To engage with your customers on a more focused and personal level, try breaking down your mailing list into a few segments of different audience types. There are many criteria you can use, but your system doesn’t need to be complex or time-consuming to be effective. Here are a few ideas for basic ways to segment your mailing list:

• By join date -- Separate out your long-timers from your mailing list newbies. You can then create more personalized promotions for both.
• By email engagement -- Many email marketing providers let you sort email subscribers by engagement, helping you target and re-engage contacts who might be slipping away.
• By survey results -- Sending out a subscriber survey, though a bit more time-intensive, means that you can craft focused questions and segment subscribers based on their responses.

MailChimp, Vertical Response, and Constant Contact, as well as other email marketing providers offer helpful documentation on how to create segments using their platforms.

Sending every email blast to every subscriber minimizes your marketing time, but isn’t necessarily effective. Targeting your content and promotions helps you establish the more personal connection you need to cultivate engaged and loyal customers.

Marketing Bites are short actionable tips to help you market your business. Each Bite contains a marketing idea and an easy to complete action. The Marketing Bite is emailed weekly to subscribers.