If you’re not doing it, you’ve certainly heard of it – segmenting your email list is based on things like when and where readers subscribed, products they’ve bought, geographical location and so forth. Should you be doing it? Absolutely! Segmenting your list is a great way to increase response rates and grow your profits.

It’s not just the segmenting you’ve got to think about, but also moving people from one list to another.

Example: Jane subscribes to get your free traffic report. A month later she buys your traffic product. But the week after that she also buys your video creation product, and the week after that she buys an affiliate product you recommended on product creation.

So what do you do – move her to a new list every time she buys? Keep her on more than one list? Get frustrated and decided to keep everyone on the same list?

List segmentation might seem complicated and messy, so let’s talk about why you would even bother with it in the first place. Then we’ll cover how to go about it, what you need to think about, and ways to make it pay off handsomely for you.

Why Segment Your List?

According to DMA, 77% of email marketing return on investment came from targeted, segmented campaigns. Segmented email campaigns produce, on average, 30% more opens and 50% more click-thru’s compared to untargeted email campaigns. That alone might convince you to start segmenting your lists.

Let’s say you have 1000 people on your list. 300 of those people purchased an exercise guide on using stretch bands. The other 700 didn’t buy the guide.

If you send an email to the 300 offering them a discount on the exercise stretch bands to go with the book they purchased, you’ll likely get a good response. And if you send an email to the 700 offering a discount on a package deal of the book and the bands, you’ll likely get a good response.

But if you sent an email to both lists with a more generic offer, your response rate would go down. You can see how segmenting your list can work to your advantage.

Here’s how you might think of list segmentation: Pulling out portions of your list who are the most likely to respond to certain offers, and then giving them those offers. For example, you might have a list of 10,000 people who are interested in online marketing. But certain people on that list are especially interested in video marketing, while others aren’t. Some are interested in email marketing, while others aren’t. And some are interested in affiliate marketing, while others aren’t.

If you can segment your list to send the right offers to the right people, your response will go through the roof.

“But can’t I just send all the offers to all my subscribers?”

You can, but it’s counter-productive for several reasons:

First, readers are less likely to open any of your emails if they aren’t tailored to their interests. If you’re sending every offer under the sun, they’re going to realize that most of your emails don’t contain anything relevant to them. They won’t open all of your emails just to find the few that do pertain to them.

Second, the math is terrible if you send everyone the same offer. Imagine you have subscribers with 5 different interests. You could send out 5 different emails on the same day, each tailored to their specific interest, and get sales on 5 different products. But if you sent out the same email to all of them, then 4 out of 5 will have no interest and won’t buy anything.

Third, if you don’t segment then you’ll inevitably send out offers to people who already purchased that product. And that’s bad.

Imagine you’re the list subscriber. You buy product X, and a few days later you get an email suggesting you go buy the product you just bought. Now you’re thinking this marketer is an idiot.

Or maybe after you buy the product, the price goes down. Now you’re steamed. You paid $99 last week, and now you get an email saying the product is on special for $79. Grrrrr.

Sure, you write and ask for a $20 refund and you probably get it. But what happens from here on out? You don’t buy anything because you figure a better offer will be coming next week.

One more scenario – you buy a product and forget about it. Then later you get an offer for that product, buy it and… Oops! You realize you’ve just been snookered into buying the same product twice. Sure, you get a refund on the second one, but how do you feel about the seller? Not too great.

The list of reasons to segment go on, but let’s talk about…

How to segment your lists

In a word – autoresponders. Your list management service (autoresponder) holds the keys to segmenting. You can create tags, so that when a subscriber takes a particular action, they get tagged. For example, when they buy product X, they are tagged so they no longer receive emails promoting product X.

You can create automations, so when someone buys product X, they get moved into the buyer’s sequence. This is yet another reason to list segment – you can send a series of emails to product buyers that makes sure they get the most out of that product, thereby reducing refunds.

You can create separate sequences for each product you promote, moving your readers from one sequence to the next based upon their actions and preferences. Plus you can create separate sequences based on preferences, what lead magnet they signed up to receive and so forth. With the technology available in services such as Aweber and Ontraport, you’re only limited by your imagination and the desires of your readers.

Get creative in segmenting

Sometimes you’ll need to get creative, such as offering a bonus package that they need to enter their email address to receive. This will give you a list of buyers to a particular affiliate product you’ve promoted.

Use opt-in forms that offer bonuses, freebies, guarantees, support and anything else you can think of to get readers and product buyers to subscribe to segmented lists.

Always be thinking – how can I segment my list so I get them the information and offers they want to receive?

What can you segment?

