Email Tags: Your Secret to Smarter Email Marketing

It’s easy to recognize each customer’s quirks and personalities when you’re chatting with them in person. But when you’re staring at a spreadsheet of hundreds of email addresses, well, suddenly everyone starts to look the same. 

Email tags put the human element back in your subscriber list. They let you label clients based on their traits instead of reducing them to a number. For example, an art gallery might tag someone as Sponsor, Frequent Donor, or Talented Local Artist. 

Tagging your subscribers helps you speak to people directly instead of shouting into a faceless crowd. This guide walks you through how it works and the best tagging practices. 

What are email tags, and why do they matter for your business? 

You may already use labels to organize your personal inbox — work, bills, and so on. But for small business owners, email tags can be much more than an organizational tool. They sort your contacts into neat categories, so you can send each customer the most relevant messages.Need an example? Constant Contact customer Mother Earth Pillows tags all the contacts they meet at conferences with specific locations. These labels make it easy to follow up with a targeted thank-you email (no more trying to memorize business cards!). Plus, the company can reach out to those specific contacts if they’re ever back in the area.

Using tags to target subscribers can make the difference between a genuinely valuable campaign and one that doesn’t really speak to anyone in particular. That naturally improves your relationships (people like to be seen) and can even prevent mass unsubscribes (ouch). 

Email lists vs. tags: Understanding the difference

With Constant Contact, you can quickly sort your contacts into lists and tag them with key details. Here’s how. 

What are email lists? (and when to use them) 

Instead of blasting all your contacts with the same message, you can segment them into different email lists. This is especially useful for businesses with a variety of offerings that are speaking to different audiences.  

Ask your contacts about their interests when they sign up, or send out a brief survey to existing contacts. Focus on marketing-related details so you don’t overwhelm them. For a pet store, that might be what type of dog food clients buy or how many animals they own. A pottery studio could ask about classes they’d like to take. 

Here’s how a spa segments its email list to ensure its messages reach the right people:

Behavior is another useful way to segment your list. Use your email reports to see which contacts are regularly interacting with your messages and clicking on your links. 

If you have people who are regularly opening and engaging with your emails, you can easily add them to a VIP list. Reward these loyal shoppers with exclusive offers when you need to drive sales. Or invite all your biggest donors to special events. 

These best practices will make segmentation a breeze: 

• Toss out your spreadsheet or stack of sticky notes. Email list-building tools like Constant Contact can automatically segment your contacts.
• Start small with two to five segments. 
• Make sure every segment has a clear purpose (this also applies to tags). 

Email tags: Your secret weapon for micro-targeting

While email lists are groups of people you want to message, tags let you store extra details about your contacts. 

Picture each subscriber as a book in a library: Lists are the genres (fantasy, romance), and the tags are the author and publisher. The genre helps you find the book on the shelf, but the tags tell you more details. 

Constant Contact tags work for individuals or groups. Use the first option when you want to remember something relevant about a single subscriber. Someone who buys hiking gear, for instance, could get tagged as “Camper.” Meanwhile, group tagging lets you quickly categorize similar subscribers, like “Webinar Attendees” or “Small Donors.” 

Experiment with different tagging strategies. This could be as simple as labeling everyone by their birthday month for a surprise offer. 

Or, tag by preference or special interest. Do you have contacts who are desperate to get their hands on an out-of-stock product? Label them and send an email the moment you unpack the shipment. 

Your reports can be useful for tags as well. Check back with a recent campaign and tag all the contacts that didn’t open your email. Then, tweak the subject line slightly and resend your campaign to just those who didn’t open it the first time.

Check out our tagging guide for additional ideas and a step-by-step look at how to add tags within your account.

When to use email lists vs. email tags

As a general rule, choose lists for broad categories and tags for more niche details. Dog vs. cat owner? List. Age group? List again. People who feed their cats canned food? Tag. 

Of course, you don’t have to pick one. Combine them for the most accurate and niche messaging. For example, a museum could send an announcement about a new dinosaur exhibit to every member (list) who attended a lecture about T-rexes (tag). 

But don’t go overboard. Nobody needs 40 lists or hundreds of tags — you can’t possibly make enough unique content for them all. Stick to the essentials to avoid overwhelming yourself. 

How to create and implement email tags that work 

It’s not difficult to start using email tags — you just need a system to follow.

Getting started: Your first email tag system 

If you’re the kind of person who loves organizing their closet, you may feel tempted to go on a tagging spree. But put down the (metaphorical) label maker. 

If you’re already a Constant Contact customer, check out our handy guide to creating and managing Constant Contact tags. It has step-by-step instructions with screenshots, like this: 

Use this new knowledge to create just four or five absolutely essential tags per email list. These can be based on priority level, such as Frequent Buyer and New Customer. Or focus on behaviors: Abandoned Cart, Holiday Shopper, and so on. 

As you get more comfortable tagging, you can start adding more to your system. But make sure you’re actually using them. Review your labels regularly, and delete the ones gathering dust. 

Email tag best practices that drive results

When used effectively, email tags can help boost click-through rates and even grow your bottom line. And they keep customers happier, too. Here’s how to get the most out of these tools.

Tagging for different business types

Email tags are incredibly flexible, which means you can easily adapt them for different industries. 

For e-commerce and B2C businesses, tags help you understand and cater to your clients’ interests. You can track inactive customers and invite them back with a special coupon. Or tag each client’s favorite category — “Dresses” or “Blazers” — for tailored promotions. 

In service industries, email tags enable you to remember customer preferences between appointments. A dog groomer could create labels like “Puppy Cut” and “Bath Only.” 

Tags also come in handy for nonprofits. Do you always send a thank-you gift to major donors during the holidays? Use a VIP label to flag them throughout the year. 

Even B2B businesses can get in on the tagging fun. Sort leads by interest level or label all the “Decision Makers” you meet. That way, you can quickly figure out who to focus on for your marketing. 

Tag organization and naming conventions

Don’t just start inventing random tags, or worse, weird acronyms or references. Sure, that meme-inspired tag might seem hilarious now, but your team won’t remember the joke in two years. 

Save the wordplay for your subject lines. Like a book’s index, your tag categories should be logical and easy to build on. If you want to tag contacts by interaction, “Frequent Opener” is much clearer than “Sir Clicks A Lot.” 

Write down all these tags and their definitions in a shared document that everyone can easily consult. This also makes it easy to spot tags you aren’t using and delete them. 

And don’t forget to watch your performance. Use email software to track which tags get the most clicks and conversions, and retire any that aren’t getting results. 

Making email tags work for your business growth

Okay, so you’ve got your list of tags ready to go. Excellent. Here’s how they can help your company flourish. 

From contact management to customer relationships

Every time you invent a new tag, use it as an opportunity to go through your mailing list and remove inactive subscribers. This housekeeping will help you focus on the people who are still supporting your business. 

Email tagging also helps build trust. Use it to laser in on each client’s interests and share content they genuinely care about — and nothing they don’t. A hair salon, for instance, can send clients product recommendations based on their hair type. 

Every time a personalized email lands in your clients’ inboxes, you remind them of your value. And that can naturally lead to higher open and click-through rates. Success.

Ready to transform your email marketing?

Email tags aren’t just another organizing gimmick. They’re an easy and useful way to organize a large (and hopefully still growing) email list. Instead of sending generic emails, you can send more tailored messages that your contacts are excited to click. 

Start small with a handful of tags, and build your list of labels as you gain momentum. Ready to get tagging? Check out Constant Contact’s intuitive and easy-to-use email marketing software — you can easily import your existing list from elsewhere and quickly start segmenting and tagging your contacts.