Email Segmentation: Strategies & Best Practices to Grow Your Business

Raise your hand if you enjoy receiving emails that are obviously part of an email blitz or, worse yet, entirely irrelevant. Anyone?

Call it spam or impersonal marketing, but one thing is certain: we all hate receiving such emails, and brands need to improve their email segmentation. 

Email list segmentation helps you personalize your email according to the intended audience.

In fact, email personalization increases transaction rates by about 6x for each target category.

This post will discuss how to segment your email list to grow your business and what best practices you should follow to achieve this.

Let's dive right in!

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What is Email List Segmentation? 

Email list segmentation entails dividing an email list into multiple smaller, more targeted lists.

It aims to provide clients and prospects with a more personalized marketing experience.

You can segment your email list in various ways. However, what may work for one business may not suit another.

Therefore, it's crucial to consider your buyer personas and the traits that make them unique before you begin.

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Email Segmentation Statistics

Are you still not convinced that segmenting your email list is worthwhile?

Check out these eye-opening email segmentation stats.

• Readers who receive segmented emails with links are 50 percent more likely to click on them.
• Segmented emails received 100.95% more clicks than comparable campaigns that didn't use segmentation. (Mailchimp)
• Segmented campaigns attain a 760% increase in revenue. (DMA)
• 30% of marketers improved email engagement by email segmentation

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How to Get Started with Email Segmentation 

If you're unsure where to start, consider these three phases and create a flow suitable for your segmented email marketing campaigns.

Establish Your Data Points

First things first: you’ll require data.

Focus on gathering and analyzing data to create relevant and strategic segments to get the most out of your email marketing.

Answer the following three queries:

• What information do we currently gather? These are your segments with the lowest entrance barriers.
• What information can we start accumulating?

• You can track these data points but haven't yet begun translating them into useful information.
• What information do you need to request? You must ask your consumers directly for this information.

Your current data-gathering strategy may not always be able to accommodate the tests you want to conduct, and you won't have all the data points you want.

Then, you must enlist development assistance or spend money on a third-party tool.

Start Experimenting

Now that you have your data, target the right people and try various email list segmentation.

Utilize innovative groupings and methods based on your understanding of your customers.

Your email marketing program might automate segmentation and delivery.

For instance, to plan for something like a Thank you for joining us this year email for New Year's Eve at 10 am (since you'll be off work celebrating the holiday), filter your email recipients into those who have subscribed for more than a week but less than a year.

Measure, Adjust, and Repeat

Ensure you monitor how recipients interact with your emails now that they are available to the public.

Take note of what they open, what they click on, and the kind of information that engages them.

After analyzing this information, use the information you learn to make future campaigns more effective. 

If some of your loyal customers are not clicking through to your surveys, send your next batch to those who do.

If there are recipients in your email list who do not open your emails on Mondays and there are those who do, segment them and schedule the communications appropriately.

Because dividing any list into A and B groups is so simple, A/B testing can help you get insights more quickly.

These experiments go hand in hand with email marketing.

Continue to test your small, incremental modifications with your current email campaigns and apply your learnings to your other segments.

Reason to Segment Your List

After putting email list segmentation into practice, which benefits do you gain? 

Increased Open Rate

How often do you determine whether to open an email by reading the subject line?

More relevant content results in more pertinent subject lines, which increases the likelihood that recipients will open your emails.

Segmenting emails is a way of increasing open rates. Our +40 tips guide can help you learn more about increasing open rates.

Increased Click-Through Rates

After reading the email, recipients will likely respond to enticing calls to action, such as checking out the discount you just mentioned or finding out more about your new service.

Increased Conversion Rates

The gradient goal effect, known in consumer psychology, describes how our motivations and efforts rise as we reach a goal.

Now that they're on your website, your desired audience will likely purchase from you or register for the webinar you're marketing.

Decreased Unsubscription

Instead of seeing a decline in subscribers, you want to see one.

To reduce the noise in their inbox, sending too many pointless emails may lead them to give up on your services entirely. 

Avoids Spam Filters

After receiving too many irrelevant emails, a person might mark your efforts as spam even if they don't individually unsubscribe.

Segmented lists can enhance deliverability. 

Look at the diagram below.

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Top Ways to Segment Your Email List

Your business type and, more significantly, the demographics of your target market will influence how you segment your email list.

You could segment by:

1. Geography

Knowing where your contacts reside is extremely useful.

If you owned a physical store, you would not want to send in-store promotions to clients not in your area, would you?

Or, if you operate a national franchise, you should separate customers by zip code to avoid advertising in areas where your company doesn't offer services.

