Jan 2, 2008
Sending Targeted Emails With Interest Groups
Whenever you create an email signup form, you should let people check little boxes to indicate what kind of content they’re interested in. Here’s an example of what I mean (from a restaurant’s email signup form):
That way, when you create a campaign, you can send it to specific groups on your list, instead of blasting out to your entire list.
Now, most marketing experts would tell you that you should do this because it allows you to send "more targeted campaigns" to your customers. Targeted campaigns sent to small segments of your list will get you better open and click rates, they say.
That’s true, but here’s the real reason you should include interest groups on your signup form:
Writing an email newsletter with content that’s actually interesting to everybody on your list is a huge pain in the butt. It takes forever. It’s agonizing.
Sometimes you’ll have an interesting, timely bit of news that’s only relevant to a tiny 5% slice of your audience. You’ll want to send an email to those people, because you know they’d love it. But the other 95% of your list wouldn’t find it useful at all. So what do you do? If you have interest groups, you can just send a quick note to that group. If you don’t have interest groups, you just postpone the newsletter until you have enough news "for everyone else." When you eventually get around to sending the newsletter (3 months later), it’s a big, long, 5-page honker that nobody wants to read.
Being able to send a quick note to a specific interest group will save you so much time, and that slice of your audience will love you more for sending them relevant content. In MailChimp, you can give your recipients a link that lets them update their own "profile." So they can change their interest groups, email address, etc.
Example Interest Groups
Here are some ideas for interest groups you can use for your list signup forms:
| If you run a… | Ideas for interest groups: |
| Restaurant/Nightclub | General News, Events, e-Coupons, Recipes from the Chef |
| Grocery Store | General News, New products, healthy living, Meal ideas, Sales and special offers, Store happenings |
| Non-Profit | General News, Volunteer Opportunities, Legislative Alerts, Research, Letter from the President |
| Software Company | General News, Press Releases/Media, New Features, Tips & Tricks |
| CPA/Accounting | General News, Tax Tips, Business Tips, or Categorize by their business type |
Add List Segmentation to Interest Groups
If you’re a MailChimp customer, you can target your campaigns with interest groups AND list segmentation at the same time. For example, a grocery store can send a campaign to people subscribed to their "special offers" interest group, then use segmentation to further target to recipients within a specific ZIP code. It’s pretty powerful stuff (and it’s free). Learn more about MailChimp’s List Segmentation capabilities…
Rick Braddy
Great post on interest groups. Segmenting primary email lists into sub-lists basaed on customer and subscriber interest is an extremely powerful way to become more relevant and meaningful with the audience.
Great feature of the product!
12.13.2008
Rob
OK, sounds like a great feature, exactly what I need, but…
I can’t find squadush on how to use it, how to set it up etc. There are no “interest group” features in the form builders! I guess you still have more work to do.
05.05.2010
Bobby Norris
Yes…
On the following page: http://blog.mailchimp.com/articles/email_segmentation_ideas/ down the bottom are instructions on how to segment by interest groups. But the problem is, when you look at the drop down menu there is nothing like ‘interests’ listed.
So – how is it done? I can find many pages which say it can be done… yet I’ve lost half a day trying to figure it out.
Rob posted his issue back in May. No response?? My client with 45,000 subscribers ready to migrate over is ready to roll and I’ve told them mailchimp is the way to go and I’m sitting here scratching my armpits like a stupid monkey.
09.28.2010
Ben MailChimp
Sorry Bobby, a while ago we renamed “interests” to “groups.” Some of our older help docs and articles haven’t been updated yet.
So when you create a campaign, and it’s time to select a list, pick “Select Segment” and then look for a pulldown like this:
http://blog.mailchimp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/select-segment.jpg
Keep in mind that when you create a list, and you design the signup form, you can create pulldown menus, checkboxes, etc. But that doesn’t necessarily make them “interest groups.” There’s an option called “groups” that you’ll see on the Lists screen:
http://blog.mailchimp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/groups-options.jpg
that will help you setup proper groups to segment by.
09.28.2010
Bobby Norris
Thanks for clarifying Ben.
The API example files are also out of date and still refer to ‘interests’ like so:
$merge_vars = array(
‘FNAME’=>”,
‘LNAME’=>”,
‘INTERESTS’=>”
);
Its a little tricky to actually implement when the latest example files are confusing. How would this work now with groups?
$merge_vars = array(
‘FNAME’=>”,
‘LNAME’=>”,
‘GROUPS’=>’group_name, group_2’
);
?
Thanks for your time,
Bobby
09.28.2010
Ben MailChimp
It’s very possible “INTERESTS” still works there in the API. If you tried, and it didn’t work, make sure the “group” was setup properly in your list. Designating something as a “group” is actually a very distinct step in the process. You can have pulldowns and options on a form that aren’t groups. This distinct step of classifying something as a group is what’s changed recently.
But I’m just a pretty face here. If you need technical help with the API, this is the place to ask:
http://groups.google.com/group/mailchimp-api-discuss/topics
09.28.2010
Gem Webb
Ok, bought the A.I.M reporting add on from mail chimp which is totally needed (smart monkeys)
08.04.2010
Gem Webb
Now I gotta figure out how to segment into the GROUPS I made for one list of certain people who clicked certain links. Do I have to export a Excel file then delete them from the list and create a second one? Hmmm… Not sure how to do this.
08.04.2010
Steve
Sounds good, but can a person be in more than one segment in my list? In other words, can they be in my “hamburger” and “meatloaf” segment? And if so, will mailchimp only email them once if I send an offer/coupon to my “hamburger” and “meatloaf” segments?
09.27.2010
Ben MailChimp
Steve: Yes, they can be on multiple segments. If you send one newsletter and target those multiple segments, they’ll only get one copy.
09.28.2010
Ben MailChimp
Steve – One more thought. You might want to setup a fake list, with the interest groups or segments that you want. Then, subscribe to that list and test all this stuff on yourself. That way, you’re 100% confident it works the way you need it to.
09.28.2010