Segments are subgroups of contacts. Each segment contains contacts that have the same properties or exhibit the same behaviour. By segmenting your contacts, you can send more targeted messages. In other words, the goal of segmentation is to deliver messages to your contacts that are personally relevant to them based on the information you have collected. Creating data segments makes your work easier and more effective. In this article, we will explain more about it.
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Why is segmentation important?
Why is segmentation important?
Interaction and deliverability are interconnected. The higher the interaction, the higher your deliverability. The higher your deliverability, the higher the chance that your emails will be received and opened by your contacts.
To improve your deliverability within MailBlue, high interaction is crucial. By segmenting your data, you can achieve this.
By sending relevant messages to your contacts, you increase the likelihood of them responding (opening the email is already a form of response). This can then improve your deliverability.
For example, if you do not create segments and send mass messages that are not tailored to the personal interests and behaviour of the contacts, the result will be low interaction because many of your contacts did not find the email relevant or even found it annoying. Low interaction is bad for your deliverability, which hinders the achievement of your goal.
So: Segment! This way, you improve opens and clicks and can reach your goals faster.
Conditions for segmenting
MailBlue provides you with the condition builder to create the conditions based on which you want to segment.
With the condition builder, you have a wide range of conditions to segment. Additionally, the builder is accessible in various places on the platform; namely through 'Advanced Search' under 'Contacts', but also in the 'List' section when creating a campaign.
Here are some characteristics based on which you can segment:
Tags
Tags can be found in the condition builder under 'Contact Details'. Tags are used to organise contacts. They are only visible internally and provide an overview of the contact's history with your company. Tags can, for example, be used to indicate what products your contacts have purchased or to clarify which contacts have been imported from another system.
Segmenting based on tags is combining contacts that have the same tag. In the example, you can see how we use the condition builder in an automation to split the contacts in the automation into a group that does have the tag 'Product 1' and a group that does not have this tag.
Custom Fields
Custom fields tell an even more detailed story. You can choose which custom fields to add to your forms. Once contacts fill these in, you can use this data to segment. For example, you can create a custom field asking contacts what type of pet they have. Then you can segment based on this information. When you send an email about dog food, it is only relevant to contacts who have indicated they have a dog. If you also send this email to contacts who have a cat, they probably won't even open it, reducing your interaction. The more you segment, the more relevant your messages become.
Contact Information
You can further refine the segment by determining whether the contact information must match exactly with the condition you set. Similarly, you can also segment contacts whose details do not match the condition. Examples of this are Email Address and Creation Date.
Actions
Actions are events that occur within MailBlue or in response to sent emails. For example, when a contact clicks a link in an email or is added to a list. In the example below, you can specify which campaign and which link it concerns.
Geography
In this category, you can segment based on country, province, city, and more. Remember, you can also specifically create a segment of contacts who do not live in a certain place. For example, why promote a product on sale to contacts living in England when you don't deliver there at all? This way, you can exclude these contacts.
Website and Event Data
Here you can see actions that occur outside of MailBlue. For example, you can create a segment of contacts who have visited a specific page on your website or based on the type of device they use (desktop, mobile, or tablet). To use this data, you must first activate website tracking. Read here how.
Deal Details
Under deal details, you can segment contacts based on the status of their deals in the CRM system. For example, you can group the contacts who have a deal with the status 'Won'.
If you want to learn more about creating segments, read this article.