Segment before sending
Build engagement-aware segments so risky or cold cohorts do not ride with trusted mail.
- Difficulty:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- Recency/frequency/engagement fields in CRM
- Last updated:
- 2026-07-15
- Author:
- empire
Objective
Improve list hygiene
Validate, clean, and segment lists before high-risk sends.
Starting state
Campaign audience drafted; engagement tiers available
Prerequisites
- Recency/frequency/engagement fields in CRM
Estimated time
1–2 hours
Difficulty
intermediate
Required access
- CRM
- ESP
Inputs
- Engagement rules
- Campaign goal
- Provider mix
Step-by-step instructions
- Define tiersSplit engaged, soft-engaged, and inactive cohorts with clear rules.
- Assign send strategySend to engaged first; quarantine or re-permission inactive addresses.
- Review provider riskEnsure Gmail/Microsoft-heavy cold slices are not blasted together.
Verification
- Campaign targets only approved tiers
Common mistakes
- One blast to the entire historical database
- Sunset inactive addresses vs re-permission campaign?
Rollback / recovery
- Pause remaining tiers if early metrics breach thresholds
Expected outcome
Sends match engagement risk instead of treating all addresses equally.
When to escalate
- Business requires mailing inactive cohorts despite risk