Companies often ask how to take their email segmentation to the next level. This is a great question, as segmentation strategy is one of the most important (of many important) elements for a successful email program.

The answer to this question depends on the particular industry, the customers, company goals, available resources, etc etc. During an uncovery phase of a strategic email planning process, key questions are answered to help guide us towards better segmentation.

Two Important Questions:

1. Is it Meaningful: We may have the best technology in the world and the ability to drill down a customer segment. At the end of the day though, does this segment make sense for our product/service and what we’re trying to accomplish with our email marketing program? Is the result of this segment a meaningful communication for the subscriber?

2. Is the Data Available: You may want to implement a strategy where you break customers down by their geographic location, gender, and whether or not they have purchased Product X in the previous 6 months. Great! This may be a fantastic segment to target, but if all we have available to us is the subscribers first name, email address, and date of last order, it will be pretty tricky to execute this query. The better question may be: what data do we have available? This then opens up doors for exploring more intricate (and appropriate) email segments.

In future posts I will be going into much more detail on tips and advanced strategies for implementing some of these segments.

Below is a starter list of 15 ideas for what to segment

1. Subscribers who have signed up within a given date range
2. Email activity (open vs. did not opened; clicked through vs. did not click through)
3. Specific click activity (did they click on link x, or product category A)
4. Email engagement history (subscribers who have not opened an email (or done another defined action) in x months).
5. Active subscribers (continuing from the last point – subscribers that have opened X+ messages in the previous X months)
6. Post email engagement (did they click through and reach a goal page on the website? Abandon a cart? etc.
7. Date range of last order placed
8. Product groups purchased from
9. Customer value
10. Average ticket price
11. Interest groups
12. Subscribers in a specific state, county, zip code
13. Birthdays in a particular month
14. Subscriber demographics such as: age, gender, education levels,marital status etc.
15. Acquisition channel

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, segmentation strategy is very important for email marketing. Stay tuned for more detailed posts with best practices and advanced tips for creating your segments.

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