Segmenting your list: where do you start?

Sending everybody the same thing is the simplest way to lower your results. But segmenting too finely costs more time than it returns.

Start with behaviour

Who bought, who only looked, who has done nothing for six months. That is the most profitable split and you already have the data.

Then by interest

If somebody always looks at the same category, they do not want everything else. One interest field at sign-up is often enough.

Do not overdo it

Twelve segments means twelve messages to write. Three well-chosen segments deliver almost all the result for a quarter of the work.

The most important segment

Your most engaged contacts. Send to them first in a big campaign: their positive responses improve delivery for everything that follows.

Measure per segment

A single overall figure hides exactly what you wanted to know. If one segment collapses, you will not see it in the average.