Are you sending the same email to your entire subscriber list?

If so, you’re probably sending out emails that don’t resonate with a large portion of your audience. As a result, you begin to lose the interest of subscribers who find your content irrelevant.

“A friend to all is a friend to none.”

When you try to make email content for everyone, you end up connecting with no one. Imagine you begin sending out emails with general information for a wide audience. You might see an uptick in traffic but the engagement begins to drop. 

Why? Your more advanced users found the content too basic and started to lose interest while the beginners feel overwhelmed by the general advice lacking specific, actionable steps.

As a result, you begin to lose credibility with both groups as they seek someone who can satisfy their specific needs. 

This might sound scary but there’s a simple solution.
Instead of sending broad emails to everyone, try segmenting your audience into groups. 

Start by understanding their wants and needs and begin tailoring the content accordingly. This way you can communicate with subscribers and prospective customers at the level that they are currently at in their journey. 

• Beginners go from being overwhelmed to finding the guidance they need.

• Intermediates go from skipping your emails to opening and engaging.

• Advanced users finally get the in-depth deep dives they were hunting after.

Now instead of associating your brand with a vanilla one-size-fits-all all content style, your subscribers will see you as exactly what they need in their life. They will open more emails, click on more links, drive more website traffic, and even suggest you to their networks. 

So now that you know this is a possibility, let’s get into how you can make it happen. 

What are Account Engagement Segmentation Lists?

Account Engagement Segmentation lists are groups of subscribers that are used to identify persona types, skill levels, interest areas, and more specific traits of your audience. Each audience member is unique, some are advanced, some are intermediate, and some are just getting started. 

You should also segment subscribers by their stage in the sales funnel. 

A prospect who spent the last month considering your offer should not be getting the same emails as your new subscriber who just found out about your business. 

Account Engagement Segmentation Lists: 

There are a few different Account Engagement Segmentation list types, each functions differently and serves a different purpose. 

Types of lists:

1. Static list
2. Dynamic list
3. Test list
4. Suppression list
5. Crm visible list

Static List:

Static lists are the most basic list type. These lists contain a fixed grouping of prospects and require you to manually add or remove prospects to effect changes. Static lists are good for record-keeping. For example, you might want to keep a static list of all prospects that attended your last webinar. Prospects can be added to static lists in any of the following ways: 

1. Added Manually
2. Added via import
3. Added via Automation Rules
4. Added by a Segmentation Rules
5. Through prospect table actions

Dynamic List:

A dynamic list is a criteria-based segmentation list determined by rules. Dynamic lists are the most versatile lists because you can use them to scrap your whole database and pull together all contacts matching a specific set of criteria. Dynamic lists are continuously running, meaning that if you create a list today for all prospects who have a score of 90-100, and tomorrow a new prospect reaches a score of 90, that prospect will automatically be added to your dynamic list. Dynamic lists are a great way to organize prospects based on their current position in the customer journey and will help you automate the marketing process. 

Test List:

A test list allows you to send emails to a certain group for internal testing. These are helpful for content review and approval.

Suppression List:

A suppression list allows you to exclude certain prospects from receiving emails or being included in certain campaigns. These lists are essential for managing who should not receive particular communications. This can be helpful if you have two campaigns running at the same time and you are concerned a prospect might be on both mailing lists, you can use a suppression list to make sure you’re not over-communicating with your customers. 

Public List:

Public lists are list viewable to prospects through the email preference center. Public List allows your prospects to add or remove themselves from a list.

CRM Visabe List:

A CRM visible list allows marketing users to add to or remove prospects from your CRM. This option is only available if you have connected campaigns enabled, between Account Engagement and Salesforce.

How to build a segmentation list in Account Engagement:

Building segmentation lists all start with the same process but will differ in the way that you will bring prospects into the list. 

How to build a static list:

How to build a dynamic list

1. Navigate to segmentation lists: Prospects Tab > Segmentation > Segmentation lists
2. Click “Add List”
3. Name the list, select a folder, and add any needed tags
   
   
   
   
4. Click Set Rules
5. First, decide on your rule match type. Match All of Match Any.
6. Select a prospect field to base your rule on.
7. Select your conditional statement.
8. Select your criteria. 
9. You can continue with as many rules as you would like.
10. You can also create a new rule group which will allow you to create a grouping of criteria that can follow a different match type than the main list of rules.
11. To save the list click Run Rules.
    
    
    

How to make a test list

1. First, create the list via the steps above.
2. Next in the edit tab simply click the email test list checkbox.
3. The email test list will now be visible from the testing window on the email content page layout. 

How to make a public list

1. First, create the list via the steps above.
2. Next in the edit tab simply click the public list checkbox. 
3. Next name the list, this is the name that will show up in the email preference center. 
4. Add a description.
5. Click Update List

How to make a CRM visible list

1. First, create the list via the steps above.
2. Next in the edit tab simply click the CRM viable check box
3. Click update list.
   

How to make a suppression list

Suppression lists are slightly different in the way that you need to send an email to then be able to select a list to be used as a suppression list. 

1. First, create the list via the steps above.
2. Next, you will need to create an Email content
3. Click send on the email content
4. Now in the sending window view, search for your list in the suppression list box. 
5. Select your list.
6. Now you will be suppressing the email form going to any of the prospects on that list. 

Segmentation lists best practices 

When developing a segmentation strategy start by defining clear objectives for each list, understanding the specific goals, and identifying the target audience or business use case.

You can leverage dynamic lists for segments that need automatic updates based on activity or data changes as they move through the marketing funnel. You’ll want to get specific with the criteria to ensure you’re only capturing the right prospects. 

Static lists are great for fixed groups, record keeping, and one-time campaigns, allowing for manual adjustments. As I mentioned before, suppression lists help you exclude certain prospects from specific campaigns and communications. 

Consider segmenting by behavioral and demographic data, such as email interactions, job titles, and locations. These lists can be used as diagnostic lists for reporting or specific campaigns. You’ll want to regularly clean and update your lists to maintain good data hygiene as well as adjust dynamic segmentation criteria as needed. 

Looking to segment by engagement levels? Leverage engagement data through scoring and grading and create re-engagement campaigns for inactive and start prospects. Finally, make sure to maintain clear naming conventions and organize lists in folders for easy management within your team.

To sum things up…

Sending the same email to all subscribers is a mistake.

– Broad topics = alienates advanced members
– Going niche = too specific for most

Segment your audience to speak their language.
Higher engagement, better results.

Tailor your message.
Deliver value.

I’ll see you next Tuesday where we’ll talk about importing prospects and adding them to your segmentation list. 
– Vincent