Segmentation: What, why and how?

One time buyers

This segment is about customers who once ordered something from you, but did not make a repeat purchase. This could be because they only had a one-time need for a product you offer but it is more likely that your customer has forgotten about you. A very interesting target group to build your brand with. And that's where email marketing comes in. This story is really about the power of repetition. I set up this segment easily in Reloadify. I want a profile that:

Subscribed to the newsletter
Has placed one order, regardless of when it was.

That's two filters, which then look like this:

Segments for repeat buyers

These are customers who are familiar with your web shop and who appreciate your service and products. Of course, you will also have to make a distinction between customers who have purchased something in your web store twice or customers who have made three, four or even more purchases in your shop. Repeat buyers also need a little attention now and then. I want to continue to stimulate this target group to make purchases. Therefore, I create two segments for the target group. I can divide my repeat buyers by specific purchased items, by category, or a general target group that orders from me more often within a certain time period. I'm going to create two segments:

One general audience that has ordered from me three times within two months
The target audience that has ordered from me twice within one category on more within two months

In this way, you can endlessly segment your target audience for your repeat buyers. Want to encourage repeat purchases for a particular item? That's possible too!

Segments for VIP customers

One of your most important customer groups are your VIP customers. These are customers who have a high lifetime value, have made multiple purchases and believe in your online store. Reward these customers with unique offers or special promotions. After all, they are important to you, so this is where you need to give these customers extra attention. I can also segment the VIP customers by order value and order moment, for example. A customer who has a lifetime value of €1000,- euro or of €5000,- euro, you approach differently in your email marketing. I'm going to create two segments again:

Customers who have a lifetime value of €1000,- euro, whose last order dates back 3 months or more
Customers who have a lifetime value of €5000,- euro or more, with the last order dating back 6 months or more. This target group has made you a good deal, but haven't ordered from you in the past few months. Time for an email reminder.

Segments for big spenders

Big spenders are customers who order from you with many orders above the average order amount. They often increase your average order value significantly. Do not approach these customers with offers, but rather with combo deals where the order value becomes higher. This way you deal with your target group in a smart way. The average order amount can be found in Google Analytics. My average order amount is now €80,- euro. I create a segment with customers for this reason:

Who have placed more than four orders with me
With an average order amount of €80,- euro or higher
Whose last order dates back three months or more

Segment Active Customers

Every web shop has a so-called retention time. The retention time is the average time your customers take to move on to the next purchase, which is often the so called 'repeat purchase'. This time can easily be retrieved for your customers in the Analysis section of the Reloadify segments. You don't have to do anything, the data is right there in front of you. The only thing left for you to do is to act on the retention time in a smart way. I know that my active customers order from me every two months. Therefore, I use the following filter rules for this segment:

Customers who have ordered six times or more
In the past year

After this, I save the segment as "Active Customers". This target group will always be dynamic, because the target group is always rebuilt from scratch. In this case, your segment counts from the past year, which is different from day to day.

Segments for Lost customers

Lost customers are customers who are outside the retention time, also called the "sleepers". You can still try to re-activate these customers with a unique offer. You should, however, react differently to this. You lost sight of these customers, but vice versa: the customers also lost sight of you. You need to restore that relationship. This is often best done with a unique offer. This way you can make your lost customers feel special again and build the customer relationship from there.

Creating a segment for these customers is necessary for everyone, to keep your customer base as large as possible. I create a segment for my customers who have ordered from me at least once. Their last order dates back a year or more.

Segments for at-risk customers

Risk customers move into the risk area of the retention zone. These are the profiles that you risk losing if they don't place another order soon. In this phase, it is best to do more about webshop loyalty than sending commercial emails. In this example, I created a segment with customers who have ordered from me twice or more, with the last order placed at least three months ago.

Segments for brand loyalty

Brand loyal customers buy products from the same brand in every order. This target group is perfectly suited to send emails that are focused on that particular brand. Think of new product launches, tips about the brand, or interesting information about the brand. For brand loyal customers, there are several segments to create. This segment is easy to set up, since you can filter on brand, in this case Wella:

In the example above, you can see that I filtered by the total number of orders of two or more, with each order containing the brand 'Wella'. Now that I have Wella's brand loyal customers, I quickly get to work on a targeted email about the latest products from this particular brand they love so much.

