3 Email List Segmentation Methods for Higher Engagement and Conversions
After running hundreds of successful inbound and outbound campaigns, we can confidently say that your email list (who you target) is the most important factor in a campaign’s success—not the messaging or the design, but your list.
This article breaks it down into three practical methods for mastering your email list segmentation, helping you zero in on the warmest leads and drive better results for your outbound campaigns.
Why Your Email List is the Key to Success
Email has repeatedly proven to be the marketing strategy that drives the highest ROI for businesses of all sizes. Email drives $36 in revenue for every $1 spent. To compare, social media platforms see an average ROI of $2.50 for every $1 spent. Email has been and continues to be a worthwhile investment.
A random newsletter every once in a while won’t drive the results you’re looking for. Average campaigns use a one-size-fits-all approach with generic messaging that doesn’t resonate with recipients. Weak and generic CTAs don’t drive clicks or conversions. Business owners often use a ‘set it and forget it’ approach, negatively impacting performance.
An email strategy is crucial to see desired results. Exceptional campaigns leverage detailed customer personas, behavioral data, and advanced segmentation to send personalized messages to each recipient based on their interests and stage in the buyer’s journey. They offer engaging, valuable, high-quality content that educates and solves problems. Exceptional campaigns use data-driven insights to determine optimal send times and maintain a strategic cadence.
The first step to creating exceptional email campaigns is proper email list segmentation.
What is Email List Segmentation?
Email list segmentation is the process of sorting your potential prospects or subscribers on your email list into categories so you can customize the future emails they receive. If someone downloads a freebie on digital marketing strategies, you can assume they are interested in learning more about digital marketing. You can then send them targeted emails about digital marketing topics, customizing their experience and meeting them where they are in the buyer’s journey.
How do you get started with email list segmentation? We have three proven methodologies that will guide you on how to segment an email list to reach the right person at the right time.
3 Methods for Email List Segmentation
You may choose to use all three of these email list segmentation methods or just one. It is a great practice to start immediately by utilizing automation in your email platform. Segment your current email list based on actions they have previously taken and set up processes to do this automatically when someone new joins your list.
Method 1: Segment by Company Information
When figuring out who to target, the first step is creating several “segments” that you will test. Industry, location, and company size are critical email list segmentation criteria. They provide essential context about a business’s operations, needs, and challenges so you can deliver highly relevant and personalized messaging.
You may choose to prioritize leads within a specific sector or geographic location. For example, suppose you are using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to outreach to your prospects. In that case, you can create custom lists using advanced search filters to find leads that fall into your chosen categories. Next, you can integrate your LinkedIn and CRM (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce, SalesLoft, etc.) with a Sales Intelligence platform like ZoomInfo, Apollo.io, or Seamless AI to push those leads and append their business email directly into your CRM.
With this method, you can email people you’ve already reached out to on LinkedIn. This process supports a targeted demand generation strategy to raise awareness and engagement across your target audiences to warm up the prospects before sales call them.
Method 2: Segment by Persona Information – Know Your ICP
Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is crucial to understanding your audience. Overly broad buyer personas lead to wasted efforts. Get specific on who you are targeting in your email campaigns. These are a few examples of how to segment an email list based on specific personal contact information.
Example 1: Narrowing “Sales Leaders” into Precise Roles
Segment by focusing on specific roles that align with your product or service rather than targeting a broad category.
- Broad Persona: Sales leaders
- Refined Persona: Roles like “Director of Sales Enablement” or “VP of Revenue Operations” focus on equipping sales teams with tools, processes, and training to close deals efficiently.
Why It Works: Broad personas like “sales leaders” often include various responsibilities, from managing teams to pipeline strategy. Refining by specific job roles ensures you’re targeting those actively seeking solutions like sales enablement platforms or CRM integrations, making your outreach more relevant.
Example 2: Seniority Levels
Instead of targeting all levels within a department, focus on specific seniority tiers that align with decision-making authority or influence.
- Broad Persona: Marketing managers
- Refined Persona: Senior-level roles such as “VP of Marketing” or “Director of Digital Marketing,” as opposed to junior roles like “Marketing Coordinator.”
Why It Works: Senior-level contacts are often decision-makers or key influencers, making them more likely to accept your offer.
Example 3: Key Responsibilities or Pain Points
Segment by the responsibilities or challenges that align with your solution rather than relying solely on job titles.
- Broad Persona: Customer Support leaders
- Refined Persona: Those responsible for “reducing churn rates” or “implementing customer success tools.”
Why It Works: By understanding their specific priorities, you can craft messaging that resonates deeply with their needs and pain points, even if their titles vary.
Method 3: Layer Signals for Exceptional Results
Signals elevate basic ICP targeting to drive higher email marketing engagement. Customer signals indicate someone’s preferences, purchase or search intent, interest, or engagement with your company. Behavior-driven insights allow for more personalized and effective messaging in your email campaigns.
Here are some signals that you can use in your email list segmentation:
- Customers who recently changed jobs
- Open job postings
- New executive hires
- Cart abandonment
- Engaging with content related to specific topics
- Recent growth in the marketing department
- New product launched
- Using a competitor
- Recent funding
- Website visit
By integrating customer signals, you can segment your email list based on real-time behaviors. For example, a customer who clicks on a demo page might receive emails about how to use a tool. Or a user who downloads a whitepaper on a specific topic might receive follow-up content that aligns with that interest. Customer signals allow for hyper-personalized messaging, increasing open and click-through rates and conversions from your email campaigns.
Quick Steps to Implement Email List Segmentation in Your Campaigns
An action plan will help you start segmenting your email list effectively. First, define your goals and select the segmentation method that best aligns with them. Then, start collecting relevant data in form submissions so new subscribers can join a segmentation list as soon as they submit a form.
Once you have segmentation lists built and automation in place, you can begin to customize content to your segments with multi-A/B testing, a strategy for testing multiple variations of an email to determine which combination of elements performs best. Test and refine your messaging to each segment to develop drip campaigns that nurture your audience into customers.
The Power of a Segmented Email List
A segmented email list allows for more personalized messaging to meet customers where they are in the buyer’s journey and increase conversions. By sorting customers into specific groups based on company information, personal information, and behavior signals, you can send highly relevant messaging and offers to improve open and click-through rates. Automate the process of segmenting subscribers and develop drip campaigns to customize their experience with your company.
We encourage you to audit your email list and test segments for better email marketing results. If you need help with the strategy and implementation of email list segmentation, schedule a free assessment with our team.
