Simple Email Marketing Trick That Will Skyrocket Your Email Open Rates

by Joshua Zamora · 61 comments | Join Ana on Google+ Here



aweber email marketing segmentation

Hugs are nice, but this works better...

Hey, hey you, lovely readers here at Traffic Generation Cafe!

My name is Joshua Zamora and today I want to share with you one simple technique that most email marketers don’t know to use that will SKYROCKET your open rates and strengthen the relationship you build with your list.

In this article I am going to show you exactly how to send an email to a certain group of people on your list.

Now you may be asking why you would want to do this and how this can improve your open rates?

Here’s why:

1. The person that subscribed to your email list today DOES NOT get the promotional email you are planning to send in a few hours.

2. Allows you to build a relationship with your new subscribers before your recommend any products. (Remember building your list is only part of the equation, you also have to close the gap and build a relationship with your list. )

Once your list trusts you and sees you as an expert, that’s when they open your email, that’s when they click on the links, that’s when they buy from you.

If you prefer to see how it’s done, watch the video below. If you like a step by step guide with screenshots, go below the video.

The first thing you want to do is go to the tab that says “Subscribers“.

segment aweber subscribers

Once you are at your “Subscribers” screen we are going to search for and save a segment of your list added up to two weeks back.

how to sort subscribers in Aweber1. Select “Date Added” from the first drop down menu.
2. Select “Date is Before
3. Select your desired group of subscribers.
4. Hit “Search
5. Name and Save your Segment.

Once that is done, go over to “Messages” and “Create A New Broadcast.”

Once your message is complete scroll down to the bottom and make sure you select the segment you’ve just created.

That is it!

That’s how simple it is to send an email to a specific group of your subscribers.

I do this every time I go to send a broadcast email and the reason for that is I have a 2 week follow up sequence set up that is VERY effective at closing the gap and building rapport.

I hope you found this article helpful and if you have any cool tricks on how to build email list or have any questions drop me a comment below.

To Your Email Marketing Success,

Photo Credit

Start Your Own Email Marketing List for Only $1.00

If you haven’t started building your list yet, let me tell you – you are missing out big time. My list is number one reason I make the money I make with this blog and have such a strong readership.

Aweber is the best email autoresponder I have even used. And I am not the only one. Many A-list bloggers I know also use it for their businesses. This segmentation feature is just one tiny example of what you can do to improve your email marketing with Aweber.

Aweber offers a $1 trial month for all new customers. You’ll have access to all features a paid account is entitled to: unlimited lists, email campaigns, automatic follow-ups, broadcasts, and many, many more. If after 30 days you don’t like them, just let them know and Aweber will give you your $1 back. Guaranteed.

$1 Aweber Offer



{ 61 comments… read them below or add one }

Ileane January 27, 2012 at 10:36 am

Hi Ana and Josh, I finally signed up with Aweber and I knew that I was going to come back to this post after I did it! I started using the segmentation last week but my list is really tiny (just under 100) so the open rate is pathetic. After reading through the comments I got a few more ideas from Jens and Chris Keller that I will implement.

Josh – I’m hoping that you are still planning to do an Aweber course because I think you’re better at explaining the how’s and why’s than the guys at Aweber. One thing I’d like to see more of is customization of the form. Ana did a great video on customizing the broadcast that was helpful. And I’d love to learn more about creating the actual background images and layout.

Not trying to be greedy, but I just wanted to be sure you knew I came back for more….
Chat soon!
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Joshua Zamora January 27, 2012 at 10:46 am

Hey Ileane! Wow great timing I am actually wrapping up my aweber training and thinking about launching next week. I have not included any form customization videos unfortunately since I usually use optimizepress for list building and Popup domination for my blog which all come built in with the ‘nice’ looking forms lol

I’d love to give you review access as well if you don’t mind just writing a short review.

You can always hire a designer to really trick out an optin form for your blog and integrate it with Aweber. I know a designer if you need one.

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Ileane January 27, 2012 at 10:54 am

Congratulations! Please send it on to me for review. I appreciate that!
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Joshua Zamora January 27, 2012 at 11:02 am

Thank you my friend! :) will send via skype

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Ana Hoffman January 27, 2012 at 12:50 pm

Hey, Ileane:

From all the split testing I’ve read, the simple forms work the best.

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Ileane January 27, 2012 at 1:00 pm

You’re probably right Ana, but you know you taught me to do my own testing too right. LOL! I’m really not that concerned it’s just that I looked at mine the other day and I bust out laughing because it looks so …. blah! Maybe I just need to make the font bigger or some minor change like that.
(btw – take a look at my CommentLuv post and let me know if you want in on the My 7 links Challenge – I bet you would love it).
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Ana Hoffman January 27, 2012 at 1:34 pm

I don’t think your opt-in box looks that blah, Ileane. My main problem with it is the fact that you don’t give me a reason to subscribe.

