Over at Clickz, email columnist Jeanne Jennings has a great introduction to email segmentation.

She breaks down subscribers into a few groups based on their activity, and points out that you can (and should!) communicate with each group differently.

In a series of 3 posts, we’ll look at how you can use the email web analytics tools in AWeber to target the groups she suggests, and make your email marketing campaigns more relevant.

There are 5 groups of people you can potentially target using activity-based segmentation. Today, let’s look at two of them:

• Non-Responsive Subscribers
• Message Openers

Non-Responsive Subscribers

Non-responsive subscribers receive your emails, but don’t convert, don’t click on links or even open the messages.

These subscribers may have once been responsive, but over time lost interest in your emails. Or they may be overwhelmed with too many other messages to make time for your emails.

How to Segment Inactive Subscribers

It’s important to remember that non-responsive subscribers may have been responsive at some point.

So you want to first come up with a time frame – how long does someone need to have gone without opening an email before you consider them non-responsive? (hint: don’t say “a week” ).

On your “Leads” page, use the “Search” boxes to pull up 2 search terms:

1. No Opens
2. Date Added

(The “Date Added” term makes sure you only pull up older subscribers, not people who just signed up recently and haven’t had a chance to open your email yet.)

After searching, you’ll see a box where you can save your search (“view”) by giving it a name (say, Non-Responders):

Save your view and you’ll then be able to choose it while creating a broadcast.

Message Openers

These are the subscribers who open your emails, but don’t click on links or convert.

So you’re getting them to open your email (or at least preview it), but nothing further. They’re not quite engaged by your email content.

How to Segment These Subscribers

In AWeber, this is most easily done on a message-by-message basis, using two criteria:

1. Message Opened
2. Link Not Clicked

Next to each of those criteria, click on the long text box and you’ll be prompted to choose which message/link you want to use to segment subscribers.

If you’re sending only plain text emails, you won’t use this segment, since you can’t track opens. This one’s for people sending emails that include an HTML version.

Next Time: 2 More Segments to Target

In the next post on this series, you’ll learn how to create 2 more useful segments that you can use to better target your email marketing campaigns.

Until then, try creating these segments – you might be surprised how many people fall into each one!

Know someone who could benefit from segmenting subscribers?

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

Ever wanted to know which of your subscribers aren’t responding to your emails?

Or which parts of your website subscribers are interested in?

This week, we added two new segmentation and targeting options to our Email Web Analytics tools to help answer those questions.

With them, you can identify people who have stopped paying attention to your emails (or never did).

And for those people who are still engaged, you now can segment them by what pages they’re visiting – even if those visits don’t originate from an email you send!

Segment and Target Subscribers Who Haven’t Responded To ANY Recent Message

Do you sometimes feel like you’re talking to your subscribers, but only half of them are listening?

Ever wanted to check in with the half that has “checked out” and ask if there’s anything you can do to help?

With the new “No Opens” search option, now you can. Here’s how:

On the “Leads” page, choose “No Opens” from the list search criteria.

Then, choose a date that you want to start your search from. You’ll see that this makes the search read “No Opens Since (Date).”

Once you’ve completed your search, you can save that group of subscribers and broadcast to them.

Quick tip: when you use this search option, combine it with a search by “Date Added” to make sure you’re only looking through people who have been on your list for a while.

You wouldn’t want to group a new subscriber (who just got your first email but hasn’t had time to open it) in with someone who signed up to your list a year ago and hasn’t opened any emails in 6 months.

What If I Send Plain Text Emails?

If you’re using our Email Web Analytics tools to track clickthroughs, we’ll infer an open whenever someone clicks a link in your emails – even if you send only plain text emails.

So this “No Opens” search is essentially a “No Clicks” search for you guys.

Possible Uses of The “No Opens” Criteria

• Run a “reactivation” campaign

  Create a few broadcasts to try to get non-engaged subscribers to start responding again.

  Many retailers use coupons/discounts to try to re-engage email subscribers. You could do this, or offer a free report or some other compelling incentive to get them clicking again.

• Remove non-responsive subscribers (if they don’t respond to your reactivation campaign).

  No sense in having someone on your list who doesn’t want to be there.

• Send them a questionnaire to learn why they’ve lost interest.

  Did they go with a competitor? Do they no longer need your services? Is there anything else you can do to help them?

What other ideas do you have for contacting non-responsive subscribers? Share them below!

Segment and Target Subscribers Based on What Web Pages They Visit

The original Email Web Analytics release included options to segment subscribers based on which links they click in your emails.

They’re helpful to see what content subscribers are interested in.

But what about what those subscribers do after the initial click, or on a later visit to your site that doesn’t start out with an email click?

The new “Web Page Visited” search option segments subscribers based on where they’re going on your site.

Here’s how to use it:

On the “Leads” page, choose “Web Page Visited” from the list search criteria.

In the box to the right, start typing out the web page you want to search by.