This is where it gets fun, challenging and even exciting.

There are so many ways to segment your lists, and there are no hard and fast rules on this. Really you need to decide what is best for you, your list and your niche.

Here’s some ways to segment your lists…

Purchaser or non-purchaser – have they made a purchase? How long ago? If it’s been a long time, you’ll want to give them a great offer to get them buying from you again. If they purchased recently, you might want to reward them somehow to keep them active.

How active – have they clicked a link in your emails in the past month? Generally you want to make more generous offers to the least active subscribers, to get them interacting and purchasing again.

Customer value – did they purchase a $10 product? $100 product? How much they’ve spent with you can determine what offers you send them. Be sure to speak to your best customers in a way that shows how important they are to you.

Geographical location – depending on your niche, this can be a terrific way to speak to people using their local lingo, customs and so forth to better relate to them and push more emotional buttons.

A good example would be sending out special emails to the U.S. for things like Thanksgiving and Fourth of July, or Boxing Day in the U.K or Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand.

Area of interest – even if you build your list with a somewhat generic lead magnet, you can still segment your list based on interests. You can do this by making an offer – free or paid – and then segmenting those who click the link.

For example, your lead magnet is online marketing (very generic) and then you make offers to your main list for a free video on traffic generation, a report on making money with blogging, and a paid offer for a product creation course. Now you’ve got 3 separate list segments that are niched down.

Content format – some prefer written content such as blog posts and pdf’s. Others prefer podcasts, or video, or webinars. If you know how certain segments of your list prefer to consume their content, you can tailor future offerings accordingly.

Stages in the Sales Cycle – giving new subscribers an introductory email series is a great idea. This introduces them to you and your business and gets them excited for more. Then you might even give them a choice of what they would like to receive next.

This barely scratches the surface of different ways to segment your lists, but you get the idea.

Segmenting tips, ideas and monetization…

Making the same offer to your entire list? Segment anyway. Let’s say you’re promoting a course on traffic generation strategies to your entire online marketing list, which is segmented into 3 parts as follows:

– People interested in video marketing
– People interested in blogging
– People interested in Amazon affiliate sites

Of course you could send out the same email to everyone, but why would you?

Instead, talk about using videos to generate traffic to your video list. For your blogging list, talk about driving more traffic to blogs. And for your Amazon affiliate list, talk about driving traffic to Amazon affiliate sites.

Remember to tailor the subject lines to each segmented niche as well. You might be shocked at the improvement in your open rates, clicks and sales.

Send new subscribers your old offers.

Let’s say you launched a new product 60 days ago. Everyone on your list at that time received several emails about the product. But now you have new subscribers on your list – what to do? Send an email (or 2) just to them, telling them about the product. The point is to tell new subscribers about offers, products and opportunities they haven’t seen yet.

Segment product buyers who didn’t purchase the upsell.

Make them another offer to buy the upsell they missed – perhaps with an additional discount or an added bonus.

Segment affiliate product buyers based on product creator.

If you sold a hundred copies of Joe Smith’s course to your list, those buyers might want to know about everything else Joe Smith puts out. And right there in the email, you can remind them that they bought Joe Smith’s course back in June.

You can also segment based on interest – that is, people who clicked the link in the email to check out Joe Smith’s course, but didn’t necessarily buy. Remind them of their interest in Joe’s products.

Segment based on clicks.

Readers click a link to check out a product – send them a follow up email reminding them of their interest and that the sale is ending.

Last of all, get creative.

What can you offer certain segments of your list that will have them shouting ‘YES!’ The more segmented you make your lists, the more specific and creative you can get with your offers.

Good luck and happy ‘segmented’ email marketing!

If you were a college student who never stopped attending school full time… how much would you earn. Likely nothing. You’re too busy learning to earn.

When does a college student start making money? When they leave school (graduating or not, doesn’t matter) and start working.

So why do we think our online marketing businesses are any different?

When you put education in front of ‘doing,’ you’re a perpetual wannabe marketer.

But when you put the doing first, you’re building a business.

It’s a simple mind-shift that can take you from broke to six figures.

I’m not saying you should stop learning – not at all…

What I am saying is you should devote your best hours to working on your business. And devote your ‘spare time’ to learning.

Of course, sometimes you’ll need a crash course in something. Like when you try to build your first squeeze page. This is when you go to Google or YouTube, find a video that walks you through what you need to know, and do it as you follow along with the video. Yes, you’re learning. But you’re doing it in context with working on your business.

Bottom Line: There is a point when you have to put all the courses and programs aside and get busy doing something. And while you’re actively engaged in that, don’t learn anything unless it directly relates to what you’re doing.

