Segmentation
Segmentation means dividing your contacts into groups that share common traits — region, purchase behavior, language, lifecycle stage. Instead of broadcasting to everyone, you address each group with relevant content.
What is segmentation?
Segmentation is the systematic grouping of your contact list into smaller buckets (segments) whose members share something meaningful. The goal: more relevant communication, higher open rates, more conversions — and fewer opt-outs.
A broadcast to 10,000 contacts with a 1.5 % click-through rate is fine. The same message, split across four tailored segments, can hit 4–6 %. The extra effort is small; the impact is substantial.
Typical segmentation criteria
- Demographic: Age, gender, language, location.
- Behavioral: Last order, opened messages, clicked links, cart abandonment.
- Lifecycle: New contact, repeat customer, dormant, at risk of churn.
- Value-based: Customer lifetime value, order frequency, average basket size.
- Channel preference: WhatsApp-friendly, email-only readers, SMS-preferred.
- Tags: Free-form labels like "VIP," "awaiting demo," "discount hunter."
Static vs. dynamic segments
| Type | How it works | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Static | A fixed list of contacts, manually curated or imported once. | Campaigns with a clear one-off audience (e.g., event invitation). |
| Dynamic | Rule-based group that updates automatically (e.g., "all contacts who purchased in the last 30 days"). | Recurring communication, lifecycle marketing, automation. |
Why segmentation matters in messaging
In messaging, segmentation matters even more than in email. Channels like WhatsApp carry a higher relevance bar — an irrelevant message in someone's WhatsApp inbox feels like an intrusion. Three examples:
- Reactivation: A "dormant 90 days" segment gets different content than "last order 7 days ago."
- Language: A German and a French segment are addressed in parallel, not mixed.
- Stage: Lead, trial user, and long-time customer each deserve a different tone.
Segmentation and GDPR
Once you build segments, you process personal data. Three GDPR principles apply:
- Purpose limitation: Data can only be used for the purpose named in the opt-in.
- Data minimization: Collect only the fields strictly necessary for segmentation.
- Transparency: The privacy policy must mention that you segment — and on what basis.
More in GDPR-compliant messaging.
Practical tips
- Start small: 2–4 segments often deliver 80 % of the effect. More segments mean more upkeep.
- Use tags: Tags are the most flexible primitive. Anyone in service can tag, and marketing automation can react to those tags.
- Negative segments: Don't forget exclusions — e.g., "do not send to contacts who already received a campaign in the last 7 days."
- Test: A/B testing within a segment yields cleaner insights than testing across all recipients.
Segmentation at SendSeven
SendSeven offers segmentation via tags, attributes, and dynamic filters directly in contact management. Segments work cross-channel — a single segment can trigger a WhatsApp campaign, an SMS, or an email.