Summary
When a company cannot fulfill international orders, managing email subscriptions becomes vital for maintaining customer trust and preserving sender reputation. The primary strategy involves a combination of clear communication about shipping limitations and robust audience segmentation. By segmenting subscribers based on their geographic location, businesses can ensure that product-focused promotional emails are only sent to regions where delivery is possible, while subscribers in non-serviceable areas receive relevant, non-product content or are excluded from such campaigns altogether. This approach prevents customer frustration and improves the overall relevance of email communications.
Key findings
- Location-Based Segmentation is Crucial: Most sources emphasize segmenting email lists by country, region, or even IP address to identify subscribers in non-serviceable areas.
- ESPs Offer Necessary Tools: Major Email Service Providers (ESPs) like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Klaviyo, SendGrid, and Campaign Monitor provide robust features to facilitate geographical segmentation.
- Clear Upfront Communication Prevents Issues: Businesses should explicitly state shipping limitations on their website, signup forms, and even in tailored welcome emails to manage subscriber expectations from the start.
- Tailored Content Improves Experience: For subscribers in non-deliverable regions, sending general informational content, brand updates, or no product-specific promotions is advised to maintain engagement without causing frustration.
- Align Email with Shipping Capabilities: Email campaigns, particularly those linked to purchasing, must align directly with a company's defined shipping zones and delivery capabilities to avoid sending irrelevant offers and preserve sender reputation.
Key considerations
- Implement Precise Geo-Targeting: Utilize data from signup forms, imported contact fields, or IP addresses to accurately segment your audience by location.
- Define Content Strategy for Excluded Regions: Determine whether to exclude subscribers from non-serviceable areas entirely from product promotions, or to send them alternative, non-product-related content to maintain engagement.
- Ensure Consistent Messaging: Clearly communicate shipping restrictions across all customer touchpoints, including website banners, FAQ sections, and email signup forms.
- Regularly Review Shipping Zones: Keep your email segmentation aligned with your actual shipping capabilities and update as needed.
- Prioritize Customer Experience and Reputation: Irrelevant emails lead to dissatisfaction, higher unsubscribe rates, and potential spam complaints, all of which negatively impact email deliverability and brand perception.
What email marketers say
11 marketer opinions
Successfully managing email subscriptions when international delivery isn't an option hinges on a dual approach: precise geographic segmentation and transparent communication. This allows businesses to tailor their email campaigns, ensuring that promotional messages for products are only sent to subscribers within serviceable regions. For those in unsupported areas, the focus shifts to delivering general informational content, maintaining engagement, and preventing the frustration that arises from irrelevant offers. This strategic alignment of email content with delivery capabilities is essential for protecting sender reputation and fostering positive customer experiences.
Key opinions
- Proactive Disclosure: Clearly communicating international shipping limitations on websites and signup forms is a fundamental step to manage subscriber expectations from the outset.
- Precision in Geo-Targeting: Leveraging tools for geographic segmentation allows for granular control over who receives product-specific campaigns, ensuring relevancy based on delivery capability.
- Strategic Content Diversification: For subscribers in non-deliverable regions, shifting from product promotions to general informational or brand-building content is an effective way to maintain engagement.
- Preserving Brand Trust: Preventing the delivery of irrelevant offers to international subscribers significantly reduces customer frustration and builds long-term brand trust.
- Direct Deliverability Impact: Sending emails about unavailable products can negatively affect sender reputation and lead to higher bounce or unsubscribe rates, underscoring the importance of tailored outreach.
Key considerations
- Define Clear Shipping Policies: Establish and prominently display your international shipping limitations across all customer-facing touchpoints, including your website and email signup forms.
- Leverage Geographic Segmentation Tools: Utilize your Email Service Provider's (ESP) features to accurately segment subscribers based on their country or region of residence.
- Develop Alternative Content Streams: Create specific content strategies, such as brand updates or educational materials, for subscribers in regions where product delivery is not possible.
- Set Subscriber Expectations Early: Incorporate shipping disclaimers and content expectations into welcome emails for international subscribers.
- Continuously Monitor Performance: Analyze engagement metrics within different geographic segments to ensure your tailored strategies are effective and prevent subscriber fatigue or opt-outs.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks shares a solution for international parcel delivery by recommending ParcelMotel, a service that provides a local delivery address in Ireland, addressing the issue of companies not delivering directly to a new country.
15 Apr 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from HubSpot Blog explains that for international email marketing, it's crucial to segment audiences by location. While her article focuses on delivering globally, the principle applies: if you cannot deliver, these segments allow you to target or exclude specific regions from product-focused campaigns, managing expectations and avoiding customer frustration.
18 Jun 2023 - HubSpot Blog
What the experts say
0 expert opinions
Effectively handling email subscriptions for audiences in regions where international product delivery is not feasible requires a strategic fusion of precise data utilization and adaptive content delivery. This involves leveraging geographical data to segment subscriber lists, thereby ensuring that promotional messages align with actual shipping capabilities. For those subscribers beyond delivery zones, the focus shifts to providing valuable, non-commercial content, thereby maintaining engagement and safeguarding the brand's reputation against the negative impact of irrelevant offers.
