Email segmentation for mid-market professionals

POST-4/7👉 Email used to be a megaphone. In 2025, it’s a whisper in a very specific ear. Gone are the days when “blast to all” could pass as a strategy. In fact, that approach in 2025 is actively hurting your deliverability. Email Service Providers (ESPs) like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook are no longer just evaluating your IP health—they’re scoring your sender behavior at the recipient level. That means if 40% of your list is cold or disengaged, Gmail sees you as the problem—not just the user. ⚠️ Real Consequence: 1. We audited an ecommerce fashion brand with 220K contacts. Over 92K of them hadn’t clicked a single email in 90+ days. Gmail flagged them for bulk spam behavior, and inboxing fell from 78% to 46% overnight. 2. They were running promos weekly. Nothing was technically broken—but nothing was relevant. That’s what got them crushed. What Micro-Segmentation Solves in 2025: ✅ Reduces spam complaints ✅ Increases engagement velocity ✅ Signals positive intent to inbox providers ✅ Unlocks higher revenue per send with smaller cohorts Micro-Segmentation Tactics That Work Now: 1. Behavior-Based Journeys: Forget static tags. If someone viewed winter boots but didn’t buy, your next 3 emails better talk about warmth, snow, or style—not your general spring lookbook. ✅ Klaviyo + Shopify data lets you trigger flow branches based on: Last viewed product category Cart abandonment by SKU group Pages viewed in session (via UTMs or on-site behavior) Pro Tip: Use dynamic content blocks inside campaigns to adjust hero sections based on browse activity without cloning entire flows. 2. Lifecycle Automation by Spend Velocity This isn’t “new vs returning” logic anymore. In 2025, flows shift based on: Time since last order AOV trends SKU replenishment cycles Example: First-time customer who hasn’t returned in 30 days → “2nd purchase incentive” High-value buyer within 7 days → “VIP early access” Customer inactive 60+ days → Winback + dynamic offer block + channel sync suppression 3. AI-Supported Clustering Tools like RetentionX, Lexer, and even Klaviyo’s predictive analytics are now building multi-dimensional customer clusters using: Purchase frequency Channel source Time to second order Category loyalty It’s loyal mid-value buyers who shop monthly but only when free shipping is offered. ✅ What to do: Export these clusters to your ESP Build messaging that maps exactly to their past actions Suppress low responders from paid channels and warm email instead. Ready to Execute? Create 5 foundational micro-segments: 1. High spenders 2. First-time buyers 3. VIPs (CLV > 2.5x avg) 4. Dormant >90 days 5. Active clickers, no conversion Test 2 cadences per segment: VIPs: 4x/month + early access Dormant: 1x/month reactivation with content—not promos Use Recency, Frequency, and Monetary score buckets to tag customers and let your automations react to movement between them. #EmailMarketing #email

Your email marketing list has three types of people on it: Readers who never buy Buyers who never read And the 8% who do both Most brands optimize for the readers. They craft perfect subject lines, test send times, obsess over open rates. Meanwhile, the buyers are ignoring every email and just coming back when they need to reorder. Here's what nobody talks about: Your buyers don't need more emails. They need fewer, better timed ones. I pulled data from brand's ESP. Here's what we found: People who bought 3+ times had an average email open rate of 11%. People who bought once had an average email open rate of 34%. The best customers were ignoring most emails! So we split the list: Segment 1: High engagement, low purchase These people open everything but never buy. They're tire kickers. Entertainment seekers. Freebie hunters. Action: Moved them to a weekly digest instead of daily sends. One email, all the content. Stop burning domain reputation on people who aren't converting. Segment 2: Low engagement, high purchase These people buy every 40-60 days like clockwork. They ignore promotional emails. They don't care about your content. Action: Sent them exactly three emails between purchases: - Day 30: Refill reminder (just inventory check, no pitch) - Day 45: "You're probably running low" - Day 55: Reorder link, one-click Open rates stayed low (12%). Conversion rate on those three emails: 43%. Segment 3: High engagement, high purchase The golden 8%. They read AND buy. Action: These people got everything. New products first. Behind-the-scenes content. Early access. VIP treatment. The result after 90 days: Total email volume: Down 62% Revenue from email: Up 31% Unsubscribe rate: Down 55% The lesson: Stop treating your email list as ONE Your best customers don't want to hear from you more. They want to hear from you smarter. Figure out who's buying despite your emails, and get out of their way.

