Email Segmentation: 12 Strategies to Segment Email Lists

Are you guilty of blasting the same emails to all customers without using email segmentation? It is an easy route, but it will not yield any conversions.

Email list segmentation is the best way to engage customers and increase the conversion rates of your e-commerce store.

In this blog, we explain why segmentation is important in email marketing and list the most effective email marketing segmentation strategies. On top of that, we provide you with email segmentation examples to show how to create email content for different customer segments.

Let’s dive right in.

What is Email Segmentation?

Email segmentation is a technique of dividing email lists based on customer characteristics like age, gender, location, purchase history, email engagement, and more. 

With segmentation in email marketing, you can send automated email marketing campaigns to match the unique characteristics of every customer and resonate with the customers’ needs and interests. 

Benefits of Email Segmentation

In Hubspot Research 2021, email segmentation (78%) and personalization (72%) were identified as the most effective strategies in email marketing.

The benefits of email segmentation are:

• High personalization and engagement
• High open and click-through rates
• High conversion rates
• Low unsubscribe rates
• High email deliverability

Let’s see in detail the benefits of email marketing segmentation.

High personalization and engagement

Email personalization goes hand in hand with segmentation. The more personalized your emails are, the more engaged your customers will be. 

The main reason why segmentation is important in email marketing is that you can send personalized email campaigns that convert more than generic ones. 

Creating customer segments based on their unique characteristics, like purchase history, interests, and demographics, allows you to tailor the message based on these factors. This makes your email resonate with each customer. 

This is the most important reason why segmentation matters in email marketing. 

High open and click-through rates

Segmented email campaigns had 100.95% clicks compared to non-segmented emails globally, according to Mailchimp. 

The benefit of email segmentation is that segmented email campaigns are more relevant to each recipient, and they tend to have higher open and click-through rates compared to non-segmented campaigns. 

High conversion rates

According to Campaign Monitor, segmented email campaigns result in a 760% increase in revenue. 
Segmented email campaigns can lead to higher conversion rates as they target subscribers with content and offers that are most relevant to them.  

For example, sending a promotion for baby products to recent parents rather than the entire email list makes a conversion more likely.

The sheer number of conversions you get is the reason why email segmentation is more important than any other email marketing strategy out there. 

Lower unsubscribe rates

When emails are consistently relevant and engaging, subscribers are less likely to feel overwhelmed or annoyed by your communications, leading to lower unsubscribe rates.

High email deliverability 

By sending relevant emails through email segmentation, it is very unlikely that you will send unengaging and spammy content. 

It decreases the chance of your emails landing in the spam folder and increases overall email deliverability. 

Now that we know why segmentation matters in email marketing let’s move on to learning how you can segment email lists based on various criteria. 

How to Segment Email Lists? 

You can segment email lists based on the various unique characteristics of your customers. 
Personalized emails are not only about mentioning the customer’s name in the email; they go much beyond that. 

Let’s look at how to segment your email list with the help of customer data and send more tailored content. 

5 ways to segment email lists are:

• Demographic segmentation
• Behavioral segmentation
• Preference-based segmentation
• Lifecycle stage segmentation
• Purchase history-based segmentation

1. Demographic segmentation

Criteria: Age, gender, location, income, education level, occupation, etc.
This type of customer segmentation is one of the most straightforward ways to categorize customers, as these factors significantly influence buying behavior and product preferences.
For example, marketing strategies that appeal to millennials may not resonate with baby boomers. 

2. Behavioral segmentation

Criteria: Purchase history, website activity, email engagement, shopping cart abandonment, etc.
Customer behavior-based email marketing segmentation offers insights into customer interactions with your brand. Understanding a customer’s past purchases can predict future buying behavior, enabling you to recommend relevant products. 
For example, customers with high email engagement could receive exclusive deals to encourage conversion.