I’ll pass on the 7 link challenge; thanks for asking!

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Noel Addison from Logo Design Ventura September 16, 2011 at 11:48 pm

This is a great tips Josh. The tricks that you’ve shared will certainly strengthen the relationship you build with your potential client.
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Joshua Zamora September 18, 2011 at 12:05 pm

Thank you Noel! Really appreciate your comment.

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Chris R. Keller from Profitworks September 15, 2011 at 3:50 pm

Great tips Joshua. Segmenting can definitely increase open rate.

If anyone is looking for additional ways to further increase their open rates check out the resources at http://www.profitworks.ca/component/content/category/909-email-marketing

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Joshua Zamora September 18, 2011 at 12:05 pm

Great resource Chris Thank you! 8)

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Colin gray September 11, 2011 at 8:07 am

I’m using mailchimp for my lists at the moment, any idea if they offer this type of customer segmentation? If not, I might be exporting my list to Aweber quite soon…

Cheers
Colin

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Ana Hoffman September 11, 2011 at 4:16 pm

No idea if they do, Colin; I am sure their support can get that answered for you.

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Joshua Zamora September 12, 2011 at 8:19 pm

Hey Colin,
I am not sure either I strictly use Aweber. I don’t see why not though if they want to be a real competitor to other AR’s they should offer it.

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William Caleb September 4, 2011 at 4:49 pm

Hmmm..this is also great after breaking down the different demographics of your subscribers and then sending specific tailor made offers for each :idea:
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Joshua Zamora September 7, 2011 at 12:11 pm

ooooo i like that William! taking it a bit further :)

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Brian D. Hawkins September 3, 2011 at 7:07 pm

Very nice video tutorial Joshua, and a great followup to your post at BasicBlogTips.
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Joshua Zamora September 7, 2011 at 12:10 pm

Hey my friend! thank you for your support and feeback!

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Eddie Gear September 3, 2011 at 2:27 am

Segmentation is one of the best ways to target specific audience. It helps you improve conversion rates and also retain customers. Know your customers, understand their needs and you are sure to succeed at email marketing.
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Joshua Zamora September 7, 2011 at 12:10 pm

I completely agree with you Eddie! Thanks for the feedback.

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Robert Lee September 1, 2011 at 10:16 am

Yess…they are really good. They are using their own Server for sending the mails…You can try for it.,.Hope it will help you. :)

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Ana Hoffman September 1, 2011 at 10:36 am

Thanks, Robert.

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Nishadha from Make Money Blogging August 31, 2011 at 11:29 pm

The segmentation part is a good thing but wouldn’t an auto responder sequence achieve the same thing with new subscribers ? Or am I missing the point here

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Joshua Zamora September 7, 2011 at 12:08 pm

You are correct Nishadha but if you have a time sensitive offer and need to send a broadcast that’s when this can come in handy.

Or for those who dont have a sequence set up

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Laurie from Down Or Just Me August 31, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Joshua – thanks for the tip!! I’m always looking for new ways to market more effectively through e-mail and I think this is a great one!

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Joshua Zamora August 31, 2011 at 7:13 pm

You are quite welcome Laurie! 8) Glad I can help

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Garin Kilpatrick August 31, 2011 at 2:13 pm

Segmenting is a powerful way to get more opens and clicks, which means more traffic.

After I send an important email one way that I get more traffic is to create a segment of the people who have not opened that email, then I will re-email the same email with the same subject line with a Re at the beginning, ie: “Re: Your Subject Line.”

This technique will lead to more traffic, and can help you make more money if you are promoting a product!

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Ana Hoffman September 1, 2011 at 10:50 am

Excellent tip – I have done that too and it works.

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Brandon Bender August 31, 2011 at 9:37 am

I believe at some point in the future we will all have to move into a more relationship based model all across the board.

Thank you for sharing.
-Brandon Bender

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Joshua Zamora August 31, 2011 at 10:31 am

Hey Brandon,

I think the future is now and this should be the focus from the beginning.

The moment you show people you can the more they will open your emails the more they will click on your offers.

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Chris R. Keller from Profitworks August 30, 2011 at 8:41 pm

Hi Joshua,

What do you include in the broadcast to new subscribers?

What is in the body of the text to build rapport?

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Joshua Zamora August 30, 2011 at 9:59 pm

Hey Chris,
Well first off I do not send a broadcast to new subscribers for 2 weeks. Once the two weeks is up I usually send out links to my article on my blog to further help them.

