Do you have more than one product? Than you probably have more than one type of customer. If you look at the relevance principle, you can’t send a large group of contacts the same email. Especially when your range of products varies a lot.
That means that it’s important to find out what your contacts find interesting. And every company can figure that out. The secret is simple. Put all databases and all information you have together and combine them.
E-Mailing list
First, you have your mailing list. You often have some other information besides the email address. Location, age, interests,… depening on what you asked during the subscription. That is a good starting point for your story.
History
There is also the database of your sales. Here, you can make a first combination. If a customer in your mailing list bought a specific product, then it’s certainly relevant to send him or her an email message when that specific product is in promotion. If you take a look at the cases, that can result in a great increase in conversion.
Also the placement of your subscription form can be important. If you’ve included your subscription form on multiple places, than maybe it’s interesting to group these contacts in separate lists. The place of subscription can be meaningful information for your segmentation.
Loggings
Maybe your have a digital corner where your clients can log in. Whether it’s an e-shop, a content site for extra information about your products and services, or access to your catalogue. In that case, you know perfectly what your contact has been looking at. If you’ve let them know during subscription, you can use this information for your segmentation as well.
Combine
And than it’s only a matter of combining databases. You can combine neutral data like profession or interests with order history and behavior on your website. With a good combination you get an idea of what is relevant for the contact involved.
Example
Let’s illustrate it with an example. A publisher is giving news via a “private” website. Logging in is free, but you have to register. If a contact visits the website every week, and reads articles about a specific topic, than you can easily combine that data with the books the customer already bought. That way, you can present him the right and relevant offer of books.