Email Segmentation: What It Is & How to Do It Right

Email segmentation gets you 50% better click-through rates and 30% more open rates. If you find it hard to engage your leads, this is one of the best methods you can use.

In this article, you’ll find proven strategies to engage your customers with every email. Whether you’re struggling to generate new leads or reach out to inactive subscribers, our actionable techniques will help. 

Want to know how it’s done? Keep reading.

What Is Email Segmentation & Why Does It Matter?

Email marketing segmentation is when you split your email lists into various targeted groups based on customer types, behaviors, and purchase history. It strengthens your personalization efforts with higher click-through and open rates for targeted email campaigns. It also lowers your unsubscribe rates and spam reports.

You need email segmentation because of:

• Since it increases click-through and open rate, more customers will complete the final step in your call-to-action (CTA). This increases return on investments (ROI) with longer-term customer loyalty.
• Segmentation helps create more engaging and personalized emails, ultimately improving the customer experience. For example, email segmentation based on purchase history creates personalized product recommendations with higher engagement and sales.
• You will segment your email list and allocate resources based on each segment’s value. This targeted approach increases conversion rates and revenues.
• Your customers will interact with your emails if they contain highly relevant content. This means your emails will get to your customer’s primary inbox, and they won’t report them as spam or unsubscribe to it. 

5 Time-tested Email Segmentation Strategies To Implement

As you go over each strategy, identify what closely aligns with your goals, so you know what to implement first.

1. Create Personalized Cold Email Marketing Segmentation Campaigns 

The average response rate for cold emails is 8.5%. But with our insider personalization technique, you can increase it to 10-15%. 

Here’s what you need to do:

1.1. Mention Their Activity On Social Media

When you target customers based on specific social media activity, mention it in your emails to tell them why you want to connect with them. For example, you could write, “Since you liked our [post topic] post, we wanted to check if you’d be interested in our [product/service name].”

1.2. Don’t Say You Know Them; Prove It

Use personalization to go above and beyond to prove you know your customers more than your competitors. Use in-depth analysis methods like SmartReach.io’s sentiment analysis to gather information and send personalized messages based on that.  

1.3. Highlight Their Pain Points

Use customer research to identify your target customers’ biggest pain points. Be empathetic and prove how your products or services can resolve their issues. 

If you’re reaching out to startups, create and send them the perfect pitch deck highlighting your knowledge of their industry and pain points. Your pitch deck should include your customer’s problem or pain points, your solution, and the long-term benefits of their relationship with you.

1.4. Mention Where You Found Them

Tell your new subscribers where you found their contact details to build trust and rapport. This shows your customers they are not just another number for you. It also proves you worked hard to contact someone you value. Use sales email templates for cold outreach to send well-structured and relevant emails for more significant results.

2. Encourage Newsletter Signups With Discount Codes For Email Marketing Campaigns

If your email opt-in rate is 1.95%, you’re already doing an above-average job. However, you can increase this to 5% with the right email marketing segmentation strategies.

Here’s what you need to do:

2.1. Create A Simple Signup Form

Too many form fields will discourage your customers from signing up for your newsletter. So, keep things simple and only ask for their email address. Add an optional field for their names. 

Here’s a good example from Green Supply. Notice how it has a clear CTA and only requires customers to share their email addresses. Forms like this one encourage customers to fill out the form quickly.

Here’s another great example of a simple form by Vinyl Status that attracts new subscribers with a 10% discount in exchange for the visitor’s contact details. 

The simple CTA “Save 10% off your order” creates a value-driven offer that lessens the friction to take action. It also sets clear expectations by highlighting how frequently they will receive emails and includes a transparent disclaimer about receiving text messages. 

This builds customer trust by making it clear they can unsubscribe anytime, helping them feel more comfortable sharing contact details.

2.2. Place It In A Visible Spot

Make it small and strategically on your webpage as long as it’s not distracting your visitor from the main content. Here are some placement strategies to consider:

• Comment Section: Place the form here for visitors who comment on your products or posts.
• Floating Box: This form moves up and down with the relevant content as you scroll on a webpage. Use this on web pages where your primary motive is to get more email subscribers.
• Pop-Up Screens: Use these for customers scrolling through your products or viewing their checkout pages to move them to purchase your products/services and not abandon their cart.

2.3. Send A Confirmation

Use SmartReach.io to verify all email subscribers for free. Plus, you can use it to create and send AI-generated and automated welcome emails to your new subscribers. Thank them for subscribing to your newsletter, and include a discount that they can immediately use. Connecting with interested customers immediately will create long-term positive experiences.