We’ll auto-suggest pages to you as you type.

As with the “No Opens” criteria, you can save that group of subscribers and broadcast to them.

Possible Uses of The “Web Page Visited” Criteria For Different Groups

Here are a few possible uses, pulled from the top of my head:

• Product and service providers: identify which products, features, benefits, etc. your prospects are especially interested in.

  Create more targeted messages about those products/features/benefits and send them to the appropriate groups.

• Affiliate marketers – identify people interested in certain products (or categories of product) you’re promoting.

  Use that knowledge to decide what other products to introduce to those groups.

• Bloggers – identify who is most interested in particular topics, products, etc. you blog about.

  Use that knowledge to create posts, products, reports, etc. that will appeal to those groups.

• Real Estate Agents – identify what properties various subscribers are viewing on your site.

  Then, get in touch with them about those properties.

I’m sure you have your own ideas for how knowing who is going to what pages of your website could help you grow your business – share your ideas and suggestions below!

After ripping apart some poor email examples, I think it’s high time we point out someone who’s doing an email newsletter right.

I’ve been getting emails from travel planning site Kayak.com for a couple weeks. In each issue I’m impressed by their email savvy, from content to design to the little extras that make me so likely to use them to plan my trips.

Why do I like Kayak’s emails — both as an email marketing guy and as a subscriber — so much?

Examples of Kayak’s Emails

Before we go any further, take a look at 2 issues of their email newsletter that I’ve received:

(Click the above images for full-size versions.)

What do you think of them? Here’s my take:

They Build a Relationship, Rather Than Going For the Hard Sell

As a member of several frequent flyer programs, I get emails from a number of airlines. I also get emails from time to time from other travel sites where I’m a member.

I’ve never received an email campaign from any of them that tries to connect with me. They’re just so… all-sell, all-the-time, all about price.

Kayak, on the other hand, doesn’t scream at me about the latest deals.

Their emails sell the idea of traveling. Each section gets me excited about a destination, as if the emails were made up of postcards from friends who were visiting each place.

And even though I’m not usually looking to go anywhere, I often click through just to see what it might cost to take a trip. Just for fun (when was the last time your email campaign had subscribers going to your website just for fun? Try it.).

They’re Well-Designed and Easy To Read

This is exactly the kind of email that comes to mind (for me) when someone asks for an example of a “Light HTML” email message.

They cleverly separate each section with a header (the destination name).

They provide navigation at the top of the email to each section/destination, and each section has a link back to the top.

Navigation is text, not images, so it’s even useful with images disabled.

They distinguish their own content from sponsored content/ads by using lightly shaded backgrounds. Interspersing shaded sections with the main content also makes the email seem shorter than it actually is.

They put their logo in the upper left-hand corner of the email, so it appears in the preview pane, and they keep it small enough that it doesn’t get in the way of other content at the top of the email.

They’re Targeted To Me

And oh boy, is it easy to see what a trip might cost.

Did you see what they did in the sidebar? They put links to “cheap flights from Philadelphia.”

When I signed up they asked me what my home airport was, and they’re using that to get me from reading their email to making a purchase. The links even go to a flight search page that’s pre-filled with Philadelphia as the departing airport.

With what is really just basic segmentation and personalization — nothing difficult or complex — Kayak makes a smooth transition from inbox to web.

They Encourage Communication

Look at the footer of the email.

Rather than hiding behind a “do not reply” type of address and using email as a way to talk at me, they tell me they want to hear from me!

What’s especially great about this is they give me multiple ways to contact them:

The link in their email goes to a feedback form on their site.

Unlike the company in our email footer example a while back, they send from an email address that forwards to their help desk, so even if I reply instead of using their feedback form, I can still get in touch with them.

Anything Else?

I feel like I’m rambling a bit here, so I’ll turn it over to you.

What did you like about these emails?

Or didn’t you like them (and if so, why not)?

How do you feel you can apply these tactics to your own email marketing campaigns?

Share your thoughts on the blog!

One of the most important challenges facing restaurant and retail owners is in drawing back return customers to their locations.

Advertising for new customers can be very expensive, while relying on customers to take initiative to come back after a single visit can be risky and unprofitable business.

A popular, tried and true way to boost return business throughout the year is to send personalized birthday emails to customers.

Make Customers Feel Special on Their Birthdays

Personalization is one of those “X factors” in marketing, where singling someone out from a group in a way that reminds them of their individuality can pay great dividends.

What better time of year to single someone out and make them feel special than their birthday? This is when many of us are more than happy to take a break, relax our egos a bit, and celebrate ourselves.

What better time of year to single someone out and make them feel special than their birthday?

Some of us are also willing to spend (or have someone else spend) some extra money on things like gifts and special birthday dinners.

A taylored and targeted offer can be just the thing to make someone feel special and remember us when they’re making the spending decisions surrounding their special times.

Step 1: Collect the Necessary Information

Sending birthday emails is simple.