2. Age

Nowadays, everyone has internet access.

Statistics have proven that the internet has 5.18 billion users.

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This means you can email a college student, an older adult, or even a young child.

Knowing the broad age range of the people on your list may help you delete those who do not fit your desired demographic or change the tone of your email correspondence.

3. Gender

Just as you might speak differently to a retiree and a college student, your messaging and offerings may change based on a person's gender. 

Consider segmenting your list in this way and then beefing up the segmentation with additional demographic and psychographic information if you have an extensive range of products spanning genders.

4. Persona

The majority of businesses create multiple representations of their persona.

Why not send customized emails to each persona, given that they typically have different needs and react differently to varied copies?

You may develop targeted email lists by segmenting your subscribers into different buyer personas based on the content they have opted in to receive, the links they have clicked on within your email campaigns, and the actions they take on your website.

Use all of this information to develop specific email lists for each of your consumer personas.

5. Business Type

Are you selling to other companies?

Do they have:

• Franchises
• Nonprofit institutions
• E-commerce firms
• Companies of a specific size
• Small businesses

All of the people mentioned have unique needs.

Thus, their email content should reflect that; separate your list accordingly.

6. Industry

You can run into leads and contacts in various industries if you sell to other companies.

Your email marketing will become even more personalized if you know your lead's industry.

7. Job Function

If you're a B2B marketer, your email list may include people from various occupations, such as office workers, salespeople, marketers, consultants, developers, customer service representatives, and accountants.

Segmenting your list according to the various job roles in any firm will boost your email campaign success.

8. Education Level

Your list could be divided based on the number of degrees a lead or contact has, how knowledgeable they are about your business, and the topics you cover.

You can create lead nurturing content that speaks at the appropriate level for each segment of your list based on how much knowledge they have of the subjects you write about.

9. Seniority Level

There are several levels of seniority and various work functions.

Your acquaintance might have indicated that they are employed in marketing, but is she a marketing coordinator or the vice president of marketing?

Segmentation is essential when creating an email marketing campaign because the two contacts will differ in terms of years of experience, salary range, pain points, ability to make decisions, and many other factors.

10. Past Purchases

If a section of your list has already purchased from you, send them emails tailored to what interests them.

Then, take advantage of upselling opportunities with extra services or related products based on their earlier purchases.

Your revenue will rise as a result.

11. Purchase Interests

You can discover someone’s tendencies by asking them directly or observing their previous purchasing patterns.

By doing so, you can create more targeted emails.

12. Buying Frequency

Segment your email list according to how frequently people make purchases.

Reward frequent buyers with an invitation to your loyalty program to raise select customers' purchase frequency and increase brand stickiness.

13. Purchase Cycle

Do specific clients frequent your business weekly, monthly, yearly, or quarterly?

For instance, a pool cleaner can experience a spike in demand in the spring and fall.

They may need you during a specific season.

Use customer purchase cycles to segment your list accordingly so you can reach them when they need you.

14. Content Topic

Have you observed that some of your leads and contacts are more interested in particular content areas than others?

Another sector is more interested in Snapchat for business, while another is very interested in sales and marketing alignment.

It only makes sense to divide your list into sections based on the subjects our contacts have expressed an interest in.

Examine the information that prompts clicks, then divide your list into relevant segments.

15. Content Format

You may discover that specific database segments prefer particular content types; for example, some prefer blogs, others prefer ebooks, and others only participate in your webinars.

For instance, in a recent HubSpot Research survey, 43% of the participants desired to see more video content in the future.

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If you know what certain members of your list prefer, you can convey the offer content in your emails in those formats.

16. Interest Level

Simply because a user converts to a content offer does not imply that they like it. 

Segment your list according to your leads’ level of interest in your content.

For instance, you can email a group of webinar participants who stayed attentive for 45 minutes or longer. 

Those who left the event before 10 minutes might get another top-of-the-funnel offer or even a feedback survey to find out what specifically aroused their interest. Those who stayed a little longer might get a middle-of-the-funnel offer to assist in moving them forward in the sales cycle.

17. Language

Do you speak the language that your contacts prefer?

Language is a potent approach to splitting your email lists if you have a bilingual team. 

Here's a pro tip: Don't assume a contact's favorite language based on location.

That is not enough to go by because the world is full of expats and well-traveled people. 

Alternatively, consider the language used on the pages where your contacts convert.

18. Website Activity

Understanding how a visitor interacts with your website can be done with page-level targeting.

You can send pertinent nurturing emails using that data.

