I have to say. I am a big fan of IKEA. It’s not many things they don’t do well and I’d say they have some very smart marking people on board.

Aside from good catalog marketing, attention-getting radio ads, and the loss-leader 99 cent breakfasts, they have a very smart and very advanced email marketing strategy.

See the real estate they use on their home page to entice you to sign up for their newsletter.  “Join our List!”, they say.

 

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Good copy.

But the really advanced skill is this.  As soon as I input my name and email address I am presented with this screen.

 

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Look at those questions.  You know that they are segmenting their audience-right from the signup step.

Homeowners, renters, parents, kitchen renovators, engaged couples, you can imagine that they would be more inclined to send wedding product information to only one of those groups.

And that is good marketing.  List segmentation is a critical skill to good email marketing.  Start thinking about it right from the beginning.