5 Segmenting Email Lists for Targeted Campaigns: a Success Story
Email marketing remains a powerful tool for businesses, but its effectiveness hinges on proper segmentation. This article delves into the success story of 5 and their strategic approach to segmenting email lists for targeted campaigns. Drawing on insights from industry experts, it explores key tactics such as behavior-based segmentation, customer journey targeting, and leveraging geographical data to boost campaign performance.
- Segment Based on User Behavior
- Target Customers at Different Journey Stages
- Tailor Email Timing to Subscriber Habits
- Deliver Industry-Specific Content to Users
- Leverage Postal Codes for Targeted Campaigns
Segment Based on User Behavior
My go-to strategy? Segment based on behavior, not just demographics. What someone clicks on, downloads, or ignores tells you way more than where they live or how old they are. I always start with action-based tagging: who opened, who clicked, what link they clicked, and what product or lead magnet brought them in.
One of my favorite segments? For a supplement brand, we built a segment of people who only clicked on content related to sleep and stress. We didn't just send them general promos--we crafted a 5-email flow around "Better Sleep Naturally," shared expert tips, bundled relevant products, and added a quiz to recommend their ideal sleep stack. That segment ended up converting 2.4x higher than our general list.
So, build segments that speak to intent. It's not just about blasting more emails. It's about showing up with exactly what they care about.
Target Customers at Different Journey Stages
As a growth marketer, I recommend segmenting your email list based on user behavior and engagement levels, as this allows for highly relevant and timely messaging. One effective strategy is to create segments based on the stage of the customer journey—for example, new subscribers, active users, and inactive users. A segment I found particularly successful was targeting users who had added items to their cart but didn't complete the purchase. For this group, we launched a cart abandonment sequence with dynamic product content, urgency-driven subject lines, and a limited-time discount. The result was a 25% recovery rate in lost sales. By tailoring the message to their specific behavior and offering a timely incentive, we re-engaged users who were already close to conversion. The key is to use real-time data and personalize the experience to match where the user is in the funnel.
Tailor Email Timing to Subscriber Habits
Most people think segmentation is all about sales, but I've found it's just as much about timing. I once noticed that a group of subscribers always opened emails late at night, long after the usual workday. Instead of treating them like everyone else, I created a segment for these night owls and scheduled emails to land in their inboxes around 10 PM.
The difference was striking. Not only did the open rates climb, but I also received more replies and even a few stories from readers about catching up on emails before bed. It felt like I had tapped into a small community with its own rhythm.
This taught me that sometimes, the best segments aren't based on what people buy or where they live, but on the subtle habits that make them unique. Meeting people in their own time and space can turn a routine campaign into something that feels almost like a conversation.
Deliver Industry-Specific Content to Users
When new users sign up for Animoto, we ask about their intended use, including whether they're a business or consumer and, if a business, their specific industry. We use this information to segment our email list by industry, delivering video templates tailored to each user's needs. To further enhance effectiveness, we target active users—those who've recently engaged with our website or emails—and exclude anyone who's opted out of marketing communications. This approach ensures we provide timely, relevant content to users who are most likely to find it valuable.
Leverage Postal Codes for Targeted Campaigns
It's a common practice to segment email lists by customer type or interest type. However, we've recently seen success with a more basic approach - postal code segmentation.
Our residential roofing company has an email list of thousands of leads and past clients spread across the state of Texas. They all generally fit our ideal client profile, so any further segmentation would be quite niche by default.
In Texas, storm damage to roofs is highly specific to postal codes. We started sending emails only to customers who actually experienced damage from a storm, ensuring we weren't contacting people on our lists who would find that information irrelevant. Our open rates for these postal code-specific emails were higher than our larger, general campaigns, and we've seen inspections and deals resulting from these efforts.
