© 2023, Wine Chemistry Creative. Digital Wine Marketing, Sonoma California 95476

How to quickly create audience segments

Easy instructions for creating audience segments in each of the major email platforms

by | Jan 10, 2024

Here’s a quick reference guide with clear instructions describing how to create audience segments within your email service provider platform, for each of the most popular ESPs used by small wineries.

As a refresher, email audience segments are groups within your your email subscriber list created on the basis of shared commonalities, such as interests, demographics, geography, or buying habits.

Creating audience segmentation is the starting point for delivering highly relevant email content to your winery’s followers and greatly increasing revenue from this channel.*

*According to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), businesses that use segmented campaigns can experience a revenue increase of up to 760%.

An introduction to email subscriber segmentation

Audience segmentation is treated slightly differently across the various email service providers, but they all follow the same basic principle.

Lists are created from the data associated with your subscribers, using, if desired, conditional logic to further refine the specificity of the list. Those lists are then saved as segments which can be used to specify only the subscribers to which a particular email campaign will be sent.

Examples of the data you might use to create segments include zip code, state, date of last purchase, membership status, email activity, date of last tasting room visit, purchased a specified product, no previous purchases — you get the picture; the possibilities are endless, limited only by your efforts to understand your audience.

These segments — for example, the segment which satisfies the condition “subscribers who have purchased Rosé [AND]* subscribers who have not purchased in the last 6 months” can then be selected as the recipient list for a particular email campaign.

*[AND] is a device used in conditional logic which specifies that both the conditions must be met for a subscriber to be included in the segment.

Mailchimp logo

Creating audience segments within Mailchimp

Mailchimp points out that email segmentation allows you to effectively target the right audience at the right time. However, your segmentation is only as strong as your criteria and setup.

Mailchimp makes the process of email subscriber segmentation easy with the use of workflows to automatically segment your audience with data from your website and email campaigns.

Getting started with email segmentation in Mailchimp

From the contact table, you can create, view, and save segments for later use. Regular segments are available to all plan types and range from simple one-condition segments to complex segments using up to 5 conditions. Regular segments can include email contacts or SMS contacts.

To create a simple segment of your email subscribers follow these steps.

This will create a segment of subscribers using just one condition, but Malchimp allows you to combine up to five conditions to create a segment.

This example creates a segment of subscribers who joined the audience after the most recent email was sent. Since we are using only one condition, we won’t be using And/Or logic to create our segment.

 

  1. Click Audience, then click Segments.
Screenshot of Mailchimp navigation showing where to select Segments (creating audience segments)

2. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.

3. Click Create regular segment.

4. Enter your segment name in the Segment name field, then click Add filter.

5. In the the How your contacts were acquired section, click Date added.

6. Click is after, then click the last campaign was sent.

7. Click Review segment.

8. Click Edit segment to make any changes. When you’re ready, click Save segment.

 

How much email segmentation is enough?

The process of creating segments of email subscribers is purely technical. Before creating subscriber segments, you should decide which segments your winery needs.

The more you segment your email audience, the more focused you can be with your email content.

But remember, unless you’re using dynamic text which is triggered by tags, fields, and other user data to automatically populate the content of your emails, you’ll be writing more email content for the increased number of audiences your segmentation has created.

To get help with developing the right segments for your winery, take a look at our email marketing services.

Audience segmentation is not just about dividing; it’s about understanding. It’s the art of creating messages that resonate with the hearts and minds of your diverse audience.

Ann Handley

Chief Content Officer, MarketingsProfs

Hubspot logo - mark only.

How to create audience segments within Hubspot

To create a segment, select Contacts and then Lists in the navigation menu.

Screenshot of Hubspot navigation showing how to create audience segments with lists.

In the next screen, click on Create list at the top-right corner of the window. This will bring up the following screen:

Screenshot of Hubspot's "Create a list" window.

Select Contact-based and then give it a name.

Selecting Active list means your list will automatically update over time as contacts are added or deleted as their properties change.

Static lists do not automatically update as your subscriber list changes, but rather represents a moment in time.

Clicking Next will allow you to select filters for your list, and save it.

Wine email marketing content strategy

Get help defining an email content marketing strategy for your winery, with audience segmentation, custom landing pages, and ongoing reporting.

Constant Contact logo

Creating audience segments within Constant Contact

Constant Contact’s audience segmentation functionality is simple and intuitive, while at the same time, robust and versatile.

To create a custom segment of your subscribers, click on Contacts in the top navigation and select All contacts.

Next, select the Segments tab, then click on Create Segment (1, 2, and 3 in the screenshot below):

Screenshot from Constant Contact's Create Segment screen: how to create audience segments.

Give your segment a name so that you’ll recognize it in your account later, and can select it for future email campaigns.