3. Preference-based segmentation

Criteria: Product interest, content preferences, etc.
This type of email marketing segmentation focuses on the specific interests and preferences of your customers, ensuring that the content and products they receive are aligned with what they value most. 

4. Lifecycle stage segmentation

Criteria: New customers, active customers, inactive customers, loyal customers, etc.
Customers at different stages of their relationship with your brand have different needs and expectations. 
This type of email list segmentation allows businesses to nurture these relationships appropriately, from welcoming new customers to re-engaging inactive ones and rewarding loyal customers.

5. Purchase history-based segmentation

Purchase history has a goldmine of information about your customer’s purchasing behavior – what type of products they have purchased before, the frequency and recency of purchases, and the total purchase value. 

Here are the criteria to consider in this type of email segmentation when sending personalized emails.  

• Frequency of purchases
• Total purchase value 
• Product categories 
• Purchase history trends

12 Best Email Segmentation Strategies

The proven email segmentation strategies are:

1. Location-specific segmentation
2. RFM segmentation
3. Purchase history
4. Email Engagement
5. Welcoming new subscribers
6. Abandoned carts
7. Products viewed
8. Stage of the sales funnel
9. Personal interests
10. Discount code usage
11. Predicted customer lifetime value
12. Content interests

Let’s see how you can implement these email segmentation strategies in your email campaigns.

1. Location-specific segmentation

Local-specific segmentation is one of the most basic email segmentation strategies.

You can predict customer preferences with their demographic data. If you are running a clothing store, sending emails about monsoon season offers will work for Asian customers but not for Americans. Or you wouldn’t want to send a recommendation email for a gaming product to a 40-year-old. 

Here is an email segmentation example by Nanit.

If you have customers worldwide, it would make sense to send a July 4th email only to North Americans. 

2. RFM Segmentation

RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value) technique is used to identify a business’s best customers. 

• Recency(R) – How recently a customer made a purchase.
• Frequency (F) – How often a customer purchases within a given period.
• Monetary value (M) – How much money a customer has spent during a given time.

These values tell who your high-value and low-value customers are. 

What to send your high-value customers:

Reward them with exclusive offers, VIP access to product launches, loyalty program invitations, personalized thank-you notes, and more. 

What to send your low-value customers:

Encourage more purchases with upselling and cross-selling, limited-time offers, request feedback, and more. 

Here is how Sunglass Hut implemented this email segmentation idea. 

3. Purchase History

Purchase history has a goldmine of information about your customer’s purchasing behavior – what type of products they have purchased before, the frequency and recency of purchases, and the total purchase value. 

Here is how you can use purchase history as an email marketing segmentation strategy to send personalized emails.  

• Frequency of purchases – Send exclusive offers for frequent buyers and limited-time offers and product recommendations to occasional buyers. If they haven’t purchased for more than 90 days, send them a win-back email. 
• Total purchase value – Offer high-value customers exclusive offers, send cross-sell and up-sell emails, and invite them for a loyalty program. 
• Product categories – Send cross-sell and up-sell emails, re-stock reminders, and product usage guides. 
• Purchase history trends – Send emails featuring products related to the current season or upcoming holidays. 

Here is how Adidas this email segmentation idea.

You can implement email segmentation ideas like this by segmenting email lists by product category and including a complementary product in the email. 

4. Email Engagement 

Email engagement indicators will tell you what to send and how frequently you should send emails in the future. 

To implement this email segmentation idea, create email segments for highly engaged subscribers (frequent openers and clickers), moderately engaged subscribers, and less engaged subscribers.

Here is how you can send segmented email campaigns with this data.

• Less engaged customers – Send re-engagement emails with incentives or fewer emails to avoid unsubscribes.

• Highly engaged customers – Send exclusive offers and more frequent emails. 

5. Welcome new subscribers

Personalizing welcome emails to address specific interests or demographics makes the content more relevant and engaging. 

You can segment new customers based on the source of sign-up, demographics, preferences, and interests. 

