This document summarizes a discussion between representatives from Kickbox and Sendwithus about email segmentation strategies. It provides an overview of how segmentation works, why it is important for targeting customers more effectively, and recommendations for how to segment lists based on location, demographics, customer journey, and quality scores. The discussion emphasizes the importance of keeping email data fresh and testing segmentation strategies to improve personalization and engagement.
2. Hi, I’m Matt
● Partner Relations @ Kickbox
● 4 years in IT/IT Compliance; 4 years in
the startup lifestyle
● Dad joke extraordinaire, gamer,
educator
3. Hi, I’m Kelly
● Marketing @ Sendwithus
● Over 9 years in the Tech marketing field
● Email nerd, animal lover and cheese
enthusiast
4. ● Email template management
● Iterate / Optimize without deploying code
● Set up A/B tests, drip campaigns
● Simplify workflow with Litmus &
Smartling integration
Kickbox & Sendwithus
● Email Address Verification
○ Bulk, Email list verification
○ Real-time verification API
● Recipient Authentication
5. About Kickbox
The Kickbox team has been in the
email privacy and security industry
for over 10 years.
Our background in anti-spam, anti-
virus and email privacy comprises
the foundation on which Kickbox
was built.
2014
Founded
Dallas, TX
London, UK
Headquarters
6. About Sendwithus
● Y Combinator backed
● Control + Optimize Email
● Top 300 Email sender
Worldwide2013
Founded
San Francisco, CA
Victoria, BC
Headquarters
8. Segmentation:
What is it?
Practice of creating smaller lists, or segments,
from a larger email list based upon
commonalities.
58% of all revenue is generated by segmented or
targeted emails, according to Direct Marketing
Association (DMA) study.
9. Segmentation:
Why is it important?
Your customers aren’t one-dimensional, so your
data shouldn’t be either.
● No two customers are the same
● Segment to reach the customers that
matter most to your business
10. Where do I begin?
The foundation of any successful email segmentation
strategy is a clean, active, engaged foundation.
Kickbox identifies the good, the bad & the ugly email
addresses in your data.
● Clean email lists prior to holidays
● Verify B2B lists every 3 months
● Verify B2C lists every 6 months
11. Top 3 ways to Segment:
#1 Location, Location, Location
12. Top 3 ways to Segment:
#2 Demographics
● Age
● Gender
● Occupation/Industry
13. Top 3 ways to Segment:
#3 Customer Journey
● Prompt users to perform an action
● A/B test messaging and offers
● Retail brand examples:
○ Added something to cart
○ Completed purchase
○ Review product
○ Repeat purchase
14. Segment by Quality Scores
● User state + previous engagement in a tool
like Salesforce
● Segment by most engaged and ask for
feedback
● Segment by least engaged, auto-sunset + win-
back
15. Personalize to Increase Relevance
● Tailor messaging to your segments
● First names, signup or customer appreciation
can do a long way
● Onboarding sequence
17. 2 Ways to Ensure Fresh Data
● As soon as your pull the data it is
aging
● Query as close to send
● Update data as frequently as possible
Integrate with DatabaseFrequency of data pull
● Best case scenario: holistic complete
view of your customers
● Minimal involvement from data team
● Segment on whole picture
18. ● Data consolidated from different sources
● Complete view of your customer, calculate
Lifetime Value (LTV), etc.
● Queries at time of send - always fresh data!
Data Warehouses: What to Know
21. No Free Class for You
● Segment to the right audience
● Marketing best practice:
Include promotion legalese
22. Perfect Segmentation Messaging
● Don't assume! - A/B Test!
● Treat email like a landing page
● Email is complicated. You can test:
○ SUBJECT LINES
○ INTRO TEXT
○ BODY STYLE
23. Wrapping Up
● Email Segmentation =
● List hygiene is essential
● Segment, Segment, Segment
● Fresh data + Updated content = Happy Customers
24. Housekeeping
● Kickbox / Sendwithus Questions
● Follow-up Recording
● Swag Giveaway
How you doin’
[remembering all
this information]?
-Segmentation
-Importance of a quality email list
-Segmentation types
-Data sync + Data warehouses
-What can happen when segmentation / data goes wrong
-Questions? We got answers
Better email engagement! Make sure your messages really resonate.
Hyperlocal to cities - mention festivals, etc.
Country level - national holidays
Regional
Younger vs. Older generations
Men vs. Women
Job function/seniority
Tailor your messaging to mimc how they speak, keying in on subject matter they care about.
Men and women may respond differently to messaging or imagery, create tests and see what has the best conversion results.
Look at onboarding funnel and email the specific people you want to do something
E.g. verify address, add a credit card, etc. If people who do those actions are more likely to be loyal customers, make your product stickier.
A/B/C test different offers to find a sweet spot and preserve margin. E.g. no need to give away $15 in credit if the conversion rate is the same as $5.
Best Practice - Marketo content emails automatically unsubscribe you after you haven’t opened/clicked on their content in a while, segment by behavior and automatically sunset your subscription. Then they reach out when it’s been a year with a low key, “do you miss me?” Message - and asked me to confirm my subscription or click no to unsubscribe.
Think of your recipients list as living, breathing, ever-changing thing.
Data scientists - in high demand, resource time often scarce
Segment on whole picture - not half of your data.
Rather than going to different sources, data available in one place rather than pulling from different locations.
Site data: page views, clicks, signups, sales data
App data: installs, daily opens, activity.
Marketing data: email opens and clicks, social media metrics like impressions and display campaign clicks.
Stale lists and stale data can lead to bad CE and sending the wrong information to the wrong people.
Email sent on Friday
Data out of date after Wednesday rides
Need to reduce time between sync + send.
I actually really love Uber’s emails - the design is amazing. They are absolutely best practice for transactional emails for rides - they have a map, driver, clear CTA.
-saw this email and got excited for $20 off
-went to apply promo code and the app said I had already redeemed it
-then, I noticed the *Valid for new customers only
-they should have shown me different content based on my data or not have sent me this stupid email in the first place
Location update - I updated in February, cannot seem to get off of this Uber Seattle newsletter.
-This is sent from a yoga studio, the second one recieved
-It’s only valid if you’re not already a Zenrex user - which this recipient is
-Should be only sending this to people who can benefit of the promotion or dynamically change the message to be about “reserve on Zenrez to take cheap classes at studios you love”
Compare the email open and click-thru rates of segments vs. entire list.
If segments aren’t performing better, reconsider the segment, offer or content.