I have been listening to an audiobook by music producer Rick Rueben called The Creative Act: A Way of Being. Rick is a little eclectic but highly prolific.

He discusses how inspiration is found, cultivated, and acted upon to create art. Art is not just music to him. It is anything that we as humans make. He encourages his reader to tune into signs of inspiration.

He also says that there are times for rules and times to ignore them.

Rules are like a box. They can constrain your efforts for the good of a package or system, or they can limit expansion and expression and even hide perceptions.

The Box

In my last post, I talked about how segmenting your audience can help your business communications but how it can often look like a junk drawer. I also stated that I was in search of answers. So, I wanted to follow up and share with you what I have learned and discovered.

I started by looking at the current list that I had in Nimble. I noticed that I had about 30 different tags. Each tag had a purpose when I added them, but my business focus has since changed.

I used to do a lot of courses, and in-person boot camps, and during the pandemic, I was doing a lot of networking via Zoom and Lunchclub.

It has become clear that it's time to revisit my tagging and segmenting.

Why Segment?

I know firsthand that this will be a lot of work, but it's worth it!

Overall, segmented lists allow you to view contacts in a more productive way.

It also allows you to send more personalized, relevant, and targeted content to different segments of your business networks. Targeting leads to increased engagement, improved conversion rates, and better overall business and personal relationships.

It may have taken you years to get your list in the shape it's in and we all tend to look at updating your contacts as unproductive and tedious work. I can assure you that there is a lot of dead weight that hinders you from maximizing communications.

Finally, there is a sense of freedom and wonderment in looking at your contacts in new ways that reflect your business's future while respecting its past!

Checking The Boxes

If you have segmented your lists before, it kind of creates a box. It makes it easy to add new contacts to the box yet hinders adding new segments.

My box (contacts and tags) had not been attended to for years. So I decided to do some addition through subtraction.

I used a mind map (Mide Node) to help create new tags. It created two main branches. First was people who generate money. Second, was people who cost me time (or money). You may want to create more branches depending on your business model segments.

The first segment contains current clients, past clients (whom I want to stay in touch with), and prospects. Prospects can include people I have quoted work for and people who are connectors to the businesses I desire.

The second segment includes my vendors, people in my community, marketing opportunities (podcast guests and hosts), and non-profits that I want to follow.

The secret here is that someone can be on both sides. Imagine a client that is on a board of a non-profit. Imagine a vendor who is also a client.

This allows contacts to become something beyond just binary (which I find more relevant and helpful).

The Clean Up

Before I started adding the new tags, I wanted to clean and rename the current ones to fit my new model.

I looked at some of the old tags and decided if these people are still relevant. If they did not have a current or potential benefit to the business I just deleted them. I could always add them back later.

Once a tag had no contacts, I could delete those and start to rename tags to match my new mind map.

Then I added the tags that had no connections. That way I opened the door to revisit contacts and add them to additional appropriate segments.

The Master List

Next, consider creating (or exporting your efforts) to a master list.

First, add people from your accounting system (Quickbooks). Current customers and vendors are the first point of reference that should be added and updated.

Next, look at your email system and see if any contacts should be included in that master list.

My data expert told me this is a best-practice methodology. Once your master list is complete, create a CSV export and save that in a separate file. That helps you to stay grounded as your multiple lists ebb and flow.

The Up Keep

You may find yourself adding to different sources at different times. New clients may get into your accounting system but not into your CRM. Prospects may be found in your email list but not be updated in your CRM.

I am constantly adding people to my CRM from the Nimble Prospector, but they may or may not be master list worthy.

Periodically, it makes sense to export lists from accounting, email, and your CRM programs to compare them to your saved master list.

The master list should always be saved as a snapshot that's used as a checkpoint in your business.

Final Thoughts

The last phase of this is action. How can you use these segments to deliver more targeted and purposeful information to smaller groups? Is there value in sending emails to your vendors? Could you survey nonprofits for ideas? What else can you think of that may benefit your business and your network as a whole?

Think of it as using your inspiration and creativity, to encourage, engage, and initiate better business relationships!

“One of the core organizing principles of my life is that success comes through a delicate balance between making things happen and letting things happen.”
– Robin S. Sharma