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    Getting started with segments

    Course overview
    Lesson
    2 min read

    Build a segmentation strategy

    Now that you understand what a segment is, let’s discuss how to put this powerful tool to work. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to create a strategy to build and target key segments with campaigns.

    Send your campaigns to targeted segments

    One of the most powerful opportunities when using segments is the ability to send highly targeted messages. When you send targeted messages, subscribers are more likely to relate to the content, click, and shop. In fact, according to Klaviyo’s yearly benchmark report, highly segmented emails result in:

    • 2x the average open and click rates compared to emails sent to unsegmented lists.
    • 3x the revenue per recipient ($0.19 vs. $0.06).
    • Lower unsubscribe rates (unsegmented campaigns lead to 2x the amount of unsubscribes).

    Now that you know why to target key segments, let’s run through how. In the video below, you’ll walk through how to send your next campaign to a relevant segment and exclude any segments that should not receive your message.

    Access pre-built segments

    Klaviyo has you covered with a set of pre-built segments to use immediately. Let’s review what these segments are and how to best use them to power your marketing strategy.

    Note: Find each of these segments in the Lists & segments tab of your Klaviyo account.

    30, 60, and 90-day engaged segments

    What are they?

    An engaged segment includes anyone who opened or clicked an email at least once recently, thus showing that they are interested in hearing from your brand. You can see 3 variations of your engaged segment pre-populated in Klaviyo, including:

    • Engaged (30 days)
    • Engaged (60 days)
    • Engaged (90 days)

    How to use them?

    Send the majority of your marketing campaigns to these segments, particularly your 30-day engaged customers.

    Use your 30-, 60-, and 90-day engaged segments to warm your sending infrastructure if you are brand new to Klaviyo. Learn how to warm your sending infrastructure.

    New subscribers segment

    What is it?

    Your new subscribers segment includes anyone who subscribed to your newsletter list in the last 2 weeks.

    How to use it?

    Monitor changes in segment size to see how your acquisition efforts are working; a larger segment indicates that you are actively attracting new sign-ups.

    Consider excluding this segment from campaign sends if you have a welcome series flow. That way, you're not sending mixed messages or overwhelming new subscribers.

    Ecommerce segments

    Once you add an ecommerce integration, a few additional segments are added to your account:

    • Potential Purchasers
    • VIP Customers
    • Winback Opportunities
    • Repeat Buyers
    • Churn Risks (if your account qualifies for predictive analytics)

    What are they?

    These segments help pinpoint customers at different points in the customer journey.

    How to use them?

    Monitor these segments to visualize how many customers are in each stage. Send targeted campaigns to each of these segments based on the segment criteria; e.g., you may send winback messaging to the Winback Opportunities segment to try to re-engage them.

    Learn more about these pre-built segments in Klaviyo's default lists and segments reference.

    Additional recommendations

    Along with the segments detailed above, every Klaviyo account also comes with 3 pre-built lists:

    • Newsletter: your main list of email subscribers.
    • SMS subscribers: your main list of SMS subscribers.
    • Preview list: a list of those who you will send test campaigns to; we recommend including you and any team members who wish to preview campaigns to this list.

    Learn more about these pre-built lists in Klaviyo's default lists and segments reference.

    Build on pre-existing segments

    In addition to the pre-existing segments, send campaigns to unique segments tailored to your brand. Read through the dropdowns below for some ideas on which segments to build next.

    Send personalized content to your customers

    Create customer persona segments to group your customers by various characteristics, such as:

    • Their interests
    • How much they spend
    • How frequently they purchase

    Then, send personalized content based on these personas. For example, if you sell pet products, you may send a dog food product launch campaign to a segment of dog owners.

    Read more in our guide to creating customer persona segments based on activity.

    Master your sending cadence

    Create email frequency segments based on how frequently customers say they want to receive communications from you.

    To do so, update a preference page to ask customers how frequently they would like to receive email communications. When customers fill this out, this information will be saved to their profiles as custom profile properties.

    Then, you can create segments based on these custom profile properties and send the correct email cadence accordingly.

    Daily email segment:

    Daily sending segment

    Weekly email segment:

    Weekly sending segment

    Monthly email segment:

    Monthly sending segment

    Learn more in our guide to creating email frequency segments.

    Reduce unsubscribe rates

    In addition to engaged segments, creating unengaged segments can help you reduce unsubscribe rates and maintain your deliverability.

    Create separate unengaged segments of email, SMS, and push customers who have not engaged with your brand recently.

    Once you have these groups:

    • Exclude them from most marketing initiatives.
    • Consider re-engaging them with a sunset flow.

    Check out these guides for detailed information on making unengaged segments for each channel:

    Contact customers by their preferred channel

    Create separate segments for customers who have opted in to email, text message, WhatsApp, and push notifications. That way, you can contact the right customers on the right channel, exactly how they prefer to communicate.

    Narrow down your email subscriber segment to those who explicitly subscribed:

    Email subscriber segment

    This will exclude profiles who have provided their email address, but have not explicitly opted in to receiving marketing communications from your brand.

    More information in our guide to segmenting on channel consent.

    Keep your most engaged customers engaged

    Depending on your sending schedule, create different engagement tiers.

    For example, if you want to send daily emails to customers, use the following guidance:

    • Email your 30 day engaged segment daily.
    • Email your 60 and 90 day engaged segments 3x per week.
    • Email a 180 day engaged segment weekly.

    Follow these guides for detailed information about how to create tiers and how frequently to message each tier:

    Ultimately, you know your brand better than anyone. Using these segment ideas as a starting point, what segments can you come up with?

    Build a segmentation strategy