Think of doing as your full time activity, and learning as something you do during off hours. You’ll make a lot more money that way.

There are a lot of things in life and in your business that you can’t control.

You can’t control what other people do.

Or what they don’t do.

You can’t control what regulations come down the pike.

Or what happens to the economy.

Or who or what wins elections. (Brexit, the US presidential election, etc.)

So what can you do?

Focus on those things that you can control.

Fix the problems that you can fix.

And for everything else, stand back and be an observer.

As best you can, remove your emotional stake in those things you cannot control.

If you are able to take this liberating attitude, you’ll notice your anxiety reduces ten-fold.

You’ll be calmer, you’ll think more clearly and you’ll get more done.

And you’ll be happier.

One more thing – when you’re calmer, clear-headed and feeling positive, you’ll begin to see solutions to problems that previously seemed insurmountable.

And you’ll discover you can control more things in life than you thought you could.

Only then can you begin to truly make a difference in the world.

(So give them what they want)!!

Your readers probably enjoy hearing about your latest exploits and victories. They like to hear how you made $10K in a day, especially if you give them all the details so they can try and duplicate your success.

But do you know what they love hearing even more?

Your failures.

Your muck-ups…

The time you fell down the stairs stone cold sober while holding your best friend’s wedding cake.

The time you thought you were so smart, you had found a brand new way to sell widgets, and lost $1,200 in the process while gaining a closet full of maxi-widgets 2.0.

And the time you got conned, too, also makes for a great story.

So why do people love to hear about your failures?

Because they can relate. Because it shows you’re human. Because it’s just plain fun to know they’re not the only ones who sometimes screw things up.

We all know the guy who brags non-stop about how everything he touches turns to gold. In fact there’s a word for him – BORING.

Then there’s the bloke next store who has some success, but enjoys a few failures, too. Now THAT’S the guy we want to hang out with.

That’s the guy we can relate to.

And guess what? That’s also the guy we’ll listen to and buy products from…

So go ahead and regale your readers with tales of your failures. They’ll love you for it, and in the end, so will your bottom line.

There is a young lady in the Internet marketing niche who has 3 separate IM type blogs. And without revealing too much (we don’t want to create direct competition for her) here are the methods she’s tried and the ones that worked in monetizing those three blogs…

To begin with, she tried AdSense. But that only made a few bucks and she quickly abandoned it. Then she tried renting out banners, but since her 3 blogs combined receive about 10,000 visitors a month, she didn’t get a lot of interest.

She does put up ClickBank ads, and those bring in about $1,000 a month from all 3 blogs combined. Not bad, but obviously not that great, either. Especially when you consider that she posts 6 days a week on each blog.

Next she decided to devote one blog post out of 6 to promoting an affiliate product. This wasn’t an easy decision for her, because she was afraid her readers would be alienated and they would stop visiting her blog.

But on the contrary, her promotional blog posts were well received and they’re making her money. In fact, it doubled her income and then some.

So now she was making over $2,000 a month on her three blogs but she felt she could do better. So what she did next was a little unorthodox.

She had a pop-up to get people to subscribe to her mailing list, which she decided to rent out. That’s right – she’s renting out her pop-up. She devoted the top right sidebar and the bottom of each page to capturing email addresses for herself.

Then she made a page showing her traffic stats, her own conversions on her own pop-ups, some demographic info and so forth. She was really selling her pop-ups on each of her three blogs.

And it worked. She rents them by the month, taking the code the customer gives her and pasting it into the pop-up. The customer has to be offering something for free, and of course it needs to fit her niche.

Believe it or not, between the three pop-ups on the 3 sites, she’s earning close to $2,000 a month just doing this.

Combining that income with the income from her ads and her promotional blog posts, and she’s earning about $4,000 a month from her blogs. Of course, this doesn’t include income from her own list which she is building.

So the question is, why was it so much easier to sell the pop-ups than it was banner ads? Maybe because it’s something different. Or perhaps because people want to build lists, and see this as the way to go.

Now you might be wondering if she isn’t shooting herself in the foot and losing out on long term income by building her own list faster using her own pop-ups.

It’s hard to say. But one thing for sure is that $2,000 a month from the pop-ups is coming in like clockwork, and all it takes is collecting the money and pasting in the code once a month. Really, you can’t beat that.

I hope this gets you thinking about new possibilities for your own website(s)!…

You drive by a restaurant and it doesn’t look like it’s been painted in a decade. The flowerbeds are full of weeds, the sign is dirty, the parking lot is full of trash… do you stop in and have lunch? Probably not, but why not?

