B2B Demographic Email Segmentation Strategies
Segment business email lists by industry and company sales volume and size, as well as by job title and department, to improve business email marketing efforts. Other business uses for these email list segments include CRM and other business applications in addition to business email marketing campaigns.
- Categorize companies by industry and other characteristics, including size and sales.
- Group decision makers by position and department.
- Tie campaign information to business objectives and plans.
- Compile contact information to support outreach efforts.
Combine Business and Contact Attributes for More Relevant Campaigns
Build B2B email lists using company and contact data. Identify data points about the company and campaign relevant to your product or service and business objectives for the prospect company and email marketing campaign.
Industry and Business Type
Segment email recipients based on business characteristics, including industry, to send targeted emails to industry-specific groups of email recipients.
Company Size and Revenue
Break small and medium businesses out from enterprise clients. Add revenue ranges if relevant to your qualification criteria for clients.
Job Title and Seniority
Learn to distinguish executives from other types of employees in the organizational structure, such as managers and specialists, to communicate effectively with them.
Department and Function
Cluster contacts from IT, finance, marketing, and other purchase-related departments, such as human resources, to align campaign goals with department objectives.
Geography and Market
Use country, state, or other geographic filters if there are differences in product or service availability or marketing by language or time among countries or regions.
Combined Account Criteria
Use multiple variables to segment your audience in more ways than possible using just one variable.
B2B Demographic Email Segmentation Matrix
Use this matrix to find ways to incorporate business data into audience definitions for marketing uses.
| Data field | Example segment | Campaign application | Validation requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industry | Manufacturing companies | Industry-specific products and operational solutions | Review industry classification |
| Company size | Midsize businesses | Solutions aligned with organizational scale | Confirm employee-size range |
| Revenue | Defined annual revenue band | Prioritize accounts using commercial criteria | Check source and data recency |
| Job title | IT Director | Technical requirements and implementation details | Review title relevance |
| Department | Finance | Financial planning, cost visibility and reporting | Confirm department mapping |
| Geography | Selected US states | Regional services and market-specific offers | Validate location fields |
Important: These are examples of range constraints. Identify range constraints for your ad campaigns and other purposes based on your target audience rather than applying the same range constraints to all your ad campaigns.
How to Apply Segmentation to B2B Email Campaigns
Use the audience information to help choose a business problem to address in your response and the steps you will take to address it.
Enterprise Technology Buyers
Audience: Large companies and other organizations with IT budgets.
Message: Discuss integration requirements and issues, security, scaling, and other implementation considerations.
CTA: Review Technical Requirements
Healthcare Organizations
Audience: Healthcare and other administrative and support roles.
Message: Focus on institutional and user service needs.
CTA: Explore Relevant Solutions
Finance Decision-Makers
Audience: Finance and purchasing professionals at specific companies.
Message: Provide cost-related information and overall business advantages and effects, as well as methods used to assess them.
CTA: Review the Business Case
These examples illustrate campaign planning techniques. You should evaluate your own campaign data to determine campaign results.
Build and Maintain Repeatable Audience Segments
Documentation outlining marketing and sales segmentation processes to help ensure uniformity in CRM and other campaign activities.
Define the Audience
Determine profiles of target industries and companies, potential employee roles, and campaign goals.
Select Required Fields
Choose company- and professional-related information to code for contacts.
Review Data Quality
Spot missing and overlapping data elements and records and incorrectly assigned categories.
Measure and Refine
Evaluate campaign results and update segments using campaign results information, if appropriate.
Check Contact Records Before Creating Segments
Incomplete or inaccurate data can result in contacts being assigned to the wrong segment. Review contact data used for segmentation before importing contacts into your CRM or other email system.
- Standardize company and industry details.
- Check job titles and department values.
- Identify duplicate and incomplete records.
- Document details about the original source of the material and date of review, if available.
- Assess email address validity separately from marketing preferences.
Apply Clear Data and Campaign Rules
Create data use policies for marketing activities involving contact information. Choose and apply segmentation techniques according to company goals and requirements and applicable privacy and direct marketing laws and regulations.
Use Relevant Fields
Provide only business information to your political campaign. Do not provide any nonbusiness information to your political campaign.
Review Marketing Eligibility
Email verification checks attributes of an email address. It does not verify the recipient's consent to receive marketing emails. Adhere to all legal requirements related to your intended audience and jurisdiction.
Maintain Suppression Records
Unsubscribe and other complaint requests and other necessary exclusions should be handled before activating an email list.
Refine Your B2B Contact Targeting
Tips and resources for organizing business contacts to enhance email marketing.
B2B Demographic Email Segmentation FAQs
Tips and resources for organizing business contacts to enhance email marketing.
What is B2B demographic email segmentation?
It is the practice of segmenting customer records by company and job attributes, such as industry and size, revenue ranges, and job title and role, to identify potential target audiences for marketing efforts.
What are good parameters for segmenting B2B customers?
Industry and company size are useful baseline criteria. Additional criteria to consider include job title and organizational unit. If it is valuable for identifying target accounts and your data are credible, adding information on revenue or geography may be helpful.
How many criteria should be included in a segment?
Try testing additional segmentation variables. Assess the size of your segments and the potential value of additional segmentation variables to help you decide whether to develop additional segments.
What is the difference between company and contact data?
Company information refers to information about an organization, including its industry and revenue. Contact information refers to information about a person's position, department, and other details about an organization. Company and contact information can be used together to identify potential companies and contacts.
Does email verification allow sending marketing emails?
No. Email verification verifies address-related signals but does not obtain permission or consent to send marketing emails. Review privacy laws and other regulations regarding suppression lists before sending emails.
How often should segmentation data be reviewed?
Create processes to periodically review and update segment definitions based on changes in data sources and campaign frequency. Your segment definitions may include job and company information and email addresses that change over time. Review data quality and update segment criteria as needed.
Plan Your B2B Email Segmentation Strategy
Tell us about the industries and companies you want to reach and the types of job positions you want to fill. Provide other information about your target audience and the contact information you want to gather as part of your campaign.
Discuss Your Data Requirements