you’ve set up your tracking and segments, you can create and deliver targeted email campaigns to increase customer loyalty, sell related products, raise response rates and make your email marketing even more profitable!

Do You Segment Customers? What About Other Subscribers?

Do you use segments (like the ones discussed over the past three posts) to deliver more relevant, targeted emails to your subscribers?

What criteria do you use for grouping subscribers?

Share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments!

Know someone who could benefit from segmenting subscribers?

Share this article with them on StumbleUpon, Delicious or Twitter – or just send them this link!

In a previous post on email segmentation, we looked at how to isolate and target people not opening your emails, and people who open them, but don’t click on links in them.

These groups (as defined in this article) are people who are not engaged with your regular email marketing campaigns and may need special attention to get them to interact more with your emails.

Today, let’s look at 2 more groups you can segment and target to improve your results:

• New Subscribers
• Link Clickers

New Subscribers

Put simply, new subscribers are different than people who have been subscribed for a while.

They know less about you and are likely to have different objections and questions.

So, you may want to communicate different content to them than you do to older subscribers.

Now, on the one hand you can do this with autoresponders, but

How to Segment New Subscribers

No need to do anything fancy here – we’ve already segmented your newest subscribers for you!

To view them, choose one of the “added in the past _____” searches on the “Leads” page of your account:

As you can see, you can define “new” subscribers as being really new (in the past 24 hours) or a bit more conservatively (say, in the 30 days).

To send an email to new subscribers, decide which search you want to use. Then create a broadcast and choose that segment.

Link Clickers

Here, even more than in our last post on segmentation we’re getting down to the people who are almost ready to make a purchase.

As you may have noticed, several of the segments we’ve addressed here are closely related.

As you get non-responsive subscribers to open an email, and non-clickers to click, you’re really moving them along a path from unengaged prospects → somewhat engaged prospects → very engaged prospects → customers.

Moving subscribers along that path is one of the outcomes of a successful segmentation and targeting campaign.

How to Segment Link Clickers

As with openers, it’s easiest to target link clickers based on whether or not they clicked a specific link (after all, while it’s sort of useful to know someone clicked on your “contact” link, if that’s not what you were trying to get them to do, then they may as well have not clicked).

To segment link clickers, use the “Link Clicked” criterion:

As with the “Message openers” segment, you’ll click inside the long text box to select the link you want to use to segment subscribers.

Next Time: 2 Ways to Segment Customers

The fifth group that you can target with some basic email segmentation is your customers.

You can segment customers all as one group (people who bought something) or you can fine-tune your customer segmentation (by how much they spent, for example).

The 3rd email in this series will show you how to identify, track and segment your most valuable subscribers.

Until then, think about what you might want to send to your “Link Clickers” – the people closest to becoming customers ‐ as well as your newest subscribers, and try segmenting for yourself!

Know someone who could benefit from segmenting subscribers?

Share this article with them on StumbleUpon, Delicious or Twitter – or just send them this link!