If everyone on your list gets the same email, you are sending the wrong message to most of them. A first time subscriber, a loyal repeat customer and someone who has not opened anything in a year all need something different. Segmentation is how you send each group something relevant, and it usually lifts results straight away.

What segmentation means

Segmenting is splitting your list into groups based on something you know about each person: whether they have bought, what they bought, where they are, how they joined, how engaged they are. Then you send emails that fit each group instead of one email for all.

Why one email to everyone underperforms

• Relevance drops. An offer on a product someone already owns, or a "new customer" welcome to a five year regular, lands wrong

• Deliverability suffers. When unengaged people keep getting emails they ignore, inbox providers take it as a sign your mail is unwanted, which affects everyone on your list

• Unsubscribes rise. People leave when emails consistently do not apply to them

The segments worth starting with

• Customers and non customers. The single most useful split. Non customers need proof and a reason to try you. Customers need loyalty offers, new arrivals and reasons to come back

• Engaged and inactive. People who have opened or clicked in the last 60 to 90 days, versus those who have not

• By interest or product. If you sell to clearly different groups, dog owners and cat owners, brides and corporate clients, tag them and send accordingly

• By location. Useful if you have more than one site, or run events in specific towns

• By how they joined. Someone who downloaded a pricing guide is closer to buying than someone who entered a competition

A simple first setup

You do not need to do all of it. Start with three:

1. New subscribers, in their first month, getting your welcome sequence

2. Customers, getting loyalty and repeat purchase emails

3. Everyone else, getting your regular newsletter

That alone will improve your numbers.

Re-engagement: the inactive segment

Once you can see who has not engaged in 90 days, send that group a short "still want to hear from us?" email. Some will come back. The rest you can stop emailing or remove. A smaller list of people who actually open is worth more than a big list that does not, and it protects your deliverability.

How segmentation helps deliverability

Inbox providers watch how people respond to your emails. Sending mostly to engaged people keeps your open and click rates healthy, which keeps you landing in the inbox. Segmenting out the dead weight is one of the most effective things you can do for this.

Do not over segment

Ten tiny segments each needing their own email is a job you will abandon. Keep to a handful you can actually write for. Add a new segment only when you have a clear, different message for it.

The takeaway

Sending one email to your whole list treats a loyal customer and a cold subscriber the same, and both notice. Start with three segments: new, customers, everyone else. Add a re-engagement email for people who have gone quiet. You will see better opens, better clicks and fewer unsubscribes, usually within a couple of sends.

Most platforms handle this well, see our platform comparison. Or Koprio can set up and run your segmented email marketing as part of the email marketing service. Get in touch.