Select the criteria you want to use. You can use any criteria on its own, including any tags you’ve already created, or click  + Add Selection Criteria to create a segment using multiple criteria (4 and 5 in the following screenshot):

Screenshot from Constant Contact's Create Segment screen.

Lastly, click Save and Preview.

Your new segment can be found on the Segments dashboard and is available to select when you schedule your email.

Constant Contact automatically refreshes your selected segment at the time your email sends, ensuring that only the contacts who meet your criteria at the time you send your email receive it.

In the era of information overload, generic messages fall on deaf ears. Audience segmentation is about speaking to individuals, not crowds, creating a genuine connection that transcends the noise.

Seth Godin

Best-Selling author, speaker, thought leader, SethGodin.com

Marketo logo

Creating audience segments within Marketo

Adobe’s Marketo uses the words Segmentation and Segment with perhaps a little more precision than other email marketing platforms.

On the Marketo Nation blog, they suggest thinking of Segmentation as permanent smart lists, which apply to all leads. For example, you could have a segmentation based on Wine Club Membership.

A Segment, on the other hand, applies only to some leads based on the criterion set by the Segmentation. For example, within our Wine Club Membership Segmentation, we could have three segments: Members, Non-members, and Former-members.

Here are the instructions (excerpted from the Marketo Engage blog) to create a segmentation.

Start by navigating to Lead Database:

Screen shot from Marketo: Lead Database

Find the Segmentations Folder, right click and select new segmentation

Screenshot from Marketo: New Segmentation

Name your segmentation, select add segment to start creating the permanent smart list segments within that segmentation

Screenshot from Marketo: name your segmentation

Start adding segments and naming. Note: you will always have a default segment.

Next, this is just like creating a smart list. Pick the criteria and filters need to complete your segment.

Put your segments in order. This is important because a lead will be located in the first segment of where they qualify.

Screenshot from Marketo

Click create and take one last look at the number of people who qualify for each segment to make sure everything looks about right.

Approve, it may take a while for the segmentation to be ready depending on the size of your database.

Segmentation is not an option; it’s a strategic necessity. It allows you to move beyond averages and engage with the unique needs and behaviors of your audience segments, driving meaningful outcomes.

Avinash Kaushik

Digital Marketing Evangelist, Google

Sendgrid logo

Creating audience segments within Twilio Sendgrid

Twilio explains that segments are similar to contact lists, except they update dynamically over time as information stored about your contacts or the criteria used to define your segments changes.

Custom fields, reserved fields, and engagement data like opens and clicks, provide unique information you can use to identify contacts for different segments. As your contacts’ traits change or you add more contacts that meet the criteria of your segment, your segments will update to reflect these changes. For example, a segment populated using the criteria, “lives in Denver” or, “is under 30 years old” will change as your contacts age or their addresses change.

Segments can pull from All Contacts or any of your more narrowly defined lists.

To create a segment in the Twilio SendGrid App, navigate to Marketing, and select Contacts.

When the Contact Lists screen appears, select New Segment in the Create dropdown on the right:

Screenshot of Sendgrid's Contact Lists screen.

Next, name your segment so you can recognize it easily in the future.

Then choose whether you want to segment all contacts or segment an existing list:

Screenshot of Sendgrid's Create Segment screen.

You can then start building your first condition by choosing a field from the drop-down in the ‘Who are you targeting’ section on the next screen.

Sendgrid allows you to combine multiple conditions using conditional logic operators AND and OR.

This functionality allows you to further refine your segments to target your audience with precision.

Once you are finished adding conditions, click Save Segment.

*Source: Sendgrid

Klaviyo logo

Creating audience segments within Klaviyo

Klaviyo describes segments as groupings of contacts defined by a set of conditions.

In contrast to Lists, which are static,  growing only as people subscribe or are manually added, Segments are dynamic. They grow as people meet the segments’ conditions and shrink as people no longer meet them. Moreover, segments update in real time.

Highly segmented campaigns return more than 3X the revenue per recipient as unsegmented campaigns. Some examples of how you can use segments to identify different audiences include:

  • Customers who purchase a new release, so you can watch the segment grow after your announcement
  • Inactive subscribers who have been on your list for at least 6 months but have never opened or clicked an email
  • VIP customers, which includes everyone who has purchased at least X number of times before or have spent over Y amount of money
  • Customers with a high predicted customer lifetime value (CLV) who are likely going to be future VIPs

When you build a segment with a certain set of conditions, it will pull from all of the contacts in your account. This means that segments don’t necessarily have opt-in criteria in order for people to be added, which is important to keep in mind when you’re planning on emailing a particular segment.

Define with AI tool

Klaviyo has a “Segment Builder” to make the process of creating subscriber segments easy, but they have an additional tool which allows you to simply describe, using plain text, the kind of segment you want, and their AI takes care of the rest.

