Steal My Killer Email Segmentation for Ecommerce Tactic: Affinity Segments

An 8-figure DTC brand recently asked us: “why are our campaigns not making any money?”

This question prompted us to do our standard free 99-point email & SMS audit.

What I found will be kind of shocking.

Their agency didn’t know segmentation 101.

And they certainly didn’t understand affinity segmentation.

Check out these screenshots:

Steal My Killer Email Segmentation for Ecommerce Tactic: Affinity Segments | HiFlyer Digital

37% more campaign emails sent yet 63% drop in revenue.

This brand was going backwards.

So their agency was trying to recover by sending MILLIONS of additional emails in a panic mode. (that’s expensive!)

Yet if this 8-figure brand merely excelled in segmentation and personalization, they would be making MILLIONS more.

As you can see, the campaigns were STUFFED with segments… and hardly got any clicks.

Steal My Killer Email Segmentation for Ecommerce Tactic: Affinity Segments | HiFlyer Digital

Clearly bad segmentation and even worse personalization.

But this armageddon started with segmentation.

So where did this brand & agency go wrong?

It starts with understanding basic segmentation fundamentals.

Segmentation isn’t rocket science.

It comes down to three fundamental audiences:

1) What your subscribers did.
2) What your subscribers are doing now.
3) What your subscribers will do.

Past. Present. Future.

That’s it. Segmentation 101.

Knowing what subscribers bought in the past is good.

Knowing what they’re browsing or carting now is better.

Knowing what they WILL buy is best.

And if you can do it all in ONE SEGMENT… well, now we’re talking like the top brands.

So, this 8-figure brand asked me: “how do I get to that level?”

It starts by working with experts who came from the top brands.

But let’s start with one killer past / present / future segment: the affinity segment.

Build The Affinity Segment

Now that you understand segmentation 101, let’s build a segment that includes all those elements: past, present and future.

Get to your Klaviyo account.

Find a campaign that you’re looking to send – let’s call it Water Bottles New Arrivals.

Now, using the past / present / future approach, build ONE segment that includes:

Who purchased Water Bottles in the past
Who reviewed Water Bottles in the past
Who added Water Bottles to the cart in the past
Who viewed Water Bottles recently
Who searched Water Bottles on site recently
Who is predicted to buy something in the next X days
Who is predicted to have high LTV & hasn’t reached it yet

This is my unique affinity segment approach.

Do you see how past / present / future audiences are incorporated into one?

That segment will be EXTREMELY SMALL.

But it will be EXTREMELY POWERFUL.

Because it will make 80% of the revenue with just 20% of the mailbase.

That is the CORE AUDIENCE that should get your Water Bottles New Arrivals.

You can always expand beyond that list, of course.

But 80/20, remember.

Roll my affinity segment methodology out for your next 10 product-based campaigns.

You’ll be amazed at how powerful that audience is compared to the rest of your mailbase.

Of course, now you need step #2 – personalization.

But that’s for another blog post.

So…

Back to the story: I told this 8-figure brand all about it.

They immediately hired us to replace their agency.

Because we bring these 10-figure strategies down to brands like them.

No guesswork, only proven frameworks.

I’m more than happy to build one for your brand specifically.

Book a free email & SMS audit and we’ll get it underway.

Quick homework for this week:

1) Look at your segmentation
2) Is it too broad or too narrow?
3) Now, is your email talking to every segment correctly?

Click here if you want to implement more 10-figure email & SMS strategies of the top brands in minutes, not month.

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Steal My Killer Email Segmentation for Ecommerce Tactic: Affinity Segments