You can also thank your new email subscribers directly on your website. Here’s an example from Chisos where they present the following appreciation page to its customers after they sign up.

With website pop-ups or redirects like this, you don’t need to send a separate appreciation post. You can directly introduce yourself and your brand. Sending an appreciation email and an introductory email back to back can frustrate your customers, increasing the risk of them unsubscribing and your spam rate.

2.4. Use Communities & Social Media Networks

Set up your brand’s social media accounts and offer discount codes to segment subscribers based on interests and likes. People who already interact with your brand and consume your content are great targets for your email lists. Add links to sign up for your newsletter on all your social media platforms and any other community you use to communicate with your customers. 

Whop is our personal favorite platform for this, especially if you’re running a B2B business. Use it to create and share crash courses and educational content for your customers. Don’t forget to plug into your email newsletter form.

This will give you a chance to prove your content’s value, encouraging users to subscribe for more free insights.

3. Reward Customer Loyalty With Early Access To New Products/Services

Most of your loyal customers are a part of 16+ loyalty programs. Reward loyal customers of your brand with something more than just discounts to keep them engaged and set yourself apart from competitors.

Here’s what you need to do:

3.1. Give Your Rewards Program A Name

Pick a name that sparks curiosity and interest in your customers, encouraging them to participate. This will set you apart from all your competitors. Plus, your customers will feel excited to be a part of something unique. 

Don’t tell them what you offer. Instead, tap into why your products/services are a great fit for your customers. This will encourage them to sign up for your email and participate in segmented campaigns specifically designed for loyal customers.

3.2. Reward Specific Customer Actions

Segment your email list based on specific customer purchasing and non-purchasing actions. For example, you can reward loyal customers for sharing your social media content, engaging in your mobile app, or watching demonstration videos on your website.

3.4 Combine It With Other Rewards

Grant early access to new products and services to improve your sales funnel and increase your customer lifetime value. You can also add donations in their name to the charity of their choice, free subscriptions for additional products or services, and free tickets to entertainment events.

Create segments based on your customers’ lifestyles and preferences to introduce more loyalty program rewards. You can also let them redeem points for special rewards of their choice for better email engagement.

3.5. Use Gamification For Better Results

Segment your emails based on holidays and product launches to send discovery games, challenges, competitions, creative games, puzzles, educational games, quizzes, and luck and chance games. These are great for collecting detailed subscriber data, including their interests and likes/dislikes. 

4. Monitor Purchase History For Hyper-Personalized Emails

A personalized call to action has a 202% higher conversion rate than standard CTAs, making personalization one of the most important elements of an email marketing campaign. Email marketing segmentation based on purchase history offers more accurate data than most other segmentation strategies.

Here’s what to do:

4.1. Gather As Much Data As Possible

Use your CRM software, Google Analytics, and email marketing platform to collect and analyze customer data. Gather as much data as you can to create a personalized signup page for your customers. In addition to purchase history, segment your email list based on browsing behavior, past interactions, and demographics. 

Look at the email signup by Greenhouse Emporium below. They use MailerLite to create and display forms based on visitors’ website behavior and the pages they visit.

The CTA, graphics, and tone differ for the forms for visitors reading their blogs (as seen above) and those reviewing their products and contemplating a purchase (as seen below).

User EasySendy Pro to segment your email lists more effectively. This hybrid email marketing platform includes multiple email delivery API relay service providers. Plus, it includes features like A/B split testing, email list cleaning, and smart autoresponders so you can reach the right audience at the right time and with the right message.

4.2. Encourage Customers To Sign Up

Adding CTAs like “Join our mailing list to get exclusive deals only available to our subscribers” creates urgency and encourages visitors to subscribe to the email newsletter. Use strong CTAs like this to catch your visitors’ attention and convince them to take action.

Main Clinic Supply‘s email form contains another strong CTA that you can use as inspiration when creating your email signup forms.

This form not only collects your email and name but also your phone number so you can reach out to qualified leads via phone and build a stronger connection outside of emails. The “Inquiring About” section specifically collects information on the visitor’s purchase history.

The following form example from Ovaeda also checks a lot of our boxes of what a good form should look like. 

With a simple but elegant design, with only 3 fields to fill, it won’t distract users from the webpage’s content. They display the pop-up form only when you click on the signup button above the hero banner.

4.3. Customize Recommendations Based On Buyer’s History

Once you gather all purchase-related information from your visitors, you can send them segmented campaigns based on that. For example, if it’s a first-time buyer, you can send them an email comparing the features, prices, and benefits of your products or services. Recommend complementary products to increase customer satisfaction and sales.