Track where subscribers signed up, such as your website, blog, social media, or landing pages. This helps you understand their initial interest.

Here is how Glossier implemented this email segmentation idea in their welcome email. 

6. Abandoned Carts

This is one of those ecommerce email segmentation strategies that you shouldn’t turn your back on. 

You wouldn’t want all of your abandoned cart emails to look the same; say the same “Your cart is waiting for you” tagline. You can segment the customers who abandoned carts based on the items in the cart, average cart value, and frequency of abandonment. 

With dynamic content blocks in the email, you can include abandoned items directly in the email. Moreover, segmenting email lists by average order value allows you to give them special treatment, like sending exclusive offers. 

Here is an ecommerce email segmentation example by Fabletics Men. 

See how they included a VIP Member Exclusive offer. This can’t be done without segmenting the abandoned cart customers by VIPs or non-VIPs. 

7. Products viewed

In ecommerce email segmentation, you can also collect data from customers’ website activity and segment them based on that. Products they have viewed are a great clue into what they are interested in, and all they need is a little nudge to purchase. 

You can also provide exclusive discounts for products they viewed. This creates a sense of urgency and encourages conversion.

You can use tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar to track viewed products and integrate these tools with your email segmentation tool. 

Here is how Rael implements this email marketing segmentation strategy.

8. Stage of the sales funnel

The ultimate goal of ecommerce email segmentation is to send relevant content to the customers. The stage of the funnel clearly tells you about customers’ varying needs and pain points, allowing you to address them in your emails. 

• Awareness stage – Customers in this stage have recently discovered your brand or product. Send newsletters with educational content, blog posts, and welcome emails to nurture their interest.
• Consideration stage – Customers here are actively considering your products or services. Send product recommendations, comparison guides, and customer reviews to help them make informed decisions.
• Decision stage – These subscribers are close to making a purchase decision. Send them personalized offers, discounts, or product recommendations to encourage conversion.
• Post-purchase stage – Subscribers who have made a purchase. Send next-order coupons, loyalty rewards, and upsell or cross-sell emails to encourage repeat business.
• Referral stage – These customers are satisfied and can become brand advocates. Send referral incentives, request reviews, or invite them to join your loyalty program.
• Abandoned Cart stage – Send cart recovery emails with personalized product recommendations and incentives.
• Inactive/Win-back stage – Segment based on the length of inactivity. Send win-back emails, special offers, or re-engagement campaigns to rekindle their interest.

There are quite a lot of ways you can gather data to determine which stage the customer is in. For example, someone who fills out a contact form is likely in the consideration stage, while a customer who completes a purchase has reached the post-purchase stage. 

Email segmentation tools allow you to segment your email list based on product page visits, email open rates, or time spent on your site.

Here is how Fulton uses this ecommerce email segmentation strategy. 

This email segmentation example would typically be sent to someone in the decision stage. They have viewed the product and just need a little push to click “Buy.” 

9. Personal Interests

Other than the above email marketing strategies, a simple survey or making the customers choose their interests in the site would give a peek into their persona. If they chose sportswear instead of formal wear, you can recommend sports products in your emails. 

10. Discount code usage

Unique coupon codes you have offered will give you data for customer segmentation if you track their usage. You can unlock it by tracking their usage. Some criteria you can consider are high-spenders, seasonal shoppers, and first-time buyers. 

If you offer discounts on specific product categories like “20% off Apparel”, segment customers who have redeemed codes for those categories. Send them relevant product recommendations and similar offers.

11. Predicted customer lifetime value

You can’t miss out on those long-term customers who have stuck with you for so long. Identify them by calculating average purchase value and average purchase frequency and longevity. Those who have scored high on these categories are your high lifetime value customers. 

To implement this email segmentation idea, show them an appreciation for their loyalty and repeat business and offer exclusive perks, such as early access to sales or VIP events.

