January 6th, 2020
Narrowing down your email marketing campaigns into smaller segments can raise the open and click-through rates …
… but does the extra work pay off in increased engagement and conversion? A recent analysis by MailChimp covering 2,000 users who implemented 11,000 segmented campaigns shows dramatic overall improvement with a variety of segmentation strategies.
Audiences Segmented by Date Added or Most Recent Activity: This one seems obvious—modifying your communication by your email list’s most recent versus oldest signups or opens. Your newer, more active recipients are more likely to open your emails, less likely to unsubscribe, and have fewer hard/soft bounces.
Opening rates for segmented communications by interest showed a modestly higher rate of almost 10%, but the increase in click-through rates was an astounding 75% higher.
The improvement in opens/click-throughs was dramatic: almost 30% higher open rates for segmented campaigns and more than 50% higher click-throughs. If you’re looking for an easy win that generates response, use recency as a key factor.
Audiences Segmented by Interest: When donor or prospect provides their email address, do you have a way to discover their primary interests? For a medical charity, it could be a particular diagnosis, international relief charities could inquire about an area of the world, or an advocacy nonprofit could ask about which topics items resonate best. Alternatively, you can also track interest by opening—perhaps a donor only opens matching appeals or year-end solicitations, or an activist may only be interested in state or local issues.
Opening rates for segmented communications by interest showed a modestly higher rate of almost 10%, but the increase in click-through rates was an astounding 75% higher.
Audiences Segmented by Demographics: You probably know your subscribers’ addresses or ZIP codes, and perhaps you have additional information appended for donors like income, lifestyle, wealth rating and—of course—their donation history. Using this information tactically when developing your communication strategy can lead to some easy wins.
In fact, MailChimp’s results showed 14% higher opening, and 55% higher click-throughs, demonstrating the power of taking a few extra steps to personalize your outbound emails.
Overall Results:
Comparing segmented campaigns to non-segmented campaigns across all 11,000 campaigns showed dramatic increases on virtually every measure:
Opens: 14% higher than non-segmented campaigns
Clicks: 100% higher than non-segmented campaigns
Bounces: Over 4% lower than non-segmented campaigns
Unsubs: Over 9% lower than non-segmented campaigns
Although the results above are for both commercial and nonprofits, the extra effort to segment your communications can show significant improvements in response. And since additional response implies increased donor/recipient satisfaction and engagement, taking steps to ensure that your content is more closely aligned with their subscribers’ interests can have a dramatic payoff!
Blog written by Andy Johnson | Vice President of Analytics