For instance, you can determine a person's interests if they viewed ten cupcake recipes and subscribed to your blog article on the Ultimate Cupcake Tower Inspiration.

19. Lead Magnet 

Take note of the lead magnets your contacts download and engage with, such as ebooks and other downloadables.

Lead magnets help you segment the leads according to their interest in your content.

This can lead to up to 10% higher email open rates.

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20. New Subscribers

Take advantage of your brand-new subscribers' email addresses and send them a welcoming email instead of just saying hello.

Add an exit-intent popup to turn website visitors about to leave into email subscribers.

Then, engage them in conversation to get what they want.

Be consistent in emailing them.

You could even send emails to all new subscribers that feature the finest blog posts, or you could walk new app users through the process of taking the first step, then the next, and so on.

Ensure you introduce your new subscribers to your best content in your welcome email or welcome sequence.

Don't forget that you should start building a relationship with them immediately.

21. Open Rate

Segment your subscriber list based on their open rates to distinguish between subscribers who frequently interact with your emails and those who do not.

As an illustration, you might offer your more devoted subscribers unique benefits like access to new items earlier than your other groups.

See the example below.

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22. Inactive Customers

If your subscribers have been dormant, remind them of the next action you want them to take.

You can send a targeted email to inactive subscribers to gauge whether they mind hearing from you or unsubscribing.

You can also eliminate subscribers who have been inactive for an extended period.

This way, you can keep your list relevant.

23. Job Title

What kind of work does your subscriber do?

Do they work as an art director or designer? Are they agents of sales or customer service?

With segmentation, it is possible to individually address the various pain points associated with each job title.

24. Opt-in Frequency

Many subscribers may sign up for multiple lead magnets, while others may only sign up for one.

Then, you can inform that group without bothering your other subscribers about your new lead magnets.

25. Affiliates

Have you considered starting an affiliate program?

Keep in mind the importance of your affiliates!

It will be beneficial to invest time and energy into cultivating that relationship; as a result, you should ensure that you have dedicated email marketing campaigns exclusively for them.

You can hold a competition for your affiliates and reward the person who generates the highest revenue over the next thirty days.

You may also send email updates to your affiliates as the competition goes on, showing off the leaderboard of affiliates who are now in the Top 10.

This is possible at any time throughout the contest.

Consider the following example.

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26. Brick-and-Mortar Customers

Segment your customers based on where they make their purchases.

If you have both offline and online stores, you can educate your in-person clients about promotions that are only available in-store.

27. Customer Lifetime Value

Do you have different client profiles that will cost you more or less money overall?

Segment those out carefully so you may concentrate entirely on the clients most valuable to you in the long run.

For instance, you might have a group of consulting clients that employ you to provide them with advice and another group that hires you to deliver high-end, done-for-you services.

Customers who have work done for them have a substantially higher lifetime value. 

Therefore, you should treat them differently.

28. Website Inactivity

Inactivity on your website can also segment your email list and refocus those users.

Look at these examples below.

• Handy's website flags users who received free credits but never used them.

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• If you sign up for their service, Dropbox notifies you via email, but you don't have to install it.

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29. Web Store Visit History

You can send targeted email campaigns to subscribers who have visited your online store or sales page but have not made a purchase by using the data from your website visits.

For instance, you might inform them that the offer won't be available until today.

You may even sweeten the deal by offering customers free shipping or an incentive.

30. Skill Level

What level of expertise does your subscriber have in the area you're trying to assist them with?

Are they completely inexperienced or perhaps moderately skilled?

Or are they already proficient and seeking to enhance their abilities even further?

The content you deliver to your subscribers can change significantly depending on your audience's degree.

Therefore, knowing at what level to address them can benefit your campaigns.

31. Survey Respondents

If you conducted a survey, thank the individuals who participated by sending them a special gift.

They will be delighted to learn that you value and appreciate the time they took to assist you!

Look at the example below.

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32. Membership Expiration

Are you preparing to let your subscriber's free trial run out?

How about their almost-expired membership?

Let them know that they can update or renew it.

Here is a screenshot from Apple Music.

You may Turn On Automatic Renewal, which makes it incredibly simple.

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33. VIPs

Recognize the top 1% of your email list for their engagement and purchasing behavior with a special offer.

For instance, before the formal debut (which doesn't happen until the following week), Muzli gives their subscribers an exclusive sneak preview and early bird registration to make them feel special.

Look at the example below.

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34. Income

Organizing your subscribers into income categories can be helpful.

Some subscribers, for example, need different information depending on their current salary.

If you have small business owners as readers, one group would be interested in your advice on increasing their five-figure company's revenue to 6 figures.

