Email tags for marketing 101: Understanding tagging and segmentation

By Rhonda Bradley Could 20, 2024

While you’re on the surface wanting in, e mail tags, segmentation, and personalization can sound complicated as all heck.

In any case, it wasn’t that way back when “personalization” meant placing the particular person’s title within the e mail greeting as a substitute of ‘Pricey Sir or Ma’am.”

As we speak, personalization means delivering the correct content material to the correct individuals on the proper time. 

And the place personalization was as soon as a pleasant perk, now customers count on it — and plenty of aren’t prepared to do enterprise with you in the event you’re not customizing their content material.

In e mail advertising, this implies working with behavioral information to phase and customise your campaigns.

On the coronary heart of all of it is e mail tagging.

What if, in simply ten minutes time, you may grasp the idea of e mail tagging and personalization, and start drafting marketing campaign concepts to spice up your ROI and income?

On this information, we clarify all the important thing ideas associated to e mail tags, with crystal readability. By the point you end studying, you’ll be able to brainstorm concepts for personalized e mail sequence concepts and begin tagging your subscribers so you may ship them personalised e mail content material.

In advertising, e mail tags are inside key phrases (labels) you assign to individuals in your e mail record. 

E mail tagging helps you to categorize your subscribers into completely different teams of individuals (“segments”) based mostly on their interactions along with your model. 

This allows you to customise content material for various teams of individuals and ship them focused e mail sequence based mostly on their pursuits.

For instance, think about you’re a meals blogger and somebody clicks on a hyperlink in your e mail e-newsletter titled “10 finest Mediterranean Eating places within the U.S.” 

You tag them with the label “Mediterranean Foodie” and your e mail software program robotically sends them a coupon on your “Mediterranean Weight loss program Cookbook.”

👉 The great thing about e mail tags is that (with the correct e mail advertising platform) when you set them up, you may automate the entire process of sending of personalised e mail sequence that ship the correct content material to the correct individuals. 

For instance, after I hadn’t used the Every day Burn health platform for some time, I received tagged and placed on an inventory to obtain discount-focused emails just like the one beneath.

In one other instance, Sheet Music Plus is aware of that I like to purchase piano sheet music. 

The corporate (or reasonably, its e mail software program) remembers that I bought Taylor Swift songs a few years in the past. So that they despatched me this e mail announcement a few newly launched piece of Taylor Swift piano sheet music.

Your subscribers could be tagged in lots of some ways, resembling by the merchandise they buy, coupons they use, and emails they work together with.

What’s the function of e mail tagging?

E mail tags categorize your subscribers for higher, extra personalised e mail advertising outcomes.

Tagging helps you:

• Manage your e mail record: Tags create an simply searchable system inside your e mail platform.

• Section your viewers: Group subscribers by particular pursuits or behaviors for focused e mail campaigns.

• Ship extra personalised emails: Ship priceless, related content material to every subscriber based mostly on their distinctive tag profile

Why e mail tags matter to companies and entrepreneurs

E mail tagging helps you to personalize the content material you ship to your subscribers. And there’s nothing that may make or break the success of your advertising efforts like personalization.

Not solely do at this time’s customers desire personalised content material, however most of them count on it.

A current report by McKinsey discovered that 71% of customers expect companies to personalize their interactions and 76% get pissed off with generic, non-personalized advertising content material.

Moreover, personalised advertising campaigns:

• Improve return on funding (ROI) by 10 – 30%.
• Increase general income by 10 – 15%.
• Improve model loyalty and enhance relationships.

Whether or not you’re aiming for a lift in income, ROI, conversions, or referrals, e mail tagging is the entry level to personalization for e mail advertising.

E mail tags allow you to separate your complete e mail record into classes so you may ship automated, focused campaigns that align with their pursuits, or “conduct.”

Demographic and geographic information can assist you phase your record into curiosity teams. 

Nevertheless, the true advantages of e mail tagging lie in behavioral-based tagging.

Behavioral tagging labels subscribers based mostly on their interactions along with your emails and web site. It helps you to arrange tagging, segmentation, and campaigns based mostly on behavioral information resembling which emails individuals open, CTAs they click on on, purchases they make, and extra.

For instance, a clothes retailer would possibly ship suggestions for ladies’s shorts to ladies who’ve bought shorts from them prior to now, as Free Folks does within the e mail beneath.

Right here’s an instance of how e mail tagging works:

1. An individual clicks on a hyperlink (a “conduct”) in your e mail and a tag is robotically assigned to them.

2. Tagged subscribers are added to campaign-specific lists referred to as “segments.”

3. Subscribers obtain personalised e mail campaigns based mostly on the tags assigned to them.

Most e mail tagging is automated utilizing e mail advertising software program. However earlier than automation begins, you select the tags, segments, and campaigns that can be used. This offers you full management over how your subscribers are categorized and what content material they obtain. 

E mail tags and segments are each used to arrange and categorize your e mail subscribers so you may ship them personalised emails and campaigns.

E mail tags are inside key phrases you assign to completely different individuals. Segments are the teams you type based mostly on shared pursuits. Customized campaigns are the e-mail sequence you ship to completely different segments of your record.

E mail tags

• E mail tags definition: Inside key phrases you assign to particular person subscribers
• Instance: “Buyer,” “Vegan,” “Newbie prepare dinner”
• Used for: Labeling subscribers in line with their pursuits and conduct

Segments

• Segments definition: Teams of subscribers based mostly on shared standards.
• Examples: “Lively clients,” “Vegans,” “Newbie cooking”
• Used for: Sending particular (“personalised”) campaigns and content material to completely different teams of individuals in your record.

