Designing an Email Engagement Model

Designing an Email Engagement Model: Segmenting Your Audience into Oversaturated, Undersaturated, On-Target and Unknown Categories

To boost your email engagement, you need to understand how your audience interacts with your emails. Before sending out any communication from Salesforce Marketing Cloud, it's crucial to set up your data properly. Here’s a simple guide to building a segmentation model for your customers:

1. Customer Segmentation

• Oversaturated Customers: These are folks who are getting too many emails and aren't engaging much.

• Undersaturated Customers: These customers get too few emails and might be more interested if you reached out more.

• On-Target Customers: These people are getting the right amount of emails and are engaging well.

• Unknown: New subscribers or those who haven’t interacted recently.

2. Create Data Extensions

• Oversaturated_DE: For customers who are getting too many emails.

• Undersaturated_DE: For customers who aren’t getting enough emails.

• On_Target_DE: For customers who are getting the optimal number of emails.

• Unknown_DE: For new subscribers or those with no recent activity.

3. Use Data Views

Sent Emails

SELECT 

    SubscriberKey,

    COUNT(*) AS EmailCount

FROM 

    _Sent

WHERE 

    EventDate >= DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE())

GROUP BY 

    SubscriberKey

• Open Emails
  
  SELECT 

    SubscriberKey,

    COUNT(*) AS TotalOpens

FROM 

    _Open

WHERE 

    EventDate >= DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE())

GROUP BY 

    SubscriberKey

• Click Emails
  
  SELECT 

    SubscriberKey,

    COUNT(*) AS TotalClicks

FROM 

    _Click

WHERE 

    EventDate >= DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE())

GROUP BY 

    SubscriberKey

• Inactive or New Subscribers
  
  SELECT 

    SubscriberKey

FROM 

    AllSubscribers

WHERE 

    SubscriberKey NOT IN (SELECT DISTINCT SubscriberKey FROM _Sent WHERE EventDate >= DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE()))

• Combine Metrics into One Data Extension
  
  SELECT

    s.SubscriberKey,

    s.EmailCount,

    o.TotalOpens,

    c.TotalClicks,

    (o.TotalOpens / s.EmailCount) AS AvgOpensPerEmail,

    (c.TotalClicks / s.EmailCount) AS AvgClicksPerEmail

FROM

    (SELECT 

        SubscriberKey,

        COUNT(*) AS EmailCount

    FROM 

        _Sent

    WHERE 

        EventDate >= DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE())

    GROUP BY 

        SubscriberKey) s

LEFT JOIN 

    (SELECT 

        SubscriberKey,

        COUNT(*) AS TotalOpens

    FROM 

        _Open

    WHERE 

        EventDate >= DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE())

    GROUP BY 

        SubscriberKey) o

ON s.SubscriberKey = o.SubscriberKey

LEFT JOIN 

    (SELECT 

        SubscriberKey,

        COUNT(*) AS TotalClicks

    FROM 

        _Click

    WHERE 

        EventDate >= DATEADD(day, -30, GETDATE())

    GROUP BY 

        SubscriberKey) c

ON s.SubscriberKey = c.SubscriberKey

4. Automate the Process

• Create Data Extensions: Set up data extensions to hold these metrics.

• Set Up Query Activities: Use Query Activities in Automation Studio to fill these data extensions.

• Schedule Automations: Run the automation regularly (daily or weekly) to keep your data up-to-date.

5. Key Benefits of Customer Segmentation

• Better Strategy: Improve engagement by adjusting strategies for oversaturated and undersaturated customers.

• Reduced Unsubscribes: Lower unsubscribe rates by managing email frequency.

• Higher Conversions: Boost conversion rates by reaching out to interested customers more effectively.

• Optimized Performance: Enhance overall campaign performance with targeted strategies.

• Re-engagement Opportunities: Develop re-engagement campaigns for new or inactive users.