segmenting email list

Please note that all the comments I give work with any simple regular autoresponder.


The best advice is to segment your list. I have over 200 segmented lists. Some of the ways you can segment your lists are...

1.PROSPECT list per category. Some categories for IM may be...Article Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, List Building, Joint Ventures, Software, Copy Writing, and many more. These are the people who are entering your sales funnel,which tries to convert prospect into customers or buyers.

2. BUYER list per category. This allows me to promote similar products to this list based on category.

3. BUYER list per product. (Note, I did create my own software that allows me to add a new subscriber to multiple lists. So I can put a subscriber into a buyer list per category and per product.) Some autoresponders will allow you to do this with setting withing the autoresponder.

4. JV PARTNER list. This can be one of your more valuable lists. When ever I have a new product to launch, these are the first group of people I tell about the new product. These are all people that I have done some kind of joint venture with before. I believe my current JV Partner list has well over 800 people on this list.

5. AFFILIATE list. This is very similar to the JV Partner list but I don't know these people very well. But they have signed up to promote my products. This is a list I'm working on very hard and hope to add another 20,000 affiliates to this list next month.



Provide high quality information. Tell stories with some stories being personal. Supply good resources. Be approachable. Tell your subscribers how to get a hold of you when they have questions. A support desk works great for this. Keep your emails personal as if you are just talking to the person who is reading the email message.



I write all my emails for a specific purpose in mind. It is always to promote a specific product or service.

At the end of an email sequence I add an email or two that give something away. Naturally the link goes to another squeeze page to get them on a new list and an new email sequence. The squeeze page is a good tool to move people from list to list and promotion to promotion.


I move the subscriber to a different list and follow up sequence using a squeeze page.



This is one big problem that no one can completely solve. There is no way to tell who is just a freebie seeker or a buyer. You should handle every prospect the same and let your sales funnel do its job. Try to stick to this equation... subscriber = future buyer

...Don't try to do any predetermination because they will become a buyer when they make a purchase. You can promote specials with very low prices like a dollar or two to get people who never buy to become a buyer. Sometimes once they make their first purchase, even with a very low price, they will now make more purchases.



A good email is very similar to a very small sales letter. The goal is to presell the subscriber before they click on the sales letter link.

1. You want to present the problem.
2. Make them feel the pain the problem causes.
3. Offer a solution to the problem.
4. Give a call to action to click on the link in the email message.

You can present these four elements and a number of different ways. Plus the call to action does not have to be to a paid product. It can be to a free product that is on a squeeze page.



You start promoting your products in the very first email message. The main reason for building a list is to make sales. The promotions don't have to be direct. They could be a sponsor ad or a P.S. at the end of the email message.

I always promote before the subscriber receives their first email message. When a subscriber opts into my list vis a squeeze page, upon clicking the subscribe button they are redirected to the sales letter of the product I'm trying to promote.

They either become buyers right away or they check their email for my free report and in the free report I promote the same product. Plus the follow up sequence always has at least one link to the same product. The purpose of email marketing is to MARKET in your emails.

If you send out emails with no call to action of some kind whether free or paid is a wasted email and you are just catering to the freebie seekers. Always write your email messages with a purpose in mind.

I hope this has been helpful,
Steve Yakim