Customized e mail campaigns

• Customized e mail campaigns definition: E mail sequence you ship to a selected phase, based mostly on their potential curiosity within the content material.
• Examples: Folks with the tag “vegan” obtain your vegan recipe sequence. Folks tagged with “Meat lovers” obtain your hamburger recipes sequence.
• Used for: sending particular promotions and content material to segments of your e mail record.

For instance, think about you’re a chef with an e mail record who sends cooking tricks to your subscribers. You’ve gotten a formidable assortment of vegan recipes, however you realize not all of your subscribers are involved in vegan meals. 

So that you create a class of subscribers, or “phase,” titled “Vegan recipes. You’ll ship all of your pleasant vegan recipes to this phase of your record!

That is the place e mail tags are available in.

You ship out a multiple-choice ballot to the individuals in your e mail record asking what sort of meals they like finest. One of many decisions is “vegan.”

Individuals who examine “vegan” are robotically added to your new vegan phase and so they start to obtain your personalised e mail marketing campaign with vegan recipes. 

1 – Lead magnet tags

Tag subscribers in line with the lead magnets they obtain. Such a tagging helps you perceive what sort of individuals desire and the place they’re at in your advertising funnel.

For instance, in the event you run a pet grooming service and supply an e-book titled “15 Coaching Suggestions for Small Canine” you would possibly tag the people who obtain the e-book as “Small canine lead magnet.” Or, you would possibly tag them with two completely different labels: “Small canines” and “Canine coaching.”  

Within the instance beneath Petco sends pet food and canine deal with promotions to clients tagged as canine homeowners.

2 – Buy historical past tags

Tag subscribers in line with their previous purchases, buy classes, or the quantity and frequency of their purchases.

You need to use buy historical past to ship personalised product suggestions or unique provides which might be relative to their spending habits.

For instance, within the e mail beneath, Ipsy Magnificence recommends a personalized record of merchandise it thinks the client could also be working low on.

3 – Curiosity tags

Tag subscribers based mostly on the pursuits and data they specific in your signup kinds, surveys, and polls.

For instance, in our weblog welcome marketing campaign, we ask what matters subscribers are most involved in studying about, and tag them according to their answers, so we will ship related content material.

Within the e mail instance beneath, Attract Magnificence promotes its newest nail merchandise to individuals who have proven an curiosity in them prior to now.

4 – Engagement tags

Monitor how subscribers work together along with your emails and web site, together with e mail opens, CTA clicks, and deserted carts.

This allows you to ship quite a lot of e mail campaigns, resembling

• Re-engagement e mail campaigns designed to win again the curiosity of people that haven’t opened or engaged along with your emails recently.

• Vacation campaigns that align with the kind of e mail vacation promotions they’ve clicked on in previous emails.

For instance, you may tag subscribers after they open specific messages in your marketing campaign.

This helps you establish individuals who expressed an curiosity in particular matters.

5 – Advertising and marketing funnel tags

For firms that supply providers resembling teaching, health coaching, monetary planning, and many others, you may tag e mail subscribers based mostly on the place they’re at within the advertising funnel. 

You’ll be able to tag subscribers on this means by utilizing behavioral indicators resembling:

• Which e mail CTAs they click on on
• What content material they obtain
• Whether or not they join a free session

For instance, right here’s how somebody with a life teaching follow would possibly tag and phase in line with the advertising funnel:

Ship consciousness stage content material, resembling “Learn how to manage your life in 5 minutes a day” to individuals who work together with common content material about your business.

Ship consideration stage content material, resembling “How to decide on the very best life coach on your wants” to individuals who know what they want however are simply studying about what forms of providers can be found.

Ship decision-stage content material, resembling particular promotions, free consultations, and an inventory of teaching advantages, to people who find themselves making a call about which coach to rent. 

Ship loyalty stage content material to present and former shoppers to encourage opinions and referrals. 

6 – Occasion tags

Label subscribers who’ve attended your occasions, resembling webinars and workshops.

Occasion tags allow you to ship follow-up content material with related lead magnets (resembling an unique e-book or occasion recording) and particular provides.

When you attend in-person occasions, you may create a signup type in your cell system to gather new subscriber emails in particular person. Then use tags to remind you which of them occasion you met them at.

You’ll be able to even arrange an automatic welcome e mail sequence forward of time to exit to every new subscriber you met on the occasion.

Right here’s the touchdown web page we used at Podcast Motion to get podcasters signed up for our e-newsletter:

These are solely six of the numerous methods to tag e mail subscribers for segmentation and personalised campaigns.

When you’re simply getting began with e mail segmentation, select one of many tagging kinds above that can assist you personalize your e mail content material. 

As you develop into extra comfy with tagging and segmentation (it gained’t take lengthy), you may increase to different forms of tags.

Learn how to create an e mail tag (utilizing AWeber)

To start creating e mail tags in AWeber, begin by figuring out what sort of personalised campaigns you’d prefer to ship. 

Subsequent, create segments to match your marketing campaign concepts.

Lastly, head over to AWeber or watch the video beneath for step-by-step directions on learn how to create and assign e mail tags.

After you create tags, you’ll assign them to segments which you’ll then join them to automated, personalised e mail sequence.

E mail tagging for advertising personalization

Tagging and segmenting your e mail record helps you to personalize content material in a means that’s virtually sure to extend your e mail advertising ROI.

On this information, we’ve defined what e mail tagging is and the way it integrates with segmentation so you may ship personalized emails to teams of individuals in your subscriber record.

While you’re able to get began, head on over to AWeber. We offer a complete, refined tagging system that features behavioral segmentation.

And we allow you to put all of it on autopilot!
Sign up for your AWeber account today and begin personalizing your e mail advertising very quickly!