How to Send the Right Email to the Right Person

Email Segmentation and Personalization: How to Send the Right Email to the Right Person

Are you wondering why, even after creating that perfect email, nothing is happening? The open rate remains constant at 15-20%, and the click rate is still 2%. Either a few people unsubscribe, or some even reply with “Stop Emailing Me.”

Well, the problem is not with your email. It’s just that you are sending the same email to everyone.

Most businesses blast the same email to everyone, but the real growth comes from email segmentation and personalization.

Think about it: would you recommend winter jackets in May to someone who is living in Chennai? Do you think pitching your premium plan to someone who has just signed up for emails is a good idea? And how about sending a “we miss you” email to someone who bought from you yesterday?

This is exactly what email blasts do and makes things wrong for your business.

Email segmentation divides your big list into small groups, and email personalization is making the content of the email feel like it is written for one person.

So, you need to combine email segmentation and personalization to send the right email to the right person. This makes you stop being spam and start being relevant. And, relevant emails make money.

In this blog, we will discuss how to segment your email list, personalize your emails, and to keep your segmentation manageable when your list grows. If you are still building up your subscriber base, we recommend you start with our guide on how to build an email list from scratch and then come back here.

What is Email Segmentation and Personalization?

Though email segmentation and personalization work together, they are distinct email marketing strategies. Here’s what you should understand:

Email list segmentation strategies are dividing a large audience into small groups based on shared traits. Segmentation answers the question of ‘Who’ should receive the emails.

Segmentation is grouping people based on something they have in common. For example:

• People live in the same city.
• Subscribers who recently bought something from your store or used your service,
• People who have not opened your last 10 emails.

On the other hand, personalization is what you put inside the email to make it feel like it is written for one person. Basically, it answers: What should the reader see in the email?

Personalization is making the content of the email relevant for that particular group or individual by:

• Using their first name “Hi Rahul."
• Showing what they actually viewed.
• Sending the email at the time they open emails.

Let’s understand this better with a clear example:
An online pet store will send one email to dog lovers and a different email to cat lovers. This is email segmentation.

For email personalization, the store will send: Hi Rahul, here is 20% off on food for your Labrador.

For successful personalized email campaigns in India, you need both. Email segmentation without personalization is still generic. Personalization without segmentation is just adding the first name to an irrelevant offer. And, when you do both right, you see higher open rates, more clicks, more sales, and fewer unsubscribes.

Types of Email Segmentation

Not every business segments its list the same way. The best approach depends on your audience, business goals, and the information you collect about your subscribers. Before you start creating segments, it is helpful to understand what you can segment by. Most email segmentation strategies fall under the following categories:

Demographic Segmentation

This is the most straightforward approach of grouping your audience based on who they are. This includes age, gender, location, occupation, income, and education. The data is typically collected during signup or in progressive profiling in future emails.

Behavioral Segmentation

You group your subscribers based on what they do or how they interact with your business. You will track their behavior, such as website pages visited, email engagement, content downloads, and event attendance. You can get the behavioral data through your email platform’s tracking system.

Purchase History Segmentation

You group your customers or subscribers based on their buying habits. You consider how often they buy, what they buy, and timing. This gives you recent buyers, first-time buyers, repeat customers, high-value customers, and inactive buyers.

Engagement Level Segmentation

Not every customer is equally interested in your brand. Grouping subscribers based on engagement helps you maintain your sender reputation. This includes how subscribers interact with your business, like highly engaged, moderately engaged, and inactive users.

Lifecycle Stage Segmentation

You send emails based on where they are in their customer journey. You cannot pitch a sale to a new subscriber; instead, you will send informative content to engage with them. So, group your email list into new subscribers, leads, prospects, first-time buyers, repeat customers, and former customers.

Step-By-Step Framework to Build Your Segmented Campaign

The email segment type is the list that tells you what you can segment by. But the practical approach is something different. Most marketers think email segmentation is difficult, but it isn’t. You don’t need dozens of segments of complicated automation. If you already have an existing email list with only 500 subscribers, you can start with just 5 simple steps:

Step 1: Audit Your Data

Before you create anything new, open your email tool and export your contacts. This way you may already know:

• When someone signs up
• Who they are and where they live
• Which emails they opened
• What they purchased (if your website is integrated with the tool)
• How they join or sign up (through website, seminar, social media, or event)

You may have more useful data than you realize, and that is enough to start with your segment.

Step 2: Define Your Goal

Do not create email segmentation just because they are crucial. This won’t help you go in the right direction and achieve success. Instead, think about your business goal and determine the problems you are facing in achieving it. Depending on the business goals, you will segment your email list.

For example, if your problem is low sales, your goal will be converting subscribers into customers. Similarly, if your problem is low open rates, your goal will be to re-engage with inactive customers and clean your list.

Every segment you create must have a clear goal and a different message.

Step 3: Start with Just 3 Core Segments

This is one of the best email list segmentation strategies that most brands overlook. You don’t need dozens of segmentations; these three core segments work for almost every business, including e-commerce, service-based businesses, coaches, etc.

1. New Subscribers: They have just found you. They might be interested in your products or services but don’t trust you. Your goal is to build trust and introduce your best content by sending emails, such as a welcome email, helpful resources, and not a sales pitch.
2. Engaged Subscribers: People who opened your email and even clicked on the link but did not buy anything. Your goal is to turn them into a customer. You can send them customer success stories, special offers, limited-time promotions, and more product information.
3. Customers: They are the ones who have made a purchase. By sending emails, your goal is to build loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. You can send thank you emails, exclusive offers, product tips, and recommendations for related services or products.

