Building an email list is the foundation of your campaign. Giving your customers a good reason to sign up for your data is a major breakthrough – that way, you’ll have your steady and growing audience base. That said, you should know how to segment your subscribers for optimal campaign results. Learn how to configure your email list for higher efficiency.

Contents

1. Reason to sign up
2. Obtaining personal data
3. Subscription confirmation
4. List segmentation
5. Different messaging policies

1. Reason to sign up

While signing up, the subscribers should be aware of the added value for them and further outcomes of the subscription. Not only does this give them a reason to leave their information, but it also prepares them for upcoming communications coming into their email inboxes.

Inform the user what are the perks of signing up, such as:

• discount code,
• being updated on news in the offer,
• special offers,
• receiving price alerts,
• VIP access, whitepapers, etc.

It’s a good idea to let them know that they’ll be receiving offers tailored to their interests in addition to a discount code – they won’t be unpleasantly surprised when they receive an email from you because they’ll be expecting it.

2. Obtaining personal data

Before sending any email campaign, first make sure if you are properly acquiring your subscribers. Building a healthy mailing list is the vital element of the entire email marketing strategy. You want to avoid sending emails to non-existing users, being marked as spammers and other issues which may occur if the email subscription process is not designed properly.

When collecting customer data, remember to follow a few rules regarding the subscriber’s consent to receive your emails. This should be:

• public – the consent shouldn’t be hidden in any means – it has to be easily found,

• conscious – the consent should provide all the necessary information for the customer,

• voluntary – the user can’t feel forced to select a particular consent,

• confirmed – the consent shouldn’t be “pre-ticked”, the user has to be able to tick the box himself.

When signing up for the newsletter, the following consents should be collected:

• consent to the processing of personal data for marketing purposes, 

• consent to the sending commercial information by electronic means of communication.

These consents cannot be hidden in terms and conditions or privacy policy or marked as agreed by default.

3. Subscription confirmation

To make sure all subscribers signed up on their own, voluntarily, we recommend using a double opt-in procedure during the sign-up process. The double opt-in procedure requires the new subscriber to confirm that they have actually completed the form by clicking on the link sent to their email after signing up. 

By deciding to double opt-in, you can be sure that the person who is added to your list actually wants to receive your emails. What’s more, sending a welcome email after the sign-up process can create a good first impression that will translate into higher engagement in subsequent email campaigns.

4. List segmentation

Segmentation helps in targeting mass campaigns to smaller groups of contacts with similar preferences, thus increasing effectiveness and retention. Email list segmentation can be done based on customer’s behavior, purchase history or reaction to previous campaigns. 

With this approach, you can keep customers engaged, reduce unsubscribe rates, and increase key metrics such as open rate and CTR. This is critical because positive campaign reviews improve a sender’s reputation for deliverability. 

5. Different messaging policies

Based on your customer segmentation, you can also adjust the frequency of your campaigns so that you don’t overload customers with too many messages if they aren’t interested in buying something at the time.

Sample messaging policy which you can tailor to your company’s goals and needs: 

• send 1-3 emails per week to new contacts,

• if customers did not open any of them in the last 30 days, change the frequency to 1/month,

if there is no engagement within the last 180 days, transfer the user into re-engagement or  re-permission program.