How to scale from five figures to seven figures may interest another market sector.

Another group may want to know how to survive their first $2,000 month.

35. Employment

You may need to segment by occupation if you're a career coach or recruiter.

This could be your group:

• Subscribers who desire to change occupations
• Unemployed subscribers
• Climb the corporate ladder," subscribers

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36. Marketing Funnel Stage

An email marketing funnel covers the customer journey from brand recognition to customer loyalty and advocacy via email.

Segment your lists by sales funnel stage to create targeted campaigns for each group.

Sharing social proof about your products/services with subscribers during the decision stage is helpful.

Maximize conversions by emailing your best reviews.

37. Content Engagement Level

People occasionally cease responding to your emails because they are too busy. 

This happens no matter what you do.

But if you don't take any action to re-engage those subscribers, you might never get them back.

Duolingo handles such circumstances by sending personalized emails to your subscribers who haven't signed in for a while.

It will encourage them to complete a 5-minute lesson to get back on track.

Take a look at the example below.

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38. Buying Behaviour

A change in buying behavior can show a lead is growing more or less interested in your business, similar to a shift in content engagement.

For example, leads with declining purchase frequency require extra tender care and, as a result, a focused lead nurturing campaign.

Look at the example below. 

In this case, the customer used to buy glasses and contact lenses in this particular store but took a while to purchase them for this season.

So, they sent out the following email.

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39. Sales Cycle Stages

Their sales cycle stage should determine the email segment a lead belongs to.

Establish distinct lead nurturing tracks, at the very least, for leads at the top, middle, and bottom of your sales funnel.

40. Sales Funnel Stage

Base your subsequent communication with subscribers on their current position in your sales funnel.

We need to nurture new subscribers, prime warm leads for sale, and eventually sell them.

Cross-sells and upsells must be made available to customers

Each stage needs its own distinct email marketing campaign.

41. Email Type

A person's email address might reveal much about them.

If you're really into complex email design, you should design your emails for various email clients or responsive email design if they're Gmail customers.

42. Satisfaction Index

Do you ask new customers about their likelihood of recommending your business to friends and colleagues on a scale of 0-10 when you first meet them?

Using their responses, you can divide your list into several groups.

According to Net Promoter Score (NPS), those who have high scores can be classified between 9 and 10 (promoters), medium scores between 7-8 (passives), and low scores between 0 and 6 (detractors).

Look at the illustration below. 

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43. B2B Vs. B2C

Create separate categories for your B2B and B2C clients for a segmentation strategy that benefits both groups.

B2B customers you sell in bulk are probably not interested in hearing about a $5 off promotion you're running or an Instagram Live event organized by an influencer.

They will want to know about business-only webinars or tutorials in the interim.

When it makes sense, design email campaigns specifically for each audience, but remember that this won't be the case for every email.

Multiple lists can coexist simultaneously; you can use whichever makes sense for that content.

That is the beauty of email segmentation.

44. Loyal Customers

E-commerce websites should have a division for loyal consumers. Have you ever heard that acquiring new customers costs more than retaining existing ones?

Your diehard clients will love being part of an exclusive club.

Do your year-one customers deserve a coupon code for helping develop your business? 

Try giving your most engaged or highest-spending clients priority access to new offers before your other groups do. 

For instance, you may reward loyal customers with early access to new products, which could work for your email marketing campaign.

45. Customers Who Refer

You may not have an affiliate program, but you do have subscribers who have suggested you to their friends.

These precious subscribers should be treated with special care, so give them a special tag.

Once identified, you can give these devoted subscribers a unique gift to say thank you, a special deal, or VIP access that nobody else has.

For instance, you might have a web app that offers a free trial but calls for registration.

46. Customers Who Haven't Reviewed

Your consumers have the potential to be your most influential brand advocates, but only if they take action and share their experiences about your business.

Customers who have not yet provided feedback on a product or service can be contacted via a targeted email with a polite request for feedback. 

In such instances, some businesses use TradeGecko.

It first compliments the consumer, then asks them to leave a review, and ends the email with another compliment.

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47. In-store vs. Webstore Visitors

Segment your list according to where your consumers prefer to shop if you have both a physical presence and a website.

Customers who frequent your store on foot can receive invitations to in-store events, while those who only shop at your website might get deals that can only be used online.

48. Shopping Cart Abandonment

For online stores, abandoned shopping carts are a typical issue.

Fortunately, you can re-engage those shoppers with a win-back email campaign.

The primary call to action in this email is to finish the job (complete checking out).