𝐒𝐮𝐛 𝟏𝟎% 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝟎.𝟓% 𝐂𝐓𝐑. 𝐀 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥. Something had to change! Here’s what we did 🌟  ↴ Community Insights: ↳I reached out to operators in ClubPF ⚓︎, Pavilion, and other communities, and LinkedIn to learn from their email campaign strategies. Focused Segmentation: ↳ We noticed that the top marketers and ops professionals were creating highly engaged audience segments. We reduced our audience size by 90%, focusing on: → Last email opened from sales/marketing → Recent website visits → Event registration/attendance → Asset downloads or form submissions Building Engagement: ↳ We enriched contact details and evaluated titles, companies, goals, challenges, and content engagement across emails and our website. Gathering Feedback: ↳ We contacted 20+ engaged contacts to understand their email preferences, knowledge gaps, and content consumption habits. Strategic Expansion: ↳ We expanded our list by 5-10% weekly, monitoring performance closely. Within 3 weeks, we saw: 20%+ open rates 1.5%+ CTRs By the end of the quarter, our segmented email campaigns achieved a 30%+ open rate! Key Takeaways 💡: 👉 People-First Approach: Engage internally with the best team and externally with your audience. 👉 Data-Driven Decisions: Use engagement signals to create focused segments. 👉 Continuous Improvement: Regularly gather feedback and adjust strategies. ✨ This journey was about putting people first, aligning our team, and delivering value to our audience. The results speak for themselves! S/o to Ritakshi J. Sagar Mishra and Soumyajit Chakladar - we worked week after week to make this happen! Picture Context - Winter in Boston in 2010. Sometimes this is what being a GTM Operator feels like 🤣 #EmailMarketing #GTM #datadriven

The #1 reason your email list is underperforming…. You’re sending the same message to people with completely different reasons to buy. Not segmentation by demographics. Not A/B testing subject lines. Not prettier templates or flashier copy. The problem is misalignment. When the message doesn't feel like it's for you, it gets deleted. Last month, I was reviewing a clothing brand with 82,000 subscribers. Email/SMS SHOULD be printing money. But every campaign? Same everything. Same angle. Same offer. Same urgency. To everyone. Grandma buying gifts. Dad into hunting gear. Mom shopping for school clothes. All getting the same email. The results were brutal… <20% open rates. 0.3% clicks. Revenue per send barely covering costs. Not because the list was bad. Because the message doesn’t match the moment. So here’s what we did: We stopped writing to "our audience" and started writing to why they buy. • Parents got: "Outgrown last season's tee? Here's what's next." • Gift buyers got: "Got a birthday coming up? These were made for it." • Hunters got: "The hunt is over. Our #1 camo design is back." The results? Open rates jumped to 34%. Click rates hit 2.8%. Revenue per send increased 4x. It’s not rocket science. It’s relevance. Write to one real person with one real reason to care at the exact moment they need it solved. Most agencies think segmentation means splitting by company size or industry. That's surface-level thinking. Real segmentation is intent-based. Want the framework? Reply "INTENT" and I'll send you the breakdown.

Here's 7 ways you can start segmenting your email list so you can make more sales with less traffic: Segmentation Strategy 1 - Who they are (identity) What's their job title? What kind of business do they run? How do they identify (not like pronouns or whatever, I mean like: I'm a crossfitter, I'm a marathoner, I'm a bodybuilder, I play in an adult soccer league, etc) Segmentation Strategy 2 - #1 challenge What's the problem they were trying to solve that compelled them to visit your site and opt in for your list in the first place? Sure, they might have multiple problems... but their #1 problem is the one they want to solve RIGHT NOW and it's what you should be leading with in your messaging. Segmentation Strategy #3 - Level / stage In every market, there are beginners, intermediates, and people who are more advanced. It probably makes sense to speak to them differently. They probably have different problems at different stages. Segmentation Strategy #4 - Metrics I like sorting people by their email list size. If you're a weight loss coach, maybe you're sorting people by how many pounds they'd like to lose. If you're a SaaS Founder, maybe you'd like to know how many team members your potential customer has. Segmentation Strategy #5 - Buying intent / urgency Not everyone on your list wants to buy right now. Some people are actively shopping. Others are “not now, but someday” people. You can segment based on signals like: Are they actively looking for a solution or just learning? Did they opt in to a lead magnet, a comparison guide, a demo, or a pricing page? Have they clicked sales emails but not purchased? Segmentation Strategy #6 - Current solution (or lack of one) This one is wildly underused. Are they: Doing this manually? Using a competitor? Using a tool but not getting results? Not using anything at all yet? Someone switching from a competitor needs very different messaging than someone starting from scratch. This also lets you position your product as a replacement, an upgrade, or a first step instead of a generic solution. Segmentation Strategy #7 -Constraints & buying friction What’s stopping them from moving faster? A few common ones: Maybe they don’t have time. Maybe they’re overwhelmed. Maybe they’ve tried before and don’t trust themselves to follow through. Maybe they’re skeptical anything will work. Maybe they don’t want another complicated process to manage. These constraints show up in every market, not just business ones. When you understand what’s slowing someone down, you can meet them where they are instead of selling them a solution they can’t realistically act on. There are others, of course. But this is a good list to get you started. Of course, if you want some help with this, then DM me we can segment your list and make you more money this year.