Email segmentation by customer avatars

The persona filtering framework that 3×’d our reply rates Here’s how we build persona-based lists that actually convert Layer 1: Role-Based Signals Not just “VP Sales”, but: → Recent promotion (0–90 days) → First time in role → Came from competitor → Hiring for their team (3+ open roles) Filter in Sales Nav: Title + start date + company hiring Layer 2: Responsibility Signals Check “About” section for: → “Responsible for outbound” → “Building the sales team” → “Scaling revenue operations” → “Implementing new tech stack” Use Claygent to scan and score profiles. Layer 3: Activity Signals Use Teamfluence™ + Trigify.io: → Posting about your problem space → Engaging with content in your category → Asking questions in comments Active = higher intent. Layer 4: Company Signals Target companies showing: → Recent funding (Series B+) → Aggressive hiring → Office expansion → Tech-stack changes Clay enriches with BuiltWith, funding data, and hiring trends. Layer 5: Past-Behavior Signals → Previous customer or champion → Engaged with content before → Downloaded resources → Visited your website Use @RB2B, CRM, and UserGems 💎 for tracking. Filtering workflow in Clay: 1️⃣ Pull 1 000 “VP Sales” prospects 2️⃣ Filter recent hires (0–90 days) → 300 remain 3️⃣ Claygent keyword scan → 180 4️⃣ Add engagement data (Trigify) → 120 5️⃣ Company signals (funding/hiring) → 80 6️⃣ Past behavior → 40 ultra-qualified prospects Results: 1 000 generic VPs → 8 % reply 40 filtered VPs → 22 % reply Fewer emails. Higher quality. Better results. Why it works: Most cold emails miss because they target people who don’t actually own the problem. Persona stacking finds those who do. Pro tip: Segment your personas: → New VP hiring fast → Experienced VP stuck with bad tools → VP using competitor (switch play) Different persona = different message = higher conversion. Tools: Sales Nav | Clay | Claygent | Trigify.io | Teamfluence™ | RB2B | UserGems 💎 | BuiltWith | Apollo Bottom line: Volume ≠ success. Precision = success. We’d rather email 50 perfect-fit prospects than 1 000 maybes.

I discovered why your best customers never open your emails. Yet they keep buying. Here's what's really happening: Your best customers don't need convincing anymore. The segmentation truth most brands miss: You're wasting premium email real estate on people who already trust you. Meanwhile, your prospects (who actually need nurturing) get lost in the noise. Here's the reality: → Your VIPs: Bookmark your site, buy without emails → Your prospects: Need education, social proof, and trust-building → Your one-time buyers: Sitting on the fence, need that extra push But most brands do this backwards: They send discount emails to loyal customers (who'd pay full price). They send the same generic content to cold prospects (who need warming up). Smart segmentation looks like this: • Prospects: Welcome series, education, social proof • New customers: Product tips, usage guides, community building • Repeat buyers: New arrivals, restocks, recommendations • VIPs: Exclusive access, no discounts needed The breakthrough: When you stop trying to "convert" customers who are already converted... You can focus your best content on people who actually need it. Your prospects get the attention they deserve. Your VIPs get respected for their loyalty. Bottom line: Your best customers will buy with or without your emails. Your prospects won't buy without them. Segment accordingly.

You don’t need to build 20 different email campaigns to reach 20 different customer types. One of the biggest excuses I hear for poor segmentation is: "Ben, I don’t have the time or the team to produce that much content." I get it. Content production is expensive and can be slow at a high volume. But, you’re thinking about it the wrong way. Most brands don't leverage ***dynamic blocks.*** Inside a singular campaign, you can use Klaviyo's logic to change what a user sees based on who they are. Instead of 5 separate emails, you send one email with 5 "smart" variations: 💰 The Reward Member: Show a dynamic banner with their current point balance and what they can claim today. 🌟 The Non-Member: Show a block explaining the perks of your loyalty program. 🛍️ The Recent Buyer: Swap the "Shop Now" hero image for a "How to Use Your New Product" video. ⚠️ The "Needs Attention" Group: Use a specific tag to show a $10 "Win Back" discount that the rest of your list never sees. 📝 The Zero-Party Segment: If they told you they have "Dry Skin" in your quiz, show them the hydration collection. This is how you achieve "1-to-1" personalization without the 1-to-1 workload. It’s not rocket science. It’s just leveraging the data you already have to make the email feel like it was written for the person reading it. So many brands miss out on personalization because they don't want to send a massive amount of campaigns to different groups. You don't have to.

