People subscribe to a brand's mailing list for different reasons and so it makes sense to generate content for individual interests. We're having involuntary shoulder shudders just thinking about emails that have been blasted out en-masse. It's a no-no in our book as curated content is relatively straightforward to deliver, yet email segmentation is still an overlooked strategy. One size certainly does not fit all.

So, what is email segmentation?

It's a super effective marketing tool where subscribers are divided up into handy groups based on anything from gender, age, geographic location, past purchases, income, job title - the list goes on - to ensure they receive timely, personalised emails.

Trust, relevancy and context mean everything

Campaigns are more likely to be a sure-fire hit when email segmentation tactics are used. For subscribers, personalisation-based email translates into a renewed or reinforced sense of confidence in your company. For you, it simply means more sales or at the very least, a higher open rate or improved level of engagement.

If you have a preference centre set up then you're already laughing as that's a good chunk of hard graft already done for you by your audience. If not, please send us an SOS and we'll get you rockin' and rollin'. All you've got to do is use this juicy intelligence to create highly targeted messaging which provides context for the recipient.

So, why should you tidy up your mailing list and organise your customers into segments? Here are just three awesome reasons why:

1. An Improved Conversion Rate

First and foremost, a larger click-through rate and therefore a boost in sales is no doubt your number one priority; it's probably the very reason you're sending out marketing emails to your database at all. Taking a little time to monitor the kind of messages your customer responds to best and ordering your mailing list into segments accordingly, will ensure the right person receives the right message. This will most likely have a positive knock-on effect for sales, too and according to Campaign Monitor, marketers found a whopping 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns. Ker-ching!

2. Increased Brand Awareness and More Engaged Contacts

Don't panic if your latest email hasn't immediately translated into sales - few marketing messages are ever wasted. Just by sending the right kind of email in as timely a manner as possible, you're ensuring better brand awareness and more engaged contacts in general.

Customers who haven't purchased for a while may react well to a gentle reminder about, say, your latest offer or piece of exciting company news. If a subscriber is slipping away, simply ensuring you don't lose them to a rival brand can be as effective as bagging a sale. Remember, good brand awareness can lead to people sharing your content or recommending you to a friend - all of which results in a big thumbs up for you.

3. A Decreased Unsubscribe Rate

Downhearted about an increasing unsubscribe rate? Don't be. Segmented email marketing can help you on the right track to happier existing customers and even the possibility of brand new email subscribers. Make your content shareable and it doesn't necessarily matter if your emails don't convert into sales right away; you'll be getting the word out and increasing customers' confidence and knowledge of your brand and services.

Email segmentation is totally one of digital marketing's ace cards and it's really easy to create list using our fantastic system, BLINK. Our email platform stores data in each subscriber profile so all you need to do to create a segment is to define some rules.

If you've got an offer on electrical accessories, for example, you don't want to annoy those who recently purchased items that are about to be discounted with a 'Save 20% on all accessories today!' email. In just a few clicks you can pull out all subscribers that haven't purchased items about to be on sale and you can also select the time frame. The more you segment, the better the engagement will be so have fun slicing your lists into categories and see what wonders it will do.

Simply get in touch at hi@itsblinkmail.com to discover how BLINK can help you deliver well thought-out marketing communications that your subscribers will absolutely love.