What does outside paint, weeds and trash in the parking lot have to do with what kind of meal you’re going to be served? Frankly, none. It could be that the world’s greatest cook is inside, waiting to make you the meal of a lifetime.

But you’ll never know because you didn’t patronize the place.

What’s this got to do with your business?

Everything.

I see folks working for months to get their products just right. And then they only spend one afternoon writing the sales letter or making the sales video.

They think if they get the product perfect, it won’t matter if their sales letter looks like it was written by a third grader. But it does matter, because if no one buys, no one will ever know what a great product you have.

This might blow a few minds and cause some controversy, but… when it comes to online sales, your sales copy, graphics and sales funnel are all more important than your product.

No, I’m not saying it isn’t important to have a great product that delivers tremendous value.

But I am saying if you don’t spend just as much time on the funnel that takes people from strangers to buyers, you won’t succeed, no matter how terrific your product might be.

You get the point.

Now to suggest something even more radical – write your sales copy first.

Then create the product.

This isn’t a new idea, yet to this day it’s seldom used.

Look, it’s a lot easier to write great copy when there are no limitations to what can be in the product, and then fit the product to the sales copy.

If it turns out any of the claims in the sales letter went too far, you can always pull them out. But you will still increase your odds of creating a hot selling product when you use this method.

Remember – spend as much time building your sales funnel as you do creating your product. This will get the people in the parking lot, through the door and sitting at your table, ready to enjoy the fantastic product you’re about to serve them.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a Zambian chimpanzee named Julie stuck a piece of grass in her ear and left it there. And she did this over and over again. Why? Scientists say the “grass in the ear behavior appears to serve no discernible function.”

While chimpanzees have “culture” and traditions, including unique behaviors and tools, these things usually have a concrete function. The grass in the ear doesn’t. Best guess by scientists – it’s some kind of a fashion statement.

But here’s where it gets interesting…

After Julie began placing a piece of grass in her ear, her fellow chimpanzees copied her. Mind you, no other chimp group did this – only Julie and her followers.

So what’s this got to do with online marketing?

Everything.

You can tell your readers to buy a product. You can tell them it’s the greatest product ever. You can tell them it will rock their world and change their life.

And some will buy.

But if you purchase the product yourself – if you USE the product yourself – and if you tell your readers about your experience – you will be far more likely to make sales.

Imagine if Julie had tried to force grass into her fellow chimps’ ears. Do you think they would have bought the concept? Not likely.

Obviously your readers and customers aren’t chimps. Humans are better for marketing purposes than chimps because humans are even MORE likely to copy what you do.

If your readers like you, trust you and even suspect you know what you’re doing, they’re going to want to be like you.

And if that means buying and using certain products, they’ll do it. Just be a leader and respect your readers enough to make their own decisions, and many of them will be glad to do what you do. Plus it gives you a ton more credibility. After all, you’re telling them about the products and services you use, not trying to force products down their throat…

Of course this is just my opinion, but I think you’ll see the logic… As online marketers, if we build our business correctly then we can create money whenever we decide to do so.

For one marketer, it might be sending out a terrific offer to her list and getting orders back within hours.

For someone with a highly popular site, it might be putting an unbeatable offer on their site and collecting the cash.

For a membership site or software as a service site, it might mean offering a year’s membership for a low price.

For someone offering services, it might be offering a special deal to clients for the next 7 days.

You’ll notice that all of these boil down to one thing – keeping a list of customers, members or leads, and having permission to contact them at will.

There it is again… you need a list.

Because a list is and likely always will be the online ticket to cash on demand.

They say you have to walk before you run… and you have to finish 9th grade before you can start 10th grade… and you have to start at the bottom and work your way up… and all that stuff. Quite true, isn’t it?

Is it?

Really??

When you hear something enough times, you think it’s true.

“Of course it’s true, EVERYONE KNOWS it’s true.”

Yeah.

Right.

Do you really need to know all the basics of how to market online before you can start making money?

OR…

Can you find a desire in the market, create a product and get it online within a week, knowing almost nothing about what you’re doing?

I’ll give you an example:

Let’s say you’ve heard about “Internet Marketing,” but you really haven’t paid any attention to it.

You don’t know how to set up a WordPress site, build a list, create a product or any of that stuff.

But last week you got laid off from your job!

Unemployment compensation will barely cover the mortgage. Food? Utilities? Insurance? Car payment? You need money, and you need it FAST.

So you don’t pay attention to all those people who say you have to ‘pay your dues,’ ‘learn the basics first’ and all those other ancient clichés.

Instead, you hit a forum, or Amazon, or the Dummies guides.