Initially, when your email list has fewer subscribers, like 2000, these three segments are enough to get started. Once these work, you can add 2 more advanced segments:

• Inactive Subscribers: They have signed up but stopped opening emails or engaging. Before cleaning your email list, you should re-engage with these subscribers by sending emails.
• High-intent Leads: People who have visited your website, pricing page, or added products to their cart. You can send abandoned cart emails because there is a high chance of conversion.

Step 4: Collect More Information

One of the biggest mistakes brands make is asking too many questions in the signup form. Long forms reduce signups because people find it annoying. Instead of asking everything in the signup form, use progressive profiling. Ask one question at a time.

For example. If you are a marketing agency, you can add a button to your welcome email to know the recipient’s interest. You can write: “What are you most interested in”? Then add buttons: SEO, Paid Ads, or Social Media Promotions.

When someone clicks on the button, your tool will automatically tag them. This way you will have a new segment based on interest and can send relevant emails in the future, without being annoying.

Step 5: Personalize Emails for Each Segment

You don’t need to create entirely different emails for every segment. By changing 20-30% of the content, you can create personalized emails for each segment. Even a few small changes make the email relevant and encourage subscribers to engage or take action.

For example, when you are writing an email to a new subscriber, you must show them that you already know they are new here. So, you can change the first paragraph as: “Since you are new here, let’s show you where to start from.”

Similarly, for engaged subscribers, you can change the subject line: “Here is something special for our regular readers.”

How to Personalize Email Campaigns After Segmenting Your Email List

After you have segmented your email list, it’s time to personalize your email campaigns so that every email feels relevant to the recipient. Personalization goes beyond using the first name; it is all about sending the right email to the right person at the right time. Here are the best tactics for personalized email campaigns in India.

Go Beyond Using First Names

Most marketers think personalization only means adding the first name in the email. Although it is a nice step, it’s no longer enough. You can build trust by adding the first name along with the information you already have about your subscriber.

Here is an example to help you understand better,

“HI Sara, check out our latest fitness tips”

“Hi Sara, since you downloaded our beginner yoga guide last week, here’s a 15-minute yoga routine you might enjoy."

What do you think: which email sounds more relevant and better? Of course, the second email feels more personal because it uses the context and history.

Use Dynamic Content

You don’t need to send 10 different emails to 10 different segments. Instead, you can send 1 email with smart blocks. Many renowned email service providers in India let you use dynamic content to personalize one email for several subscribers.

Suppose you are an e-commerce clothing brand. You don’t have to customize the email every time to target different audiences. The email banner will be the same for all emails, but winter jackets will be shown to users in Delhi and T-shirts for users in Chennai. Your email platform’s “Recommended for You” block will automatically personalize the email based on the segment.

How it Works

• Create a single email campaign.
• Add a dynamic content block where you want personalized content.
• Set simple rules, such as:
• Show a welcome offer to new subscribers.
• Show discount offers to loyal customers.
• Show winter clothes to people in colder regions.
• Based on these rules, the system sends personalized content to each subscriber even when you send the same email.

So, this saves you time. You create one email, but your subscribers see different content relevant to them. This makes your emails feel more personal and are more likely to be opened and clicked.

Recommend Personalized Products

One of the easiest ways to increase sales is to recommend products to subscribers based on their interests. Instead of showing the same product to every subscriber, use the information you already have to make relevant suggestions.

Here’s how you can personalize email:

• Based on Browsing History: Customers who viewed products but did not purchase. You send a follow-up email featuring the same product with a reminder like, “Still thinking about this? It’s waiting for you.”
• Based on Purchase History: Recommend something to subscribers that goes well with their recent purchases. For example, if the customer has bought a laptop, you can recommend buying a mouse pad or laptop bag. This encourages repeat purchases.
• Based on Similar Customers: Many marketers use AI to analyze similar customer behaviors. This way they can recommend products that customers with similar interests or buying habits have already purchased. For example, when a customer buys a waterproof foundation, they may receive an email: “Customers who bought this waterproof foundation also bought a makeup remover.”

Use Behavioral Trigger Emails

This is the shift from campaign-based to behavior-based emails. You don’t send emails when you want to; rather, you send emails when a customer or subscriber takes an action. This is called behavior-triggered email. These emails are timely and relevant because they are based on what your subscribers do.

Some common behavioral emails include:

• Welcome email when a user signs up.
• Abandoned cart email
• Post-purchase follow-up and review request
• Re-engagement emails
• Milestone emails: anniversary, birthday, subscription renewal

Personalize Send Time and Email Frequency

No matter how relevant your email is, if the timing is wrong, it will reduce engagement. Hence, it’s important to personalize your emails based on time and frequency. You should know when and how often you email your subscribers.

Instead of sending an email at a particular time to all, your email platform analyzes when each subscriber checks their emails and automatically sends future emails at the time users are more likely to engage.

It’s also important to understand that not every subscriber likes receiving bulk emails. While some enjoy frequent updates, some prefer fewer emails. So, based on customer engagement, you should set the email sending frequency. For highly engaged customers, send regular emails. For low-engaged customers, send weekly updates.

Conclusion

Email segmentation and personalization work best when used together. Segmentation helps you organize your subscribers into meaningful groups, while personalization ensures those groups receive relevant content based on their preferences, behavior, activity, and stage in their customer journey.

The best thing is that you don’t need any fancy AI or a large email list to benefit from segmentation and personalization. You just need to stop treating everyone the same way.

Email is not about sending bulk emails; it’s about sending the right email to the right person at the right time. And now you already know how to do it.