If you would like to see how I have my follow up sequence set up I wrote a guest post on Basic blog tips about this topic

http://basicblogtips.com/email-open-rates.html

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Mark August 30, 2011 at 3:54 pm

Well, it is an autoresponder, so what I do is just slap a message with a pitch a month out after they have finished my seven day SEO course.

That is the beauty of an auto responder…it’s all automated.

I tried a newsletter…let me put it this way…never again…;)

Mark
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Ana Hoffman August 31, 2011 at 6:22 am

The fact that it is automated is great. Why don’t you do a newsletter again?

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Mark August 31, 2011 at 12:13 pm

I just found having to manage a newsletter to cumbersome.

My operation has become too labor intensive as it is, so I am looking to automate as much as I can.

I still have a newsletter, but I neglect it, unfortunately.

Every once in a while I will send a blast, but I definitely don’t coddle it like I should.

Mark
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Joshua Zamora August 31, 2011 at 10:33 am

That is a great method too Mark. But I still think you have to continue to build upon the relationship and continue to build on the course you offer which I’m sure you do 8)

What happen with the newsletter?

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Mark August 31, 2011 at 12:39 pm

You are correct, Joshua. You definitely have to build relationships.

Unfortunately, the only way I have time to do this is with the series.

Mark
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Wayne Lambert August 30, 2011 at 2:36 pm

Hi Joshua,

The method you used there is good for one off Broadcasts but the segment will not be updated dynamically since the date will become further away in history.

A better method would be to build the relationship and manage expectations for the list within the first few emails in a followup sequence, then move to broadcasts only.

You can then create a dynamic segment based upon people that have received message #3 (for example).

This means that any Broadcast (for example a promotion) will only be received by people who have received the 3 relationship building emails they receive when they sign up. This means that creating the segment is a one time activity and you can be assured that all your subscribers has received roughly the same email experience from you since open rates will be higher at the start of the relationship.
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Joshua Zamora August 30, 2011 at 4:01 pm

Hey Wayne. Yes Jens below suggested a similar idea and I really like it. I am going to look into setting this up.

I actually set up a new segment before each broadcast so if there’s a way to have just one master “sublist” that will be awesome and much more effective.

Thank you

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Rachel from Live for Success August 30, 2011 at 2:23 pm

Hi Joshua,

The notion to take extra effort to woo new subscribers is brilliant and it is surprising that more business owners are not doing this. And I was not aware that my new subscribers do not immediately receive campaigns sent to the entire list. Thanks for providing this tutorial.

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Joshua Zamora August 31, 2011 at 10:38 am

You are quite welcome Rachel! And I’m with you..but then again Aweber doesn’t have many tutorials on the why and how aspect. Atleast not that I’ve seen.

I have decided to create a course around mastering your autoresponder so keeo your eyes open for that 8)

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Jens P. Berget August 30, 2011 at 1:49 pm

Hi Joshua,

This is a great advice. I try never to send a broadcast to any people who are still in my autoresponder sequence. I have created a segment that I’ve numbered 1001 (in AWeber) which means that they’ll never receive any autoresponder message. They’re finished with the sequence. I always send my broadcast messages to those guys :)

Jens
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Joshua Zamora August 30, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Ooooo I like that Jens. So you have just one master list within your list which you update every time someone goes through your sequence?

I like that it seems a bit easier then creating a bunch of segments. I will give this a try. Thanks for the tip

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Ian Belanger August 30, 2011 at 7:16 am

Hey Joshua,

Very valuable post for Aweber users. I can see how this could help your click-through rates. You definitely need to build some kind of rapport with your list before you try to sell anything to them.

Do you know if this is possible with GetResponse?

Thanks for sharing Joshua and have a good one!
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Joshua Zamora August 30, 2011 at 3:56 pm

Hey Ian. Thank you very much and I 100% agree with you building a list is only part of the equation. Building the relationship to me is most important.

I’ll take a responsive list of 10k over a non responsive list of 100k.

I am not sure if this is possible with Get Response since I do not use them but I will ask to see if any friends of mine use GR.

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Scott from Moving Overseas Book August 30, 2011 at 6:17 am

I’m going to try this with my weekly summary broadcast e-mail too.

I recently had one subscriber complain that he “got e-mails every day”, since the weekly broadcast e-mail just happened to be sent out on the day between two e-mails in the follow-up series. I already make sure that a follow-up e-mail isn’t sent out on Sunday (the day for the weekly summary), so they don’t get two mails in one day.

