This article tells you the basic ways to test your list segment and to help you find the best list segment for your email campaign.

1. List Segment Test
Effective email marketing typically means segmenting your list, but how can you do this effectively to
test the best way to do it? While we've given you tips throughout this ebook on proper list
segmentation, in this section we'll discuss some basic ways to test list segments.
Why Test List Segment?
Not every piece of clothing fits every size. Not every meal is appealing to every kind of diet. In general, in
life, one size does not fit all. That's as true for consumer goods as it is for marketing techniques. You
wouldn't have an in-person salesman show a man's hat to a fashion-conscious female shopping for
shoes, would you? The same is true in email. In fact, the need to personalize and display the best offer
to the best customer is even more important in email marketing because you don't have the advantage
of a compelling salesperson and his or her personality. Therefore, finding and identifying your
specific list segment that will respond to various offers most effectively becomes the best way to turn a
"one-size" generic email into a precisely targeted email.
Types of List Segment Tests
Some common ways to test your list segments for targeted sends include:
User State: As we discussed in great detail before, user state is a common way to segment your
list. The longer a user has been lapsed or the time since they've abandoned the site, the more
likely it is that they'll need a big or significant offer in order to re-engage with you. It's certainly
worth it to test sending a more compelling offer to lost customers rather than continue to send
the same maintenance offers to all users.
Gender: Not only do men and women often have different product or content interest, but it's
also true that sometimes different marketing techniques or graphics and images will appeal
differently to different genders. Depending on the scope of your product or service line,
separating your database by men and women and presenting different displays and messages to
them may result in higher conversions or sales.
Age: Again, product and service interests may be different depending on a user's age. However,
even more importantly, an older demographic may want more information about privacy and
instructions. A younger demographic may respond more to catchy copy and pop culture
references. Breaking database out by age to test if different approaches will work to different list
segments is a great idea of your website or business appeals to users of all ages. Just because you
appeal to all ages, it doesn't mean that a single email campaign can effectively speak to all ages.
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2. Geographic Region: There are so many reasons to segment your list by geographic region.
Colloquial speak, reference to landmarks and local events, use of local colors, and even the ability
to reference the weather are just a few. However, it's also possible that your products or services
are so generic that a geographic split won't do you much good. You'll never know until you test
breaking out your most major markets from your database and trying a separate send to them.
Purchasing History: More often than not, the most effective way to split or segment your
database will be by common purchasing histories. If you have a critical mass of people who have
previously purchased mixing bowls, then those people are ideal to send an email to about baked
goods. There are many similar purchasing trends to explore. In most cases, though segmenting by
purchasing history may take the most work, it will also yield the greatest results.
Best Practices for List Segment Tests
Segmenting your list may be tricky, and you want to be sure not to over-email people. Take the time to
run an extra manual check to ensure that you haven't inadvertently included the same people on
multiple email lists that are being sent at the same time. Few things will get you marked as spam by a
user faster than delivering multiple emails to their inbox on a given day.
Don't have too small list segments! You still need a critical mass of users in order to make the time and
effort of sending a unique email worth your time. You'll need to determine "how small is too small" for a
list based on your own business needs, but don't fall so in love with segmentation that you create email
lists that don't really have any value.
Take the time to think through your business needs and the best way to segment a list for you. You may
have a list segmentation that is entirely different from the ones that we've suggested above.
No matter what email marketing strategy you are taking, the first step to ensure a successful email
campaign is to choose a reliable email sending partner. Comm100, who provides this comprehensive
email marketing ebook, offers you powerful Email Marketing Software, which is both a great long-term
and short-term solution to improving your email marketing program to a new level. For more
information please visit : http://emailmarketing.comm100.com/
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