To create a segment in Klaviyo

First, navigate to the Lists & Segments tab (1) in your account and click Create List / Segment in the upper right corner (2):

Screenshot of Klaviyo's Create Segment screen.

In the next screen, select Segment:

Klaviyo's List or Segment selection screen

Use the segment builder to add conditions and specify who should be included in your segment.

Once you are satisfied with the definition you create, click Create Segment.

*Source: Klaviyo Help Center, Getting Started with Segments. Updated 11/29/2023

Audience segmentation is the science of empathy. It’s about deeply understanding your audience’s aspirations, challenges, and desires, and then crafting experiences that truly matter to them.

Brian Solis

Digital Analyst & Futurist, Salesforce, ServicesNow, Keynote Speaker

Campaign Monitor logo

Creating audience segments within Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor allows you to create segments based on subscriber data stored in your Campaign Monitor account. Segments are automatically updated as data changes.

This data can include information submitted through sign-up forms, data you’ve imported or added manually, system-generated data such as subscription date, and recipient activity data from previously sent emails.

Segments are created within a list, and cannot span multiple lists.

To set up a new segment in Campaign Monitor

  1. Click Lists & subscribers.
  2. Click on the overflow menu (3 dots) on the right of the list you want.
  3. Click Create segment.

The segment builder will load, allowing you to create rules for your segment.

 

Screenshot of Campaign Monitor's Segment Builder rules selector

When you have finished adding the rules to build your segment, give it a name that will be easy to recognize later, then click Save and preview. This creates the segment of people on the subscriber list who match the criteria set by your rules, or rule.

The total number of active subscribers in the segment will be displayed on the page, along with a sample of some of those subscribers.

It’s a good idea to check that the segment includes the subscribers you expect it to.

*Source: Campain Monitor, List Segmentation.

Brevo logo

Creating audience segments within Brevo (formerly Send In Blue)

Brevo (the email platform formerly known as Send In Blue) points out that segments are a powerful tool that you can use to filter out contacts based on specific criteria.

And with the ability to add up to 100 conditions to a segment, and apply up to 50 tags to each condition, Brevo’s audience segmentation functionality is capable of being highly — super highly — surgical.

Moreover, segments allow you to perform various actions on these filtered contacts. For example, you can send email campaigns that are tailored to their interests and behavior. This is a great way to increase engagement and conversions, as it shows your contacts that you understand their needs and are willing to provide them with relevant content.

To create a segment within Brevo, follow these steps.

First, access the segmentation tool from Contacts and click on + Add a filter.

Next, create at least one condition:

Screenshot of Bravo's Create Condition screen (How to create subscriber segments in Brevo).

Once you’re done creating your segment, click Save as segment.

Screenshot of Bravo's Save as Segment screen (how to create audience segments).

Name your segment.

Save it in an existing category or create a new one.

Click Create.

*Source: Brevo Help, Create a Segment to Filter Your Contacts.

Salesforce logo

Creating audience segments within Salesforce

Salesforce describes a segment as a real-time grouping of users, or accounts, based on criteria you define using a set of segment categories and rules.

Salesforce’s audience segmentation capabilities are particularly robust

Email segmentation in Salesforce is made easier through the use of their segment categories. For example, by selecting the Campaign category, you can create segments based on whether a user views or interacts with a campaign, and how often and how recently. You can also create segments for A/B testing.

Setting up email segmentation in Salesforce

  1. In the Audiences section of the main navigation, select User Segments | User Segments.


    If you have accounts configured for your dataset, you also have the option to create account segments by selecting Account Segments | Account Segments.

  2. Click New Segment.

  3. Enter a Segment Name that describes its purpose.

  4. Select a category from the Select Category dropdown to use for the first rule in your segment.

  5. Select the Rule for the category.

  6. Configure the applicable parameters for the rule.

  7. To add additional rules, click New Rule.

  8. To add another group of rules, click New Group.

  9. Create additional rules as necessary.

  10. To send a daily email report that includes the current membership link, and a list and count of the users added and removed, enter an email address in the Email Reporting field.

  11. Click Save.

*Source: Saleforce Help, Create a Segment.

Headshot

Bradley Squires

ENGAGEMENT CATALYST

Bradley Squires works to put small wineries on a level playing field with the big guys who have the advantage of greater resources. For two decades, Bradley developed brand strategy for some of America’s largest (and smallest) brands. He transitioned to the wine industry and founded Wine Chemistry Creative after earning degrees in Viticulture, Enology, and Wine Marketing.

Get a Free 30-minute consultation

Need to ask a few quick questions to help your winery’s email marketing?

Set up a time with Bradley right now!

Related Posts

Email Marketing Trail Guide Download

Email Marketing Trail Guide Download

Your email marketingcould use a little fresh air. Download the Small Winery Email Marketing Trail Guide — before your subscribers take a hike.You don't need me to tell you email marketing is still the most effective, highest-ROI marketing activity for small wineries....