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Joshua Zamora August 30, 2011 at 3:53 pm

Sounds like you already got a great email system going Scott. Just a few tweaks to improve upon so you don’t have more of those “emailing everyday” folks.

If you have any other cool tips please do share :)

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Ivin from become an expert August 30, 2011 at 2:44 am

Wow! Joshua, gotta say, … EXTREMELY valuable post here. The video you added was a very good touch to your post. It’s worth being added to a carnival on email marketing. Ten out of ten!

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Joshua Zamora August 30, 2011 at 3:51 pm

Hey Ivin It’s great to hear from you my friend. I really appreciate the feedback!

What can I say I’m an email marketing geek and still learning :)

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Kurt Scholle from website success August 29, 2011 at 6:19 pm

Josh,

I think if I had only one way to market it would be building a list. AWeber is my favorite email app and I appreciate this lesson in the nuances of list building and engagement. I will share this post with my clients.

Thanks!

– Kurt

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Joshua Zamora August 29, 2011 at 6:58 pm

Thank you for passing by Kurt! And I 100% agree with you. List building is my favorite, most effective, and quickest way to build a successful business online.

If people do NOTHING but focus a complete year to building a list their business and income will increase dramatically at least that’s my take on it.

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Lionel from Bachmann Trains August 29, 2011 at 5:22 pm

Nice post. I was torn between Constant Contact and Aweber. It’s great to see a step-by-step instructional video of using Aweber for a function I’m interested in implementing. This post has made my decision easier. :)

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Joshua Zamora August 29, 2011 at 6:53 pm

Hey Lionel! Great to hear from you and I’m glad I was able to help. I can’t comment on Constant Contact since I’ve never used them BUT I have no complaints about Aweber.

Be sure to support Ana and use her link at the end of the post ;)

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Ileane August 29, 2011 at 9:23 am

Josh, you are an Aweber email marketing Ninja!! I mean wizard! No, I mean Samurai!
Let’s just say….

You’re good!
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Joshua Zamora from ZamuraiBlogger August 29, 2011 at 9:59 am

Haha thank you my friend! I have a ton of other tricks up my sleeve as well.

Might just put together a small crash course on mastering an auto responder.

Not sure what the demand is? What do you think?

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Mitchell Allen August 29, 2011 at 11:35 pm

Joshua, this is very good. One “lazy” way to achieve the same goal is to never broadcast. By adding to the end of the auto responder series, new subscribers will receive the offer in due time.

I call this lazy because it is not effective for time-sensitive offers. I imagine it would be okay for something like a course – which I will address in a second – where you might offer a link to AWeber after the fifth lesson.

As for your crash course, your style as a teacher is nice. In particular, the way you mention the REASON for selecting a date two weeks back is the type of instructional gem that’s either well-hidden or missing from the knowledgebase at AWeber.

I would totally sign up for your course. I’ve had AWeber for years and I use only 10% of the features.

Cheers,

Mitch
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Joshua Zamora August 30, 2011 at 4:04 pm

LOL hahaha yea I guess that is the lazier way of doing things.

Thank you for the Feedback Mitch and I will definitely get working on a crash course.

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Ileane August 31, 2011 at 5:16 am

Josh, sounds like a great idea. Be sure to include instructions for signing up and why you like Aweber vs. Mailchimp. This is something I’m thinking about and it would be nice for someone like you to hold my hand while I make up my mind. :)
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Joshua Zamora August 31, 2011 at 10:35 am

I am on it Ileane! 8) thank you for the feedback and ideas.

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Sylviane Nuccio August 29, 2011 at 8:44 am

This is a great tutorial, Joshua!

I completely agree that it’s a bad idead to treat your “just opt in” subscribers like the ones that have been there for months or years. However, how many marketers are using this? I would say close to none!

I think that as a marketer myself it’s a good thing to subscribe to other lists. There is always things you can learn, ideas you can get, etc…

But I also see that as soon as I subscribe, I am receiving some kind of promotion who always make me think… Are those guys so spoiled with large subcribers lists that they don’t care to look and sound pushy? What’s your thought on that?
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Joshua Zamora from ZamuraiBlogger August 29, 2011 at 9:57 am

Hey Sylviane Great to hear from you!

Trust me I know exactly gownyou feel and I subscribe to lists all the time to see peoples style and to learn what to do and what not to do.

I recently subscribed to one guys list and I received 3 promo emails within a 48 hour period. I definitely feel like forwarding him this post lol.

At the same I subscribed to another gentlemans list and he sent me A TON of Freebie emails within a 7 day period which also didn’t feel so good.

I think some are people with huge lists who don’t care or just don’t know how to use this feature

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