Last week you learned about the 3 different types of emails your BJJ business should be sending.
Again, email marketing is the cheapest and most effective way to market your gym, and a smart strategy made up of those 3 emails will not only make work easier for you, it will bring in more revenue.
Today, we’ll understand how to best segment your email list to make your email marketing as effective as possible.
A segment is a group of subscribers in your audience that share a specific property, like “buyers” or “white belts.”
You can group your email list into dozens of segments, but there are really only four important categories of subscribers you will need in your gym.
The four segments are new leads, members, former leads, and former members.
Why Segment Your List
Before we look at the segments your BJJ business needs, let’s understand why to segment in the first place.
First, segmenting your list allows you to easily email specific groups specifically. Meaning, your email message will only be sent to and read by the people you want.
This helps to get the right message to the right people.
Second, each segment of your list will be at a different point in their relation to your business, which requires specific language. You don’t need to use sales language with someone who’s been with your gym for 10 years.
In fact, speaking to a veteran member like they’re a new lead will turn them off and they’ll likely stop opening your emails.
Third, your email open rates and deliverability, aka list health, will remain high if you’re only sending emails to the people they’re meant for. If you’re constantly blasting your whole list with things that are irrelevant, they will likely unsubscribe.
Fourth, automations simplify your business operations but need to be sent to the right people. Your automations will be more effective when you set them to go to specific segments.
Plus, when you move someone from one segment to another, it will automatically trigger the new automations to be sent, making less work for you and your email marketing more effective.
Let’s look at the four segments.
New Leads
When a new lead lands on your website and completes a form, immediately add their email to your ESP (email service provider) and tag them as a “new lead.”
This should trigger your new lead automation to start, which will help build the relationship and keep them engaged until they come in for a first visit.
The “new leads” segment is important because they are the hottest prospects that can become paying members. You’ll want to review this list daily and make sure you’re staying active with your new leads.
Review the key metrics you should be tracking with your leads, and identify where they fall through the cracks. Are they not showing or not converting?
The new lead list is where you will find this data.
Members
If your gym is segmenting your list, the current member list is probably the segment you have. These are your paying customers who are the foundation of your business.
Care for this segment by providing essential business info like events, news, and updates, as well as value-based content to keep them engaged and opening your emails regularly.
Once a new lead becomes a member they should automatically be moved to this segment. This will also trigger your “new member” automation, which will help automatically onboard a new member to your gym.
You can also automate testimonial and referral emails to go out at set periods like 3 and 6 months.
You also don’t want to send too many sales emails to your member list, as they are already paying customers.
Instead, provide value with each email and send promotions every few months.
Former Leads
If a lead does not come in for a first visit after a few weeks, or came in but did not become a member, move them to the “former leads” segment.
This will trigger a new automation that will send them nudges every few weeks or months to come back in for a trial.
This way you can stay top of mind with them, so when the time is right in their life to try BJJ, you’ll be who they go to.
You don’t need to manage this segment too heavily, simply set up a few emails to go out automatically every 6 weeks or so and let it run.
You can also include this segment in any promotional or value-based content emails continuing to build the relationship.
You never know when a former lead might be ready to come in, so stay relevant by emailing them every few weeks or months.
Former Members
Similar to the former leads segment, a list of your former members can be a valuable tool.
“Win-back” campaigns are a series of emails sent to former members enticing them to rejoin. Often, discounts are used to motivate former members to come back.
These win-back campaigns can also be automated to remove the work in tracking and keeping contact with these members.
You will also want to include value-based content and promotions to these members.
In fact, you can even send them your monthly or weekly newsletter, featuring promotions and updates to spark FOMO.
Former members can be motivated to come back if they see their old teammates succeeding in competitions and being promoted.
Don’t lose contact with your former members!
Final Thoughts
Email segmentation can be a highly valuable tool in your business that helps convert, retain, and reactivate members.
When done together with automations, promotions, and campaigns, you can build value, making leads and members more likely to convert or stick around.
And much of the work only needs to be done once to set up automations.
Then, simply move members from one segment to the next and let the automations run automatically.
Start segmenting your list ASAP to start building these valuable groups within your BJJ business.
If you need help with email marketing, book a call here.
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