You find a desire that people have.

You devise a plan to make a product that fulfills that desire.

You decide to get it on the market in 7 days.

Website building? Sales letters? Turning a word doc into a PDF? And a hundred other little things?

You’ve got help for that – Google.

Every time you need to know something, you Google it…

Yeah, I know – it’s too easy, right?

Where’s the suffering? The pain? When do the dues get paid?

Getting a product online within a week (or even a month) of first beginning in Internet marketing is like skipping your first 3 and a half years of college and graduating in no time.

Come to think of it… what’s wrong with that?

Some of the richest people in the world didn’t graduate college.

They were too busy DOING.

So yes, I do believe a person can run before they walk in Internet marketing. I’ve seen it done too many times to not believe it.

What are you waiting for? A written invitation? 😉

Rule number one of getting your emails opened is be the person your list knows, likes and trusts. When you’ve accomplished that, you won’t need to put as much energy into your subject lines and ‘from’ fields. But until then, try these hacks to improve your open rates and get your emails read…

1. Catch the eye with the ‘from’ field.

If you go to your own email program and scan the emails, which ‘from’ fields stand out? And why?

Udemy (4) – Looking at my own inbox, the first eye catcher I see is from Udemy, the (4) indicating they sent the same email 4 times. Perhaps not the best idea, but it definitely pulls the eye in. You can duplicate this by using a number in your ‘from’ field.

Actual Email Addresses – The next eye catcher in the ‘from’ field is from Amazon because they used their actual email address with the @ sign in the middle of it. So few people use their email addresses in the ‘from’ field anymore, that if you choose to do this you will stand out.

The downside – it can look a little amateurish. Then again, if Amazon is doing it…

Academy Sports + Outdoors – Of course, it’s the ‘+’ that draws the eye.

~ PayPerClickSearchMarke – notice the symbol (do you see a trend here?)

Fab – crazy short, thus eye catching

The Email Fairy (via Tel. – This is from Tellman Knudson, who employs the unique strategy of using all sorts of different names in his from field. Still, it’s the ‘(via Tel.’ that catches my eye.

chintimini – one word, no capitals. Everyone else uses capital letters which makes this stand out.

Don @ EnginesPlus – This is a good one because it has the person’s name, their business and the ‘@’ sign.

2. Catch the eye with your subject line. Not with the actual words – we’ll cover that in a moment – But with symbols, capitalization and so forth.

Check your inbox and you will likely notice a few fancy symbols and emoji. These might be check-marks, snowflakes, hearts, faces, etc. These are actually Unicode symbols, and they’re easier to install into your subject lines than you may think. Here’s a brief tutorial on how to do it… Just Google it.

One note: Don’t go symbol crazy. Generally one per subject line is plenty, 2 is questionable and with 3 or more and you just look like spam.

About using capitals – If you use all-caps, you will stand out. But use this tactic sparingly since it’s tantamount to shouting. Best bet – use all-caps on your keyword only.

3. Use specifics.

First, you need to be absolutely clear on what your goal is. Are you promoting something? Are you giving helpful information? Do you have a story to share?

Let your customers know what they’re about to read. Being honest and upfront will get you opens. “Coupon Inside, today only” “Free Report: New Killer Traffic Source” “Twitter’s Dark Secret: The Real Story”

4. Ask a question in the subject line.

This is a great way to raise curiosity and get the customer involved with your topic before they even open the email.

For example, for a Christmas email involving Santa Claus, you might ask, “John, have you been good enough?”

Or if you’re promoting a book on persuasion, you might ask, “Who will you persuade with your new powers?”

5. Whenever possible, personalize the subject line.

Not just with names, but with other pertinent information as well.

For example…

“John, getting the most out of your new XJ524 Printer”
“Day 1 of your Jump Purple Hoops program, here’s what to do first”
“Sshhh… Special one day offer for our UK friends only”

6. Mail a series and let them know which day they’re on.

For example, maybe they joined your list to get a series on building more traffic. You could title each email with, “[Day 1] – Traffic Builders Course” This also makes it easy for them to go back and find the emails they missed.

7. Optimize the preview text as well.

Remember that the first line of text shows up in most desktop email clients. This means the recipient sees not only the ‘from’ field and the subject line – they also see the first sentence.

The last thing you want is to have it say, “To unsubscribe from our list” or any other housekeeping type of content.

Instead, think of your first line as an extension of your subject line and keep it interesting, intriguing and highly relevant.

One last thing: Become a fanatic about testing. You hear it time and again; test, test, test. But are you doing it? If you’re really serious about improving your open rates, testing is definitely the way to go.