5. Retarget Interested Buyers With Cart Abandonment Emails

If you want a click-through rate of 23% and an open rate of 39%, target subscribers who added items to their carts but left your website without making a purchase. Customers who add products to their carts have a high purchase intent. However, they are either overwhelmed by something on your website or distracted.

Here’s what you need to do:

5.1. List The Abandoned Items

List the items in your customer’s abandoned cart and mention a time and date for their cart’s expiration. This will urge your customers to take immediate action. Add high-quality product images to recreate your products’ appeal that convince your visitor to add the selected items to their cart.

Add a hyperlink to the abandoned products so your customers can review them again and make a final decision to buy the items they need the most. Remind your customers of the unique benefits of your products or services like free returns or shipping, to re-engage them. 

5.2. Add A Strong  CTA

Use a strong CTA like “Hurry up before your cart expires” to urge your customers to buy the abandoned products. The CTA should take them back to their cart with all the information your customer had already filled out. 

5.3. Provide Personalized Recommendations

Add a “You might also like” section at the end of your email to reignite your customer’s interest in your products or services. Make sure the recommendations are personalized according to the type of products your customer was viewing and the items they added to the cart.

These targeted emails will convert first-time buyers if you add special offers like a first-time buyer discount code.

5.4. Highlight Positive Customer Reviews

Customer reviews build credibility and increase email engagement. They create trust between your customers and your brand to influence purchase decisions. Gather customer feedback using Yotpo or any review or email marketing app to highlight the best, most relevant ones in your cart abandonment emails. 

6 Proven Ways To Segment Your Email List

Review your current email marketing strategies and consider how you can replace them with the email segmentation methods below.

I. Demographic Segmentation

Use demographic data to create segments and group customers based on data points like:

• Age
• Race
• Income
• Gender
• Job title
• Religion
• Education
• Nationality
• Family size
• Marital status

Use Google Forms or Survey Monkey to create forms and send them to your customers via email to collect all of this information. For example, if you’re running an electronic store, you may target younger adults for smartphones and gadgets while offering computers and laptops to older adults. 

II. Geographic Segmentation Strategy

This email segmentation creates customer groups based on census data, geographic information systems, customer relationship management, social media analytics, or online surveys to gather geographical information about your customers.

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Use this email marketing strategy to send location-specific promotions. For example, if you own a fashion brand, you can use this to promote winter clothes for your customers in cooler regions.

III. Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic segmentation is dividing your customers based on their opinions, interests, activities, social status, lifestyle, values, beliefs, or any other psychological criteria. Use the following methods to gather this data and create a segment yourself:

• Surveys
• Quizzes
• Interviews
• Social media
• Focus groups
• Market research
• Website analytics
• Third-party data retrieval

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For luxury brands, this means targeting customers who value exclusivity and status with segmented digital marketing campaigns.

IV. Behavioral Segmentation Strategy

Behavioral segmentation is the process of grouping and sorting customers into email segments based on the behaviors they show. This includes their frequency of website or app visits and the type of content and products they consume. Use surveys to collect the relevant information and create email segments based on the following:

• Occasion-based 
• Customer loyalty
• Purchasing habits
• Customer satisfaction
• Other behavioral data
• The benefits they seek
• Customer engagement

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Use wishlists, browsing history, and your customers’ past purchases to send targeted email campaigns based on behavioral data.

V. Need-Based Segmentation

Need-based email marketing groups people based on their shared needs. It identifies a common need to give more comprehensive insights into why your customers make certain buying decisions and send targeted campaigns.

Use the descriptive customer data that you have–customer value, demographics, and other data types mentioned earlier, to create group buckets. Then, identify each group’s most important needs.

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For example, you can target customers who require high-performance laptops for gaming and create separate segments for inactive users and those looking for basic models for work or study.

VI. Technographic Segmentation

Use this email marketing strategy to divide your customers based on the technology and tools they use. Collect technographic segmentation data using any of the following methods:

• Surveys
• Social media 
• Web scraping tools
• Industry reports
• Customer feedback
• Third-party data providers

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If you’re running a B2B business, create email marketing segments based on this to tailor your email campaigns for companies using specific software. Offer them complementary tools and integrations based on the technographic segmentation data.

Conclusion

Email segmentation is an ongoing journey. Start by focusing on much smaller groups with one primary goal and pace yourself. As you yield positive results through your initial segmentation efforts,  gradually expand and introduce more targeted campaigns.

Smartreach.io is the best email marketing software for cold outreach and follow-ups. Use it to increase your delivery rates and engagement and make metrics tracking easier. Try it for free today and transform your email marketing campaigns from average to the best in class.