The secondary call-to-action is to respond and speak with a customer service expert if you have any questions or require assistance.

See the example below.

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49. Form Abandonment

What about targeting people who started but never finished a form on your website?

For example, you may have a web app that offers a free trial but requires registration.

Many visitors will begin signing up and either change their minds or become sidetracked.

You can recover those signups by email, reminding them to complete the procedure.

Ensure that the first step in your signup form is to ask visitors for their email addresses or use the WPForms Form Abandonment Addon to collect emails even if they never click submit.

50. Usage

You might classify some consumers as "power users," regardless of what you offer.

They fully comprehend how to use every element of your software, browse your website, and maximize their interactions with your service providers.

Send email material demonstrating how all users can succeed with your product or service to the power users, strugglers, frequent users, and infrequent users you have identified. 

Customers are more inclined to stick around if they continue using your goods.

51. Event Attendance

Send segmented campaigns using the information about the event attendees.

You could keep tabs on individuals who registered for your webinar but never showed up versus those who did.

Alternatively, you might have a group of subscribers who showed up at your in-person event, allowing you to send them pictures and let them know when the next one is scheduled.

52. Page Views

The websites that your contacts are visiting might reveal a lot about them, just as their actions do.

When visitors arrive at your website, are there any particular blogs they read or inquiries they make?

Try out lead nurturing efforts for various themes on your website to appeal to your users' habits.

53. Call-to-Action Clicks

A clickable call-to-action elevates your website's content.

Based on why your contacts click or don't click on your CTAs, you may determine the types of language that are effective with them.

Are they more likely to respond to offers that urge them to act now or try this month, or do they choose more direct ones that promise them free or discounted goods?

Consider their clicking patterns when segmenting your email list and choosing the language to use when reaching out.

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Email List Segmentation Best Practices

Now that you have ideas that you can apply to your email list segmentation, what are the best practices?

Track Results

Segmentation is not something you can set and forget.

Spend some time tracking performance and making corrections.

When you're starting, do it frequently; once you're up and running, it should drop to about once a month.

Look at what works: which portions receive the most opens and clicks?

As an alternative, pay attention to what is not performing as well.

If a specific list segment has a high rate of unsubscribers, this may indicate that the segment is poorly structured or that the target market isn't a suitable fit for your company.

Keep it Simple

When you first start using list segmentation, keep things simple.

Start by picking a maximum of 2-3 portions that will significantly alter the situation without adding too much intricacy.

Looking at your core buyer personas and identifying the crucial distinctions between them, such as business type, region, or ambitions, is a smart place to start.

Pick the Best Email Tool

You need the proper tool to start using email segmentation.

A good tool makes establishing segments based on contact action (such as email clicks and opens), list membership, and contact information (e.g., country, occupation, source of contacts, or customized fields) simple.

Feed the Right Contacts

If the contacts in your email tool are not updated, list segmentation will be difficult for you.

Gathering your contacts in a system (CRM) and ensuring they're correct will save time.

Keep Your Data Synchronized

Maintaining synced and up-to-date data is one of the most important and best practices for list segmentation.

You will run into problems if your segmentation and data are unreliable.

Ensure you're gathering the appropriate data on your forms, maintaining orderly operations with clear documentation, and performing quarterly data cleanups.

Label New Contacts Early

One of the best strategies for list segmentation is to begin segmenting your contacts immediately when they enter your CRM or email program.

Customizing properties or listing memberships based on contact information, demographics, behavior, and communication preferences can accomplish this.

Even when data changes in one tool, a two-way sync like this will keep information current everywhere.

User Preferences

Pay attention to your customers' preferences; deliver them the information they request and avoid sending them the information they do not want.

Look at this example from Amazon.

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Spend time making segments for these if you gather data based on preferred email frequency and types.

Integrate Automation 

Once email automation and segmentation are used together, sending the most relevant messages at the ideal moment is easy.

Note that automated emails attract a 70.5% higher open rate than non-automated ones.

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Automate your email campaigns by scheduling newsletters, drip emails, and activity-based emails for optimal engagement.

Final Thought

There's no doubt that email list segmentation can do wonders for your B2B email marketing strategy.

It benefits the marketer by making it easy to convert leads.

So, start segmenting your lists today based on your chosen criteria and watch your business thrive.

And if you're searching for an all-in-one email marketing solution, we at AI bees have an AI-powered solution that can carry your email campaign to new heights.

How?

We can automate your campaigns and make them highly personalized to target suitable leads.

Our team can create a targeted email marketing campaign just for you.

Curious about how we can help you achieve this?

Book a demo with us today to learn more.