Segment: Never ordered anything

It may surprise you, but there are also email addresses of people in your online shop who have never placed an order at your store. These people have signed up for the newsletter but unfortunately, have never made a purchase in your shop. Do not underestimate this group, in many cases it is quite large. This is an interesting target group, they have chosen to leave their contact information with you but they are not yet convinced of your product, assortment or the advantages of your shop. It makes little sense to send this group your latest products. It is better to focus on brand experience or brand benefits in your emails for this group.

Who are you, what does the webshop offer and under what circumstances? What about your return policy? Or what about your delivery time? These are all possible "stumbling blocks" that your customer may encounter. You want to segment this target group as well. I myself create a segment where the customer:

Is subscribed to the newsletter
Has not placed any orders with the status 'completed' yet
Subscribed to the newsletter 14 days ago

This way, you can create a flow: Is the customer not responding to this email? Then create a segment for your customers who subscribed to the newsletter 30 days ago but have not yet placed an order.

Segments for high order value customers

High order value customers place consistent orders above the average order value in your shop. So this is a different group than the big spenders. The big spenders regularly place high orders, the high order value customers always place an order above the average order value. You can also show these customers that they are important to you. For example, you can offer these customers volume discounts: with X number of products, your customer will receive a discount. What you also can do, is offering these customers a 'regular customer discount', especially for them. The segment you create in Reloadify is very similar to that of the big spenders. However, you filter on every order, instead of an any order. See below for an example of how I set this up.

Segments for low order customers

Low order value customers spend below your average order value on every order. What you want, is that these customers order more, so that your average order value goes up. So you don't offer a discount to these customers. After all: the order value should go up, not down. The best thing you can do for this group of customers is to offer cross-sell products. With Reloadify you can easily place cross-sell products by clicking on the block 'dynamic content' and then in the dropdown menu go for 'cross-sell items'. You can determine how many cross-sell articles will be shown.

How I created this audience in Reloadify is as follows. I filtered the segment by:

Each order has an order value of less than €80
Order moment is three months (or less) back
Low order value segment ecommerce

Segments for abandoned cart customers

These are all the customers who left an abandoned shopping cart and never placed another order. This group is very interesting, because the customer was ready to order, but never completed it. This can be for many reasons. I therefore recommend creating multiple abandoned cart segments. After all, would you really want someone who ordered for €10 and someone who ordered for €1000 to receive the same abandoned cart email? And do you really want your regular customers to get the exact same abandoned cart email as new customers?

New customers who abandon a shopping cart

New customers are not yet familiar with your web shop and can be persuaded by explaining who you are, what you stand for and to highlight your USPs. Maybe your new customer was surprised by your shipping costs? Or maybe he was not sure if his package would arrive on time. In this case, you can persuade your new customers with an abandoned cart email by explaining in the abandoned cart email what the delivery time is, what the return policy is and how he can contact the customer service. Is the customer still not responding to this? In that case, you can send a second e-mail with a discount code. This way you still convince this group.

Existing customers who abandon their shopping cart

An existing customer who left their cart behind? Perhaps your existing customer was distracted or there were technical problems on the website during the check-out process. You can email this group twice: once as a reminder that there is still a shopping cart waiting for them. Is there still no order after this e-mail? Then send a second e-mail a day later in which you respond to the possible problem with your copy in the newsletter.

I want to create a segment to send an e-mail. The email will have a discount code for 15% off. I can't give this discount on the brand 'Goldwell' as I don't have enough margin on it. So I want to exclude this brand. I have created one segment which:

The cart was left 20 minutes ago
With a total value of €50, - euro or less
Excluding the brand Goldwell

Fortunately, this is possible in Reloadify:

Tips for creating segments yourself

These are 11 segments you can create directly to send better messages to your customers and build loyalty. When it comes to segments, the sky is the limit, and you can create dozens of segments that specifically apply to your business.

For example, segment by brand, category or product in combination with an abandoned cart, so you can make an email even more relevant. You can set up an awful lot of abandoned cart emails. I can already hear you thinking, 'then my customer will be flooded with emails'. Fortunately, that is not the case. In Reloadify you can configure that customers will not receive a certain email if they have just received an email from you.

Another interesting segment to use is customers who last looked at a specific product. This is a filter that you can simply set up. If a specific product has often been viewed and is on sale the following week, then you are obviously being hugely relevant when you email these people. Don't worry, you can just exclude the people who did buy the product recently. That way, you won't disappoint anyone. This can also be set on category and brand level. In Reloadify you build profiles with information. This information can be used in a smart way. Think of a birthday mail, a mail with extra explanation about a certain product or just a regular customer discount. There are so many possibilities! Experience it yourself with Reloadify.