Email Segmentation Criteria are the specific data points, attributes, and conditions used to categorize subscribers into distinct groups within your email list. These criteria form the foundation of targeted email marketing, enabling marketers to send relevant messages based on who subscribers are, what they do, and how they interact with your brand.
Types of Segmentation Criteria
Demographic Criteria
Basic subscriber information that defines who they are:
- Location: Country, state, city, timezone for regional targeting
- Age and generation: Tailoring messaging to age-appropriate content
- Gender: When relevant to product or content preferences
- Job title and role: B2B targeting based on decision-making authority
- Company size and industry: Enterprise vs. SMB messaging strategies
- Language preference: Multilingual campaign targeting
Behavioral Criteria
Actions and interactions that reveal subscriber interests:
- Email engagement: Opens, clicks, forwards, and reply rates
- Purchase history: Products bought, order frequency, average order value
- Website activity: Pages visited, content downloaded, time spent
- Cart abandonment: Incomplete purchases requiring follow-up
- Event participation: Webinar attendance, conference registration
- Product usage: Feature adoption, login frequency, support tickets
Psychographic Criteria
Deeper insights into preferences and motivations:
- Interests and preferences: Self-reported topics of interest
- Pain points: Challenges they’re trying to solve
- Goals and aspirations: What they want to achieve
- Values and beliefs: Alignment with brand positioning
- Content preferences: Format preferences (video, articles, podcasts)
- Communication frequency: Preferred email cadence
Transactional Criteria
Financial and purchase-related data points:
- Lifetime value: Total revenue generated per subscriber
- Purchase recency: Days since last transaction
- Order frequency: Number of purchases in timeframe
- Average order value: Typical spending per transaction
- Product categories: Types of products purchased
- Discount usage: Response to promotional offers
- Payment method: Preferred transaction types
Choosing the Right Criteria
Align criteria selection with campaign objectives and available data. For product launches, prioritize behavioral criteria showing product interest. For retention campaigns, focus on transactional criteria like purchase recency and engagement patterns. Start with criteria you can reliably track and expand as data collection improves.
Consider data accuracy and completeness when selecting criteria. A criterion used by only 20% of your list creates limited segmentation value. Prioritize widely available, consistently updated data points that apply to most subscribers.
Combining Multiple Criteria
The most effective segments combine multiple criteria for precise targeting. A re-engagement campaign might target subscribers who haven’t opened emails in 60 days (behavioral), previously made purchases (transactional), and are in your target location (demographic).
Use logical operators to refine segments:
- AND conditions: Narrow audience by requiring all criteria match
- OR conditions: Broaden audience by accepting any criteria match
- Exclusion logic: Remove specific groups from broader segments
For example: (Purchase date > 90 days ago) AND (Total spend > $500) AND NOT (Opened email in last 30 days) creates a segment of valuable but disengaging customers.
Data Requirements
Implement proper data collection methods to support segmentation criteria:
- Signup forms: Capture demographic and preference data upfront
- Preference centers: Allow subscribers to update interests and frequency
- Website tracking: Monitor behavioral data across digital properties
- Integration: Sync CRM, e-commerce, and analytics platforms
- Progressive profiling: Gradually collect additional information over time
Maintain data quality through regular cleansing, validation, and updates to ensure segmentation accuracy.
Strategic selection and combination of email segmentation criteria enables marketers to deliver highly personalized campaigns that resonate with specific audience groups, driving significantly higher engagement and conversion rates compared to generic mass emails.