28 Oct 2025
How to Segment Emails for Different Mailing Lists
Today’s post is about how to segment email lists properly so that your audiences can be properly engaged. We feature four tips. One of the biggest mistakes we encounter frequently is businesses sending the same generic email to everyone on their list. This might lead to a poor conversion rate–so be sure to segment your mailing lists properly!
Tip #1. Segment your list based on the buyer’s personas.
In a previous post, we wrote about how to create various buyer’s personas. To do this for your email list, it is wise to first find out what sort of attributes the customers in your email lists have.
For instance, how far down are people on your mailing list in the sales funnel– Have they purchased from you before? How much is the average purchase? Have they purchased just once and not again? Are they buying regularly? All these are verifiable variables that can be tracked.
As much as possible, structure your email list in a manner that allows your customers to move further down the sales funnel. If they are new customers, you can offer them a one-time discount to encourage them to make their first purchase on your website. If they are regular customers, you can offer them an exclusive free gift with purchase. Create a culture of loyalty and fun.
Tip #2. Segment your list based on interests.
Let’s say you operate a travel agency and have readers who subscribe to your newsletter. However, are all readers interested in travelling to the same regions? The answer is a clear “no”. Readers who are interested in travelling to Europe may not be interested in travelling to Southeast Asia.
Therefore, a good idea would be to segment your readership base according to what your readers are interested in. Do your readers like to backpack? Are they travelling to relax in a luxury setting or are they going on a budget tour? Once you know what your customers are interested in, it is then easier to write email messages that can target and address these specific interests.
Tip #3. Segment your list according to subscribers’ activities.
Sometimes your subscribers do not even open their mails or do not respond to any of your mails. If that is the case, be sure to remove inactive subscribers from your email base after some time.
Segmentation based on subscribers’ activities can be done in 3-months, 6-months, and 9-months framework. When we write emails targeted at activity or inactivity, this will improve your click-through rates and ultimately ROI. Subscribers who do not open your emails can also stop getting your emails, and this will ensure that your brand gets to the people who are engaged.
Tip #4. Segment your list based on location.
The last tip is to divide your emails based on where your readers are based. This is simply so that you can direct your readers to the shops closest to them. Brick-and-mortar shopping isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, so it will always be good to encourage online subscribers to visit offline shops closest to them so that they can see and feel the actual products before buying.
If you have international subscribers from various countries, be sure to send country-specific emails, segmented based on language and cultural preferences. This is simply common sense–people tend to read emails that are written in their native language more than a second language.
We hope you have enjoyed today’s post. Remember to segment your email lists so as to increase your engagement rates!