We just need to collect just two things from our customers at our locations and/or websites:

Their email addresses

Their birthdays

At your location, keep subscription cards at your counter and/or provide them with the bill to dining customers.

On your website, you can simply add a field to your signup form asking for birthday information.

Step 2: Schedule Monthly Birthday Emails

Once we’ve started to collect this information, all we need to do is schedule monthly messages to cover the birthdays of each month.

If you’re using AWeber, just segment your list creating what is called a “view” before and schedule them:

Learn How to Send Birthday Email with AWeber

Send Your Customers Birthday Email

By giving customers another reason to get your email newsletter, advertising birthday specials can help us grow our list of subscribers. Surprising them with special incentives to return to your location boosts business and helps to maintain a profitable subscription.

If you’ve been racking your brain thinking of ways to use your restaurant or store’s list and bring back customers, consider adding a birthday email to your campaign today.

Between our blog, knowledge base, and live seminars, we offer an abudance of information covering a wide range of email best practices from different angles and through different mediums.

The depth and detail of these resources is expansive, and we’re continuously adding to them.

As much as we’d love to have each and every reader browse through it all, there’s so much information published that even now, it wouldn’t be possible to get through it all in an afternoon or possibly even a day.

If that were our only option, we might consider putting a hold on publishing new information, focusing on organizing and pushing the older information while it’s relevant. Fortunately, it isn’t…

Efficiently Leveraging Information

Like we preach in these resources, information needs to be provided in a consumable way for prospects, customers, or anyone who finds it if it is to be effective to promote the goals of our business.

Often times, this is where technologies like email and RSS come into play, so that information can be pushed to subscribers in “digestible bits” they can easily consume.

That’s why we offer both email and rss subscriptions to our blog and why, as an email service, we provide an rss to email feature for our customers.

A Brief Guide to Email Best Practices

So, pushing information over time is beneficial, especially when detail and depth are indispensible, as is often the case when we’re trying to educate our audiences.

But sometimes a resource summing up and abstracting the most important pieces of a larger whole is useful, especially for newcomers who may feel overwhelmed by an abundance of starting points.

A new article in our Knowledge Base collects some of the best and most important email marketing practices we’ve been writing and talking about for years.

  Read the Email Marketing Best Practices article

New Years is just a few days away, so it’s a great time to make some resolutions about our email campaigns.

Use this article to focus on what’s most important for your campaigns.

Little known fact: there’s an RSS feed available for the Knowledge Base that provides updates on new articles as they are published.

Quick thought and a how-to inspired by a reaction to our recent post on holiday greetings.

Over at her Net Profits Today blog, Rosalind Gardner made a great point about the lack of targeting that often plagues marketing campaigns (particularly those sent around this time of year):

She’s absolutely right. Fortunately, it’s not hard for even the most basic email marketing campaign to do this.

“But I Don’t Ask My Subscribers Where They’re Located!”

Not a problem. You can target subscribers geographically based on their IP address.

Among other things, you can use this to target subscribers located in a specific country and broadcast to them, making your message appropriate for their location.

In the example above, marketers could have included Thanksgiving-related content (greetings, sales/coupons, etc) in messages they sent to Rosalind and other Canadian residents from late September to early October. Then, in November, they could shift that content into messages sent to their US-based subscribers.

See How To Target Subscribers Geographically

In this short video, I show you how to employ simple geo-targeting to segment subscribers by country. You can just as easily use this to segment by other geographic data like:

State (or Region)

Latitude and Longitude

RSS Subscribers: there should be a Flash video below. If not, please click here to watch it on our site.

Need to Know When to Geo-Target?

Use Geo-Targeting Responsibly

Now, IP-based geographic targeting is not perfect. It makes a judgment based on where your subscriber connects to the Internet, which may not match their exact physical location.

That said, in my experience it does a pretty good job of targeting subscribers, and it’s a heck of a lot better than not targeting at all. And it has the distinct advantage of not requiring your subscribers to fill out a mile-long signup form (and as we discuss in our web form seminar, the more you ask people to provide, the fewer of them will do so, and do so accurately).

For the record: I’m still against sending empty holiday greeting emails, but if you’re going to reference the holidays in an email, geographic targeting can help you to do so more effectively.

It happens all too frequently.

A business puts in the time and expense of getting a customer to their website or store, establishes trust and credibility, and gets that person to make a purchase. Which brings them to that critical first post-purchase contact.

Do they use it to provide more value? To reinforce the buying decision? Show the customer how the purchased product is even more valuable than they thought?

Nope.

To achieve the best results we can with email marketing, it is imperative that we write both to and for our audience. In order to do that, we need to recognize that each of our subscribers is unique, often in significant ways.

If we are mindful of this, we can better:

• Write compelling content
• Segment our campaigns
• Write compelling content

Ultimately, we would do better to constantly put ourselves in the shoes of our subscribers when considering these factors. Let’s take a look at three examples of what I mean by this.