I've been running cold email campaigns for years now. And one thing is very clear: Cold email still works. Meetings are getting booked. Deals are still closing. Pipelines are still being built. But the way most people run outbound today is completely outdated. What worked even 12-24 months ago is now quietly failing. Here are the biggest shifts we're seeing. 1. Deliverability is now the real bottleneck Getting emails into the inbox has become exponentially harder. The old playbook was simple: Buy domains → warm them → blast emails. That approach is dying fast. Today you need to: Test inbox placement before campaigns Monitor sender reputation constantly Keep warmups running always. A good rule we follow: → Send 15-20 warm-up emails per day per inbox → Send 15-20 real emails per day per inbox This balances your sending patterns and keeps inbox providers comfortable with your activity. 2. Segmentation has replaced "personalization" A few years ago a custom first line was impressive. Now? Everyone is doing AI personalization. And most of it is terrible. You've probably seen emails like: "Hey John, saw your LinkedIn post about AI." Congratulations. You scraped LinkedIn. That's not impressive anymore. Instead of writing a custom line for every person… We focus on segmented personalization. 3. The segmentation framework we use Before writing a single email, we segment markets across five dimensions: Sub-industry Example: fintech → payments → embedded finance Company size Startup vs SMB vs enterprise Geography Region, country, or even state Company maturity Bootstrapped vs VC-backed Core problem Transaction fees, reporting, payout delays, etc. Once you combine a few of these… You end up with hyper-relevant segments. 4. Match segments to the right persona Once segments are defined, map them to the right decision maker. Example: Ecommerce brands → Head of Ecommerce / Growth SaaS companies → VP of Revenue / CRO Real estate firms → Managing Partners Different personas = different angles. 5. One underrated tactic: resonance campaigns Sometimes the best segmentation is shared identity. Examples: People who previously worked at Google Founders with product background Engineers who moved into product leadership People naturally trust others who share their background. These "resonance campaigns" often outperform generic outreach. 6. For small markets, go ultra-personal If your TAM is small… Consider high-touch outreach. Things like: Handwritten notes Personalized gifts Physical mail We've seen surprisingly strong results using this for high-value accounts. Cold email isn't dying. But lazy outbound is. The future of outbound is: Strong deliverability infrastructure Hyper-specific segmentation Relevance over volume If your campaigns feel stale right now… It's probably because the old playbook finally stopped working.

In e-commerce and digital apps, user representation drives personalization, segmentation, and marketing. Current approaches rely on implicit embeddings (from clicks/purchases) that are powerful but opaque, or explicit features (like category preferences) that are interpretable but shallow. The paper 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁: 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗥’𝟮𝟱) introduces GPLR, a framework using LLMs to turn transaction histories into rich, human-readable personas (e.g., “Busy Parent,” “Bargain Hunter”)—making user profiles both interpretable and actionable. GPLR generates interpretable persona labels and descriptions (e.g. “DIY Enthusiast – purchases tools, building supplies, home improvement gear.”) , uses LLMs to annotate a small set of users with these personas, and then scales to millions of users cost-effectively by propagating labels through a random walk method (RevAff). 𝗛𝘆𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵: Personas and embeddings can be used together in a hybrid approach to make personalization actionable, explainable and scalable. Embeddings capture 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲-𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱, 𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 that change quickly with context and are great for micro-personalization. Personas are more stable and capture 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀 or need. They are useful for segmentation and macro-personalization. 1. 𝗘-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: Customers churn if recommendations feel irrelevant or impersonal. Member: Dave Personas: Outdoor Adventurer (0.9), DIY Enthusiast (0.7) Embedding signals: Recently browsed winter jackets and power drills. Hybrid retention action: Embedding detects browsing of power drills and personas add context that Dave is DIY-focused. Personalized seasonal campaign: “Adventure-ready camping gear for fall”. Send cross-sell offer: “Outdoor toolkit bundle for DIY explorers.” Recommender System: Suggests camping-ready multi-tools + DIY accessory kits. Result: Cross-sell aligns with both immediate interest (drill) and stable persona (DIY). Dave feels understood and returns for repeat purchases. 2. 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: Members disengage when care feels generic. Member: Carol Personas: Family Caregiver (0.9), Preventive Health Seeker (0.7) Embedding signals: Recently searched “flu shot near me” and read “stress management for parents.” Hybrid retention action: Embedding flags interest in stress relief and preventive care and personas emphasize stable Family Caregiver role. Recommender System: Personalized suggestions for “Flu vaccine appointment for your family” + “Mindfulness sessions for caregivers.”    Result: Carol gets timely, relevant and personalized suggestions via proactive outreach which makes her feel supported. Link: https://lnkd.in/eu6k_bGd

