INTRODUCTION
Email marketing is an effective way to reach potential or existing customers for both B2B and B2C businesses, particularly when campaigns are tailored to the recipient.
In fact, marketers who segment their contact list to personalize content see as much as a 760 percent increase in revenue compared to one-size-fits-all campaigns.
Following are some advanced MailChimp email list management tips your business can use to optimize your email marketing efforts.
USE SEGMENTS, GROUPS AND TAGS WITHIN MAILCHIMP
Segments, groups and tags are the primary audience management tools in MailChimp. Use them to categorize your contacts into smaller sections. This allows you to tailor your messaging to specific audiences.
Segments
Use subscriber information to target and filter contacts into segments based on their characteristics. For instance, you can create segments for the type of product or service they purchased, the date they signed up, where they signed up or which campaigns/automations they’ve clicked on in the past, to name a few.
To create a segment, go to Audience > Manage Audience > Manage Contacts > Segments. From here you can select the characteristics you want to segment. If you’d like to include multiple parameters, choose “all” if you want the audience to fit all the requirements or “any” if they need to match at least one.
Once the segment is set up, you will be able to save it and select it in the future. For instance, you could use a “date added” segment to send out an anniversary message or promotion each year. You also can clean your list by removing subscribers who have been inactive for an extended period of time.
Groups
While segments help filter contacts by actions or characteristics, MailChimp groups are a way to categorize them based on interests or preferences. They are intended to be contact-facing. This means you can collect the information based on what your contacts tell you about themselves or their preferences.
To create a group, go to Audience > Manage Audience > Manage Contacts > Groups. Click “Create Groups” to make a new group category and group names (e.g. subcategories).
For example, if your business sends out various types of content, “Content preference” would be the group category. Meanwhile, the type of content (e.g. news/updates, product deals, etc.) would be the group names. You can choose to have these names appear on your signup forms, as well as in your subscribers’ personal profiles and unsubscribe preferences.
You also are able to add contacts to groups on your own. For instance, you can assign specific groups when you manually add a contact or import a contact list. In addition, you can assign a group when you are updating information for a specific contact.
Tags
Formally known as static segments, tags are essentially labels you can use to help organize your contacts internally. They are customizable and your subscribers will never know how they’re tagged.
For instance, you might use tags to identify contacts you met at a specific event or conference (e.g. Name of Conference 2019) or those who you identify as influencers in your industry.
To create a new tag, go to Audience > Manage Audience > Manage Contacts > Tags > Create Tag and name your label. You may use up to 100 characters.
Build a Segmented Audience
Once you set up your segments, groups and tags, you can use them to create the ideal audience for your message. You either can select an individual segment or tag, or you can choose “Group or new segment” from the drop-down menu to combine multiple groups, tags and other parameters.
Remember, “all” means a subscriber has to fit all targeting parameters, while “any” means they have to match at least one.
CREATE SIGN-UP FORMS TO MANAGE MAILCHIMP CONTACTS
Signup forms are an easy, yet powerful way to enhance your long-term audience growth and to help manage your contacts from the start. You can use a variety of them, including embedded and pop-up forms for your website, a Facebook form and shareable landing page forms.
To build a form, go to Audience > Manage Audience > Signup forms and select from the options provided. You may then add the fields you’d like subscribers to fill out (e.g. first/last name, email address). Once they submit the form, all their information will be added to your email marketing list.
In addition, you can include the groups you created so people can select the topics they are most interested in right away. This will help you deliver relevant content to new subscribers from the beginning.