If you’re new to email marketing, the title of this blog may sound like a foreign language to you. That’s okay! When it comes to email marketing, there are a lot of different platforms and a variety of techniques. In this blog we are going to discuss the email marketing platform, MailChimp, and best practices for sending to targeted lists – by creating groups.
The Power of Segmentation
Segmentation is a powerful way to send your emails to a targeted group of people. This increases your open rates, click rates and conversion rates by providing your subscribers with relevant content. A rookie mistake that a lot of email marketers make is sending to a Master List. The issue with a Master List is that all your contacts, no matter their demographics, interests or relation to your company, are getting the same content. Segmentation is the process of dividing your lists based on varying factors, such as age, location, interests and more. One way to segment your lists in MailChimp is by creating groups.
How Groups Work
If you have investigated segmentation on MailChimp, you’ve likely stumbled across the term “Groups”. Mailchimp defines a Group as a “collection of subscribers, categorized by their interests or preferences. A group consists of a group category and group names.” When creating a group within your Master List, you will be asked to specify the following:
- Group Category: The name of your group. For example, "Age Range”.
- Group Names: The different options in your group, chosen by you or your subscribers. For example:
- 18-34
- 35-49
- 50-64
- 65+
Now that you have your group, you can assign subscribers to their respective groups (or they can select their group from a signup form). From here you can send emails to particular groups and not others.
To determine if you should create groups within your list, MailChimp recommends you ask yourself the following:
- Do I want to organize my list based on subscriber-provided information, such as their likes and dislikes?
- Do I want to import subscribers into categories based on information I already have, such as which list they belonged to in my previous marketing automation platform or other information from my customer relationship management (CRM) database?
- Do I need to be able to move subscribers from one category to another, like skill level or lead type?
If you answered yes to any of these then we recommend you create a group!
If you need assistance with creating groups in MailChimp or managing your email marketing campaign, contact Informatics Inc. today.
