How do I send different emails to different groups of newsletter subscribers?

The signup survey is what makes segmenting possible. Every answer becomes a group you can email later.

"This is why the survey is so important because you get that data that you can then use later."

What can you do with survey answers?

Send targeted offers on a schedule. For example, anyone who says they're a homeowner gets an email on day 17 after subscribing offering a free grass cutting, and it goes only to homeowners, only on day 17.

Let readers sort themselves. I revamped my surveys so the first question asks what kind of local deals people want: events, restaurants, home services or kids. Now people put themselves into segments, and I can go to a business and say, these people asked for deals, let's send them one.

Find the big buyers. I looked at the newsletter of a well-known consultant who sells a $25,000 membership. It asked for name and email, then double opt-in, then nothing. No survey, no welcome email. A short survey about company, revenue size, team size and whether they want an off-site or consulting would show him exactly who to pitch. Segment at signup, then send each group a different welcome email, or a different offer a day or two later.

Why do the answers have to live in your email platform?

Because you can only email a segment your platform knows about. I want a tag in Beehiiv for every question: pets or not, business owner or not, alumni or not. If you collect answers in a separate form tool, Beehiiv doesn't know who the business owners are. Moving the answers over by hand is one extra manual step, about five minutes, every time you want to send.

Can the newsletter itself change by reader?

Yes, now. Beehiiv added dynamic content, which shows different pieces of content to different people based on their survey answers. A pet owner can see the pet ad while other readers see a different one. You can also build segments like everyone who said they're an employee, and send them an email about being a great employee.

Should different audiences get different funnels?

Sometimes. I told a news publisher with a paid tier to treat the people likely to pay as a separate funnel from the event-focused mass audience. Same ad and subscribe page up front, but a different landing page, a different tag and a different welcome. Start with a two or three email sequence that pushes toward membership, then a monthly email to that tagged group inviting them to join the paid tier.

Put those extra landing pages on your main domain as yoursite.com/something, not on a subdomain, so the SEO stays on one domain. It's more work. See subdomain vs root domain.

What about behavior, not just answers?

• Polls. Put a poll in the newsletter, like what mortgage rate do you have now: 3%, 4%, 5%, 6% or 7%-plus. Then target the people who clicked 7%-plus.
• Click triggers. When someone clicks something like a lead magnet, send a follow-up right away, because you know they're interested at that moment. It fits a creator with several offers better than a local newsletter.
• Source tags. Use different UTM links for Instagram, Facebook ads and organic video so each subscriber is tagged by where they came from. You'll see which channel works best. My bet is that someone who watched your video first is a better subscriber than someone from an ad.

How often can you email a segment?

Carefully. In a licensing model I've planned, the local owner could email a targeted segment, like the business owners on the list, about once a month. More than that annoys readers.

Sales emails also raise a question I was still researching: whether to send them from a separate domain and campaign, so unsubscribes don't come off the actual newsletter. A few aren't the end of the world, but protect the main list.