Segment Customers to Build Loyalty
By Rebecca Swayze February 4, 2010
It’s easy to focus on attracting new business by using your email marketing campaign to promote your products primarily to new subscribers and prospects.
While email is the perfect venue for showcasing products and captivating potential customers, it is also equally important to focus on your subscribers that have already spent money with you.
Your buyers had a positive experience in the past, right? Capitalize on that and turn them into lifelong customers.
Here’s how to retain the customers that you already have.
Reel Customers In Without Selling to Them
Your existing customer base is different from your potential buyers. They already made the choice to trust your company with their money once, so take the time to build on your relationship after the sale.
Customers are more willing to shop with you again when they realize you don’t treat them like a number.
Segment your list and use these tips to connect with customers without constantly pushing new items on them.
Ask for Feedback
Ask for feedback about recent purchases, and remind customers that good customer service doesn’t end when they make a purchase from you. Assure them that if there are ever any questions or problems, you will stand behind your product.
Suggest Additional Items
Suggest complimentary items that will enhance their experience with the product they already bought.
Add Inherent Value
Discuss different ways that customers can use the product that they purchased. Show them that there’s additional value in what they invested in.
How to See Who Purchased From You
This is where email analytics data comes in handy.
By adding a snippet of javascript to your website, you can track sales to your subscribers.
You can then see which people are buying and how much each purchase amounts to – and segment your list to target your customers.
How to Segment Your List and Send to Existing Customers
Once the javascript is on your site and sales begin to add up, you can separate the buyers from the browsers on your list based on purchase history.
On the Search Subscribers page, use the drop down menus to search your list for customers like so:
Then save the search directly above the results…
And send your specialized email only to that segment when saving your message.
What if You Sell Multiple Products?
Sending messages to subscribers who meet a specific sale amount is helpful if you are only selling one product.
If you have more than one item for sale, you can also search for subscribers based on total order value.
With a segment made up of customers with a history of large purchases, you can:
- Suggest high ticket items
- Offer incentives geared only towards the big spenders
How Do You Segment Your Customers?
Do you find that segmenting customers from subscribers leads to repeat sales? We would love to hear how email segmentation helps your business!
Michael Mindes
2/5/2010 12:25 amI will likely be exporting my list from AWeber for the purpose of adding it a customized database that I will use to grab other data through various APIs based on email address.
I will also integrate information about purchase history from customers into the database.
This database will be a great tool for segmenting my list. I am curious how to and when I will be able to import information for segmentation of my list.
alice coper
2/5/2010 3:39 amGreat article, thanks enjoyed the read.
Corey Lewis
2/8/2010 4:45 pmsegmenting your customers from your regular subscribers is one of those “must do” kinda things.
i made a quick video about how i segment my customers from my subscribers:
http://screencast.com/t/N2Q4NDcyY
enjoy!
Jorge Diaz
2/8/2010 6:42 pmI am actually thinking about upgrading to the analytics package for the send window function, but i still on the fence…
Segmentation is the key if you have a big list and want to get more money in the long run.
Ismail Kimyacioglu
2/9/2010 10:39 amHi,
We do sell our products from our website but not online. So is there a way to make a new list and export our recent customers to that list ?
Market Like a Mind Reader
7/22/2010 8:39 am[…] You can create these segments in AWeber by applying sales tracking and searching for any subscribers whose sale amount is greater than $0. And when you’re ready to email your customer segment, check out these content ideas. […]
Max
7/25/2010 7:43 pmHi Guys,
Does Aweber have any integration with magento – we run magento on http://flowerbunch.com.au selling flowers and gifts and are looking for a better segmented and managed email solution that can segment based on products viewed, purchased, etc. Is this something we can do with your solution? or perhaps another cart?
art
9/17/2010 3:59 pmHey Max,
We use magento on http://www.themmazone.net/ . Did you ever find anything on a magento + aweber extension? How did you solve the integration problem? I am up against the same thing.
Max
9/22/2010 6:40 pmHi art – no unfortunately, nothing for aweber.
Still trying to find something that suits our needs – mailchimp is an option, but would be happy with an Interspire integration with magento.
have used the aheadworks extensions, however missing lots of basic things like newsletter signup as an event, can’t set campaign start date, etc – however it does allow segmentation – but from there is a problem.
Sterling
10/4/2010 11:18 pmToo bad nothing out there for Magento integration. It’s probably the fastest growing cart software out there.
andrew
4/14/2011 7:40 pmthis is not really segmenting your customers from subscribers. This only segments people who become a customer from a broadcast, what about the other customers who came from other sources who are subscribers?
I want to be able to import a list of customers and so they can be removed from the broadcast list or only send to the list of customers, I don’t see anyway aweber can do this?
Amanda Gagnon
4/15/2011 8:11 amAndrew ~ You could import those customers into a separate list, then either send that list it’s own broadcast or opt to include it when you send to another list.
Amanda Gagnon
4/15/2011 8:17 amIsmail ~ If you’re only switching over a few subscribers at a time, the easiest solution is to set up a custom field for “customer,” then update that field for each subscriber when they buy.
If there are too many customers to handle individually, you could always have a developer build an app (through our API) that would automatically switch them to a new list.
tom
6/16/2011 1:24 pmWe also use Magento on http://livesuperfoods.com If a module is released for Magento, I’d love to be contacted about it.
John
8/2/2011 11:28 pmWe like being notified when we have a new subscriber. However, we are expanding into new cities and don’t want to spam our workers in New York with email about new subscribers in California. Is there a way to have notifications go to different email addresses depending on which location they select on our form? Thanks.
M
9/9/2011 10:26 ami’m with other people on this – let me know when something supporting Magento is done…It’s a pretty popular CMS/Ecommerce package and I’m really surprised this hasn’t been done yet…
Rebekah Henson
9/9/2011 1:10 pmM – Thanks for your comment. Make sure you subscribe to the blog for announcements if we do eventually integrate with Magento. That’s the best way to stay informed about new features. There’s a sign up form on the top right side of this page.
Email Marketing
9/14/2011 9:39 am[…] your emails relevant to your subscribers
Justin
2/26/2012 9:24 pmI am after magento integration for 4 different sites.
Is this in the pipeline yet?
fulvio
7/24/2012 11:26 amSound strange that the you don’t have a bridge to import field from magento the most important and famouse cart.
The same fir zendesk the most important support system.
Mailchimp did it, for magento and for zendesk, why?
You are tell me that I have to bring mailchimp for my magento shop? And my support made whit zendesck?
Crazy
John
7/31/2012 12:57 amI contacted Aweber support about a Magento parser and I received a response that it ‘maybe’ available in the future. Its a shame becasue Im sure many existing Aweber customers are unable to plan their business on a ‘maybe’. I think Aweber is great however I just may have to look for another email delivery solution since we have converted many sites over to magento.
Beau
8/7/2012 9:59 pm+1 on Magento Integration. We are current users of AWeber and love it, wish we had a seamless solution between our AWeber opt-in lists and our customer subscribers on the (not-so-great) Magento Newsletter. After reading these comments, it looks like it would be really beneficial to many of us. Thanks!