This is how Moment implements this email segmentation strategy.

This is an email segmentation example of how you can be grateful for your high lifetime value customers and give them an exclusive offer. 

12. Content Interests

In this email segmentation strategy, you segment your customers based on what content they like – videos, images, blogs, or instructional guides. 

Keep an eye on what content they engage with (e.g., blog posts, videos, articles) on your site and track which emails they open and which links they click. 

There you have it. 12 best email marketing segmentation strategies to create targeted email campaigns. 

Now, let’s move on to learn about some of the best practices you should follow while creating this email list segmentation.

5 Email Segmentation Best Practices to Follow

Every segment you create indicates differences in the preferences, needs, and behaviors of customers. The goal of email segmentation in email marketing is to send emails that align with those unique differences and ultimately engage the customers. 

To meet this goal, you have to follow some of the email list segmentation best practices below:

Data quality and accuracy

To do targeted email marketing, ensure that your customer data is accurate and up to date. Inaccurate data can lead to incorrect segmentation and ineffective campaigns.

Choosing segmentation criteria

Define clear criteria for segmenting email lists. If you are just getting started with email segmentation, start with just 2-3 segments that will make the most impact.

Personalizing the emails

Craft highly personalized email content tailored to each customer segment. This includes using the recipient’s name, referencing past interactions, and recommending products or content based on their history.

Track and test

Continuously test your email segmentation strategy and email content to identify what works best. A/B testing can help refine your targeted email campaigns over time. And keep an eye on unsubscribes. 

Using email automation

As an email segmentation best practice, use marketing automation tools to streamline your email list segmentation efforts.

Email automation can ensure that emails are sent to the right segments at the right times, improving efficiency and accuracy.

How to get started with Email Marketing Segmentation?

On the face of it, email list segmentation can be quite overwhelming; let’s simplify it further by a step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Choose an email segmentation tool

A good email marketing platform takes the load off you and allows you to do email list segmentation without a 3-page manual. Choose one and integrate it with your e-commerce store. 

Choose an email segmentation tool that has features like:

• Pre-built segmentation templates
• Advanced email segmentation capabilities
• Email automation

Step 2: Choose your segmentation criteria

Define your goals for specific email marketing segmentation criteria – is it for customer retention, abandoned cart recovery, or promotions? Then, select a criteria that align with the goal. 

Step 3: Segment the email list

Pick your chosen criteria in the email automation platform. 

In Retainful, it can be done in a few simple steps. You can choose pre-defined email segmentation templates like abandoned cart customers, inactive customers, VIP customers, new customers, and active Email subscribers, or you can create your own rules from scratch. 

Here is an example of two segmentation criteria – abandoned carts and purchase history.  

You can segment the abandoned cart customers in multiple ways in Retainful –  such as abandoned date, abandoned product name, total number of abandoned carts, and cart value, among others. 

In the case of purchase history, you can segment customers by number of orders, order total, product name, and product ID, among others. 

Now, you can use these segments effortlessly while creating your targeted email campaigns.

Step 4: Write email content for different customer segments

After segmenting email lists, it is time to craft relevant email content based on the customer’s interests and needs.

Here is how to write email content for different customer segments:

• High-value/ VIP customer segment: Suggest high-end products and give early access to sales.
• New customers segment: First purchase offer and product tips.
• Inactive customers: Highlight what’s new and give a comeback offer
• Abandoned cart customers: Objection handling emails and free shipping/ offer emails

Wrapping up!!

The ultimate goal of email segmentation is to make the customers feel that your emails resonate with their current situation so that they are more likely to take the desired action, whether signing up, making a purchase, or referring others.

In this blog, we have covered why segmentation is important in email marketing, the best email list segmentation strategies, and some email marketing segmentation best practices. 

Learn more about how to do better email marketing:

• 10 Best Email Marketing Examples for 2024
• 9 Post-purchase Email Examples That Retain Customers