Key opinions
- Accurate Data Drives Relevance: The efficacy of managing international email subscriptions without global delivery heavily relies on the precision of collected subscriber location data for effective segmentation.
- Irrelevant Offers Harm Deliverability: Sending product promotions to subscribers in regions where items cannot be delivered significantly increases unsubscribe rates and spam complaints, negatively impacting email deliverability.
- ESPs Provide Foundational Tools: Most modern Email Service Providers offer sophisticated segmentation and automation features that are essential for implementing granular geographic targeting strategies.
- Engagement Beyond Sales is Key: Maintaining a relationship with international subscribers through valuable, non-promotional content is crucial for long-term brand loyalty, even when direct sales are not possible.
- Website and Email Must Align: Consistency between the shipping information displayed on a company's website and the content sent in emails is vital to manage expectations and avoid customer frustration.
Key considerations
- Collect Precise Location Data: Implement data collection methods, such as country selection on signup forms or IP-based geolocation, to accurately identify subscriber locations.
- Develop Distinct Content Paths: Create separate email campaign flows for international subscribers where products cannot be shipped, focusing on brand awareness, educational content, or non-transactional updates.
- Leverage ESP Automation: Configure your Email Service Provider's automation rules to automatically segment subscribers and route them to the appropriate content tracks based on their geographic data.
- Audit Shipping Policies Regularly: Maintain up-to-date knowledge of your company's international shipping capabilities and adjust your email segmentation and communication strategies accordingly.
- Prioritize Subscriber Relevance: Always aim to send emails that are relevant and actionable for each subscriber, as this directly contributes to positive engagement metrics and strong sender reputation.
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Effectively managing email subscriptions when a company does not offer international delivery centers on precise geographical segmentation and careful alignment with shipping capabilities. Businesses can use the built-in tools of their Email Service Providers, such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or Klaviyo, to segment their audience by country or region. This ensures that promotional emails, particularly those related to products, are only sent to subscribers within supported delivery zones, as emphasized by e-commerce platforms like Shopify. By integrating shipping information with email marketing data, companies avoid sending irrelevant offers, manage customer expectations, and ultimately protect their sender reputation and customer satisfaction.
Key findings
- Geo-Segmentation is Universal Best Practice: Across major email platforms such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Klaviyo, the consistent recommendation is to segment audience lists by geographical location to manage international delivery limitations.
- E-commerce Settings Inform Email Strategy: Platforms like Shopify emphasize that email campaigns, especially those linked to purchasing, should strictly align with predefined shipping zones, preventing outreach to customers in unsupported regions.
- Preventing Irrelevant Offers Enhances CX: The core purpose of geo-segmentation in this context is to avoid sending irrelevant product promotions, thereby preventing customer frustration and maintaining positive engagement with your brand.
- Data Integration is Key to Alignment: Successful management relies on effectively using collected subscriber data-from signup forms or imported fields-to accurately identify and segment audiences by their deliverable location.
- Broad Platform Support for Location Targeting: Leading Email Service Providers (ESPs) and e-commerce platforms offer robust features specifically designed to help businesses manage and target subscribers based on their geographical location.
Key considerations
- Leverage Platform-Specific Segmentation: Utilize the built-in segmentation tools provided by your Email Service Provider-like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or Klaviyo-to filter subscribers by geographic data such as country or region.
- Align with E-commerce Shipping Settings: Ensure your email marketing strategy directly reflects your e-commerce platform's (e.g., Shopify) configured shipping zones, so promotional emails are only sent to deliverable regions.
- Prioritize Data Accuracy for Deliverability: As highlighted by resources like Google Merchant Center, accurate shipping information should underpin your email targeting to prevent sending irrelevant offers and maintain customer satisfaction.
- Develop Content for Non-Serviceable Areas: Decide if you will exclude international subscribers from product-focused emails entirely or send them general, non-promotional content to maintain brand engagement without creating frustration.
- Review Signup and Data Collection Methods: Optimize your signup forms to collect explicit country or region data, which facilitates more precise segmentation from the outset.
Technical article
Documentation from Mailchimp explains that users can segment their audience lists by country or region using data collected from signup forms or imported contact fields. This allows businesses to exclude subscribers from specific geographical areas where international delivery is not available, preventing irrelevant promotional emails.
22 Jun 2023 - Mailchimp
Technical article
Documentation from Shopify Help Center indicates that businesses should configure their shipping zones to only include countries they can deliver to. This directly impacts email subscriptions by ensuring that email campaigns, especially those linked to purchasing, only reach customers in supported regions. It implies that if a customer is outside a defined shipping zone, they shouldn't receive purchasing-focused emails.
28 Feb 2024 - Shopify
How can I improve transactional email deliverability after a subscription bombing?
How to handle list-unsubscribe issues in Microsoft email clients?
What are the best practices for managing unsubscriptions from multiple email lists?
What are the legal timeframes for unsubscribing email addresses by country?
What to do if spam emails use my company's email and unsubscribe link?
Why is it so difficult to unsubscribe from SAP emails?