Segmenting your customers is the easiest lever you could pull to maximize profit. There are 5 segments you need specifically: 1/ First-time buyers: They need reassurance they made the right choice. Send: - How-to guides - Care instructions - Gentle intro to other products Don't push hard sells immediately 2/ Repeat customers (2-3 purchases): They trust you but need reasons to buy more. Send: - Early access to launches - VIP pricing - "Since you loved X, try Y" 3/ VIP Customers (4+ purchases or high spend): These are your brand advocates. Send: - Behind-the-scenes content - Ask for product input - Exclusive experiences - Personal touches 4/ Lapsed Customers (90+ days inactive): Remind them why they loved your brand. Send: - "We miss you" campaigns - Compelling reason to come back - Special win-back offer 5/ High-Value Segment (Top 20% spenders) Send: - Premium customer service - Exclusive access - Personal check-ins I implemented this for a supplement brand with 25K customers. Result: Email revenue increased 160% in 90 days.

Everyone talks about growing their email list. But they're completely ignoring the most important part (and it's costing them $$$): Actually *knowing* who subscribed. Let me explain. Most people treat all their email subscribers as if they were the same. They send the same message to everyone... And then wonder why engagement sucks (or why they're not driving enough sales). The good news? Segmentation doesn't have to be complicated. You can get 80-90% of the benefits by just adding a simple segmentation survey to your newsletter Thank You page or Welcome Email. (You can also add use this in your lead magnet funnels.) Now, there's just 3 things your survey should accomplish: • Goal identification (what they want to achieve) • Challenge identification (what's stopping them) • Avatar identification (experience level or background) For example, if you help people with content creation, your survey could ask: • How long have you been creating content? • What's your main goal for content creation? • What's your biggest content creation challenge? Once you know the answer to these 3 questions, you can completely customize: • The content you send to each subscriber • The offers you pitch them on (and the way you present them) "But Daniel, how do I know what to ask?" I got you. I've created an AI prompt to help you create your segmentation survey questions using this exact framework. All you have to do? Download the PDF attached to this post and give it a try :) Hope it helps. PS - Want more banger AI email marketing prompts? I'm sharing 1 prompt like this every day for the next 30 days. Be sure to follow me Daniel Bustamante 🥷🏻 Bustamante so you don't miss them :) PPS - Want to get my daily prompts sent straight to your inbox each morning? Click on the "visit my website" button at the top of this post & subscribe to my 30 Days of Prompts newsletter.

There's a better way to segment in marketing. Not by demographics but by situations. Not "CMO at Series B SaaS" But "CMO preparing for first board meeting" Kathleen Booth built this at Pavilion. Conversions increased significantly. Here's how they did it: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐬 - Run cohort analysis on best customers - Who stayed, contributed, got value - Regression on churners vs renewals - Only then build your segments 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 - Just raised funding - Got a new job - Lost a job - Preparing for board meeting 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 - Board prep guides with sample decks - First 90 days checklists - Main content ungated - Practical tools required email 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 - De-anonymize website visitors - Clay enriches automatically - Scores and customizes outreach - Copy AI generates messaging - References similar happy customers 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰 - The pain they're feeling - The goals they're chasing - Challenges specific to their moment 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 - Target smaller populations - Maybe 10, maybe 50, maybe 100 - Test different motivators - Roll out what works 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 - Open rates went up - Conversions increased significantly - Response rates climbed - Churn decreased - Lifetime values increased They brought in members who stayed longer. Contributed more. Made the community stronger. How often do you receive outbound this specific? 🤔 More on this in tomorrow’s 📰𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙏𝙈 𝙎𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛 📰 Check comments for the link 👇 ✌️

