Sending the same newsletter to all your subscribers is convenient, but expensive. People who get offers they’re not interested in stop opening your emails, unsubscribe or mark them as spam. Segmentation solves this problem.
In this article, you’ll learn how to split your list, where to start even with a small list and how to connect segments with automation that works for you.
What email list segmentation is
Segmentation means splitting your contacts into groups (segments) based on what they have in common – what they bought, what they’re interested in, where they live or how actively they respond. You then send each group content that makes sense for it.
It’s not the same as personalization. Personalization adapts the content of a single email to a specific person, for example addressing them by name or recommending products. Segmentation decides who gets which email in the first place. They work best together – more on that in our article Personalization in email marketing.
Why segmentation pays off
- Higher relevance. A dog owner doesn’t get cat food deals.
- More opens and clicks. People respond to what interests them.
- Fewer unsubscribes and complaints. People who get useful emails have no reason to leave.
- Better deliverability. Email providers watch how people interact with messages. When people open them and don’t mark them as spam, your emails land in the inbox more often.
What to segment by
By purchases
The most valuable data an online store has: what a customer bought, when they last bought, how often and how much they spent. That’s the basis of the popular RFM model – recency (how recently they bought), frequency (how often they buy) and monetary (how much they spent). It makes it easy to separate loyal customers from those who bought once and disappeared.
By behavior
How people interact with your emails and website: what they click, which categories they browse, whether they left items in their cart. Be careful with email opens – some email apps, such as Apple Mail, load messages automatically, so open rates tend to be inflated. Clicks are a more reliable signal.
By interests and preferences
The simplest way is to ask. When people sign up or take a short quiz, let them choose what they’re interested in. Data a customer gives you themselves, voluntarily, is called zero-party data. We describe how to collect it with quizzes in our article The era of zero-party data.
By relationship stage
New subscriber, first purchase, repeat customer, inactive contact. Each needs a different message – welcome the new ones, reward the loyal ones and try to wake up the inactive ones.
By demographics and location
Age, gender or town only make sense if they really change the offer. A restaurant with two locations can send its lunch menu only to people from the relevant town, while a B2B company can split contacts by industry or job title.
How to start, even with a small list
You don’t need tens of thousands of contacts or a complicated system. Start with two or three segments that have the biggest impact:
- Customers and non-customers. People who’ve already bought need different messages than those who’ve only subscribed.
- Active and inactive. Anyone who hasn’t clicked any email in recent months doesn’t get regular campaigns, but a separate re-engagement series instead.
- Main interest. One question at sign-up, such as “Are you shopping for a dog or a cat?”, and you have two segments with clearly different content.
Compare how a segmented campaign performs against a blanket one, and only then add more segments.
Example: a florist with an online store splits its subscribers into people who order bouquets for holidays and business customers who order decorations for events. The first group gets a reminder with an offer before Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, the second gets ideas for corporate events once a quarter. Two groups, two types of content and not a single wasted message.
Segmentation and automation
Segments save you the most work in automated emails that go out on their own based on behavior:
- Welcome series for new subscribers – an introduction to your company, your bestsellers and possibly a first-purchase discount.
- Abandoned cart – a reminder of the items left in the cart.
- Post-purchase emails – a thank-you, instructions for use, a review request.
- Repeat purchase – a reminder at the moment a consumable product is likely running out.
- Re-engaging inactive contacts – an attempt to win them back and, if it doesn’t work, removal from the list.
You’ll find five scenarios every online store should have set up in our article Email marketing for online stores.
The most common mistakes
- Too many small segments. If each one needs its own content, you can’t keep up with creating it.
- A segment without different content. There’s no point in splitting your list and then sending everyone the same thing.
- Old data. Interests change. Build segments on recent behavior and update them regularly.
- Collecting data for no reason. Only ask for what you’ll really use, and respect consent under the GDPR.
Frequently asked questions
How many contacts do I need for segmentation to make sense?
There’s no exact threshold. Even with a few hundred contacts, it makes sense to separate customers from non-customers. With very small segments, though, the results of individual campaigns won’t tell you much, so evaluate them over a longer period.
What tool do I need for this?
Most email tools can handle segmentation, for example Ecomail, MailerLite, Mailchimp or Klaviyo. For an online store, it’s important that the tool connects to your orders and can work with purchase data.
How often should I clean my list?
Deal with inactive contacts regularly, for example once a quarter. First send them a re-engagement series, and remove those who still don’t respond. A smaller but active list will bring you more than a big, dead one.
Can I segment based on data from my online store?
Yes, if you have a legal basis for processing the data and the customer has been informed about it. For marketing emails, always have valid consent or another legal basis, and offer an easy way to unsubscribe.
Final thoughts
Segmentation isn’t a complicated technique for big companies. It’s a decision to send people what interests them. Start with two segments and add more gradually. If you’d like help setting up segments and automations, see how we do email marketing that doesn’t annoy people.
