The phrase “one size fits all” doesn’t sit well with me.

I’m reminded of that time I fell for a cheesy late night advert selling a ‘one size fits all’ sundress with a guaranteed promise to fit every woman no matter what her shape or size.

It just looked so good.

The trouble is, It always looks great on the model so you order it, But when it arrives, you try it on and look in the mirror, and…well…

Oh dear.

Whether an apple, pear, spoon or whatever else, women’s body shapes vary so much that the idea we can all squeeze into the same sexy, strappy sundress and still look good — seems… laughable?

(gents, I’m sure you’ve never fallen for the same in shorts have you?)

No, it is laughable (my reflection in the mirror that day certainly agreed), not to mention unrealistic.

I only wish I realised this sooner before foolishly parting with my hard earned cash.

Because one size doesn’t fit all and it never should. —

Yet when it comes to Mailchimp, we still see users writing emails for a specific type of person and sending it to everyone, whether they fit that type or not.

The old adage, “ one size does not fit all “ has never been truer.

If you want to be successful in your email marketing campaigns, a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t going to cut it.

You need to throw out that one size fits all idea and focus on segmentation and personalisation.

Segmentation is the process of dividing your audience into different groups, based on demographics, activity, or any other metric you’d like to use. With Mailchimp, It’s segmentation tools provide you with the ability to create lists based on an almost unlimited set of criteria.

Segments are used to create target audiences based on shared data. When you create a segment, you’ll set conditions to filter contacts based on the information that’s available in your list.. Mailchimp

Think about your customers. They each have unique needs, traits, pain points, and expectations for your business. Therefore, the most effective way to communicate with your target customer is by making them part of a group or list.

Benefits of segmentation

 Email segmentation can drastically improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

MailChimp reports that email opens and unique opens of segmented campaigns were 14.31% higher than non-segmented campaigns. Clicks from segmented campaigns were also more than 100% higher compared to non-segmented campaigns. Finally, when emails are segmented, there are 9.37% fewer un-subscribers.
Using segmentation can help you understand your customers better and meet their unique needs.

Segmentation allows you to:

• Define your target audience in more practical ways
• Create marketing content that’s more relevant to your audience
• Build stronger relationships with your customers
• Discover new leads to increase your sales

You need to be relevant

Customers don’t want to be seen as nameless faces in a sea of people; they want to be treated as individuals. The more relevant your email communication is, the more likely your audience will continue to engage with it.

List segmentation allows you to send more relevant content.

Before you can create effective email segments you must know who your audience is and who your customers are.

You should be storing information that allows you to send the right information to different groups of people.

Find out more in our blog outlining the segmentation rules of Mailchimp and Email marketing. 

Segmentation vs Personalisation: what’s the difference?

Segmentation is all about groups and breaking down your target audience into smaller clusters of people. These groups or segments are made up of people who share similar characteristics.

Personalisation is about the individual. It doesn’t matter what segment they belong to because you’re tailoring the message just to them.

Segmentation: How to get started

The key here is to identify the different types of customers on your subscriber list, figure out what each customer truly needs, and then deliver value to them.

Follow these steps to segment your audience.

Step 1 – Capture the information you need

You should be capturing the information you need to create segments. Capturing information about your subscribers on your sign up form is a great place to start or create a landing page.

Asking questions in a welcome series lets you collect information you need without asking for too much up in a sign up form. Include some questions with multiple choice answers that readers can easily click then Tag subscribers based on their answers.

Always look out for opportunities to get to know a little more about your audience.
You can use surveys, focus groups, polls, and interviews to learn more about your customers.

The more data you’re able to collect, the better you can target.

Even if you’re not asking subscribers to provide information about themselves up front, you can tell a lot about their interests based on what they signed up for.

Step 2 – Identify your segments

The data you’ve collected will allow you to identify segments that have needs you aren’t currently addressing with your product or service.

Step 3- Understand your audience

Who is your audience? Identify any patterns you’ve noticed, understand what kind of problems these groups will be facing and how best you can resolve them by Identifying their primary need for your product or service.

You can gain an understanding of your audience’s needs by determining characteristics like:

Demographics – Age, gender, education, nationality
Geographics – Country, region and city
Psychographics– Values, personality traits, interests, attitudes
Behaviours– Habits, hobbies, and media consumption.

This will help you figure out your segments, whether your segments are useful for your marketing strategy and discover who would benefit from your efforts.

Step 4 – Create your customer personas

Create a persona or customer avatar that builds on your identified segments.
Buyer personas are fictional individuals that you can create to help you visualise your ideal customers better.

Your ‘Customer Avatar’ is a specific representation of a group of individuals within a target market – it’s you looking at your target market and identifying a specific person in there who’s representative of others.

Clear identities can help create a solid representation of your segment groups,
The purpose of the Customer Avatar is that by being specific you can craft a compelling message and know where to put it.

Take a look at our blog on building a Customer Avatar to find out more

Create segments for each of your customer profiles and don’t forget to assign relevant names to each persona to help you locate segments.

Step 5- Develop your marketing strategy.

Think of effective ways you can target your customers. Define what you can do to make their lives easier with your product or service and the best way to communicate this message most effectively.

Create a strategy that authentically engages each segment.

For every segment you create, you should be creating a version of an email for them – so if you’ve got 5 segments you’re targeting, you’ll be creating 5 versions of your email.

Set up a schedule for your email segmentation strategy and don’t forget to continue collecting research and experimenting with segments.

You should revisit your strategy often to ensure that it is still relevant and accurate.

 You can read part 2 of our segmentation guide here where we break down the different ways to segment, how to segment and segmentation best practices.