Segments
Group contacts by behaviour so campaigns go to people who want them.
On this page
Why segment at all
Sending everything to everyone is the fastest way to burn both your email allowance and your sending reputation. Mailbox providers watch engagement; a list where most people ignore you trains the filters against everything you send, including to the people who do want it.
A smaller, better-targeted send usually produces more revenue and protects deliverability.
Building a segment
Segments are defined by conditions on contact data — order history, spend, tags, activity recency, source channel. Combine conditions to narrow.
Segments are dynamic. A contact who meets the conditions today is included today; one who stops meeting them drops out. You do not maintain the membership by hand.
Segments worth having
| Segment | Rough definition | Use |
|---|---|---|
| New | First order in the last 30 days | Onboarding, care instructions |
| Repeat | Two or more orders | Loyalty, early access |
| High value | Top spenders | VIP treatment, previews |
| At risk | Previously active, quiet for 90+ days | Win-back |
| Lapsed | No activity for 12 months | Final win-back, then suppress |
| Never purchased | Contact, no orders | Education, first-order offer |
RFM thinking
Recency, frequency, and monetary value describe most of what matters about a customer. Recency is the strongest single predictor of whether someone will buy again — a customer who bought last week is far more likely to buy than one who spent more but has not bought in a year.
If you build only two segments, make them recent buyers and at-risk.
Segments and support
Segments are not only for marketing. Knowing a ticket comes from a high-value repeat customer is useful context for the agent answering it — it shows in the Customer 360 panel.
Before a large send
Check the size. A segment that suddenly grew tenfold usually means a condition is broader than intended, and you are about to email people who did not expect it.