I made one brand $55,570 in 1 month with segmented email campaigns. A consumer CPG brand was struggling with low email conversion rates, sending generic promotions to their entire list. Engagement was dropping and they weren’t seeing the sales they expected. The Problem: No segmentation. One-size-fits-all emails. Minimal personalization. Here’s What I Did: 1. Segmented the Email List: Divided their audience into groups based on behavior—new subscribers, frequent buyers, and dormant customers. 2. Tailored Messaging for Each Group: New subscribers got educational content. Frequent buyers received loyalty-driving emails. Dormant customers were re-engaged with value-focused offers instead of just discounts. 3. Personalized Content: Added dynamic content to make emails feel personal and relevant. The Results: 35% increase in conversion rates. 25% boost in open rates. Higher engagement across all customer segments. An extra $55,570 in just 4 weeks. By sending the right message to the right audience, we turned their emails into a reliable sales driver. Stop sending the same emails to everyone. #EmailMarketing #CaseStudy #MarketingStrategy #CustomerSegmentation #ConsumerBrands #DigitalMarketing #RetentionMarketing Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog: https://lnkd.in/ectNZQic

99% of DTC brands are missing this. (And it’s quietly draining their revenue…) See, most brands think the answer is sending more emails. Or writing clever subject lines. Or A/B testing themselves into oblivion. (Those help… but they’re not the fix.) The REAL reason most brands are bleeding email revenue? They’re running email with the WRONG strategy. 🚨 Batch-and-blast campaigns 🚨 Spray-and-pray segmentation 🚨 “Personalization” that’s just {FIRSTNAME} and vibes Meanwhile… the brands actually crushing it? They made one MASSIVE shift: They stopped guessing… and started running email like a machine. A strategy that… • Adapts to customer behavior in real-time. • Learns from every click, browse, and purchase. • Delivers the right message to the right person - automatically. And at the core of it? 🔥 HYPER-PERSONALIZATION. 🔥 (Not just a fancy way to say "send better emails." We're talking real, behavior-driven, AI-powered personalization that makes every email feel custom-made.) Let’s break it down - 9 ways we’re using hyper-personalization at E/X to print money for brands: 1️⃣ Collect Data Like a Pro Most brands are flying blind. We track demographics, past purchases, browsing history, ad click data, and more. (Yes, it’s legal. No, we’re not the NSA.) 2️⃣ Build Smart Segments "Engaged" and "Unengaged" aren’t segments. We group customers by actual buying behavior, interests, and intent. 3️⃣ Use AI to Predict What’s Next Because guessing is for amateurs. We analyze real-time data to anticipate customer needs before they even realize it. 4️⃣ Personalize Every Single Email Dynamic content, unique offers, behavior-triggered messaging - EVERYTHING adapts to the recipient. 5️⃣ Automate Like a Boss Abandoned cart? Handled. Post-purchase flows? Dialed in. Re-engagement campaigns? Running on autopilot. 6️⃣ Recommend Products Based on REAL Data No random "you might like this" nonsense. We serve products based on actual browsing and buying behavior. 7️⃣ Create Offers That Actually Convert Personalized discounts based on purchase history, browsing habits, and engagement. (Instead of handing out 10% off codes like candy.) 8️⃣ Predict Future Purchases We don’t wait for customers to act. We anticipate their next move - and show up at the perfect time. 9️⃣ Use Real-Time Data to Stay Relevant Loyalty points, recent interactions, browsing habits - we use what’s happening NOW to make emails hit harder. Here’s the deal… ❌ STOP blasting the same emails to everyone. ❌ STOP guessing what customers want. ❌ STOP treating email like an afterthought. Because the brands that get this right? They don’t just make “more” from email. They turn it into their highest-ROI revenue channel. One that drives new customers, keeps existing ones loyal, and scales without burning more ad spend. The ones who ignore this? They’re stuck wondering why their list keeps growing... but their revenue doesn’t. Which side are you on?