If you’re wrangling a pile of B2B leads in your CRM and feel like your email campaigns are talking to a brick wall, you’re not alone. Segmenting your contacts—the right way—can mean the difference between a campaign that gets ignored and one that actually starts conversations.
This guide is for anyone using Leadliaison who wants to use its advanced filters to actually do something useful—not just tick boxes and hope for the best. I’ll walk you through clear, proven ways to segment B2B contacts, what to avoid, and a few traps to watch out for.
Why Bother Segmenting at All?
Let’s be real: most B2B emails are ignored because they’re generic. Segmenting lets you send the right stuff to the right people. That means fewer unsubscribes, more engagement, and less time wasted on “spray and pray” marketing.
But don’t overthink it. You don’t need 50 tiny segments. Start with what matters most for your business.
Step 1: Clean Up Your Data First
Before you play with filters, make sure your contact data isn’t a mess. Advanced filters are only as good as the data you feed them. Common problems:
- Job titles that are all over the place (e.g., “VP Sales,” “Vice President of Sales,” “VP of Sales & Marketing”).
- Company names with typos or inconsistent formats.
- Missing fields—if half your leads don’t have an industry tagged, you can’t segment by industry.
Pro tip: Run a quick audit. Export a sample of your contacts and look for obvious issues. Fix those first, or you’ll end up with weird segments and wasted effort.
Step 2: Understand Leadliaison’s Filtering Options
Leadliaison offers a few ways to slice and dice your lists. The “advanced filters” let you combine conditions using AND/OR rules, stack filters, and get pretty specific.
Common filter types: - Standard fields: Company size, industry, location, job title, email activity, last engagement. - Custom fields: Anything you’ve added yourself (e.g., “Tech Stack Used,” “Renewal Date”). - Behavioral filters: Actions taken—like clicking an email, visiting a landing page, or registering for a webinar. - Scoring: Lead score based on engagement or fit (just don’t trust scoring blindly—more on that later).
What’s not worth your time: Filtering by obscure fields no one ever fills out, or tracking actions so granular (“visited 3+ blog posts in a week”) that it just creates noise.
Step 3: Start with the Segments That Actually Matter
Don’t create segments just because you can. Start with the basic splits that actually drive results for most B2B teams. Here’s what usually works:
1. Industry or Vertical
If you sell to several industries, this is a no-brainer. Tailor your messaging and offers by industry.
- Filter: “Industry” equals “Manufacturing,” “Software,” etc.
- Watch out for: Contacts with missing or generic industry info (“Other” or “N/A”).
2. Company Size
A startup doesn’t care about the same things as a Fortune 500. Segment by number of employees or revenue.
- Filter: “Employees” between X and Y, or “Annual Revenue” above/below a certain amount.
- Caution: Employee counts are often out of date—double-check before building strategy around them.
3. Decision-Maker Level
Talking to C-level? Middle management? Tailor accordingly.
- Filter: “Job Title” contains “Director,” “VP,” “Manager,” etc.
- Pro tip: Build a filter group using OR for all relevant titles. It’s tedious but worth it.
4. Engagement Level
Who’s actively opening emails or visiting your site? These folks deserve more attention.
- Filter: “Last Email Opened Date” within past 30 days, or “Web Visit Count” greater than 3.
- Pitfall: Don’t get hung up on vanity metrics. If someone’s clicking but never responding, they might just be bored.
5. Customer vs. Prospect
Don’t send “buy now” emails to people who already bought.
- Filter: “Lifecycle Stage” is “Customer” or “Prospect.”
- If you don’t track this: Set up a custom field and keep it updated. It’s worth the effort.
Step 4: Use Advanced Filters to Combine and Refine
Here’s where Leadliaison’s advanced filters shine. You can mix and match conditions to get specific:
- Example: “Industry = Software” AND “Job Title contains ‘Director’” AND “Last Email Clicked within 14 days.”
- Nested logic: Build groups (e.g., “(Industry = Software OR Industry = SaaS) AND (Job Title contains ‘VP’ OR ‘Director’)”).
Keep it readable. If you can’t explain your filter logic in one sentence, it’s probably too complicated.
Step 5: Test, Tweak, and Don’t Get Fancy
Don’t trust that your filters work—test them.
- Preview results: Leadliaison lets you see which contacts fit your segment. Spot-check a handful. Are they who you expected?
- Send test emails: Before blasting a big segment, send a test to yourself or a small group.
- Iterate: If people are slipping through the cracks (or you get a bunch of junk), adjust your filters. Don’t be afraid to delete segments that don’t perform.
What NOT to do: - Build 30 tiny segments you never use. - Segment by “favorite color” or other useless trivia. - Ignore the “unknowns.” If a field you want to use is missing for most contacts, fix your data first.
Step 6: Automate What Makes Sense
If you’re doing the same segmenting every week, automate it.
- Dynamic lists: Set up saved searches in Leadliaison so segments update themselves as data changes.
- Tagging: Use workflows to auto-tag contacts based on actions or field changes.
- Monitor for errors: Set reminders to review your segments every month or quarter. Fields drift, data gets stale, and stuff breaks.
Don’t automate everything. Sometimes a quick manual review catches things automation misses, especially after a big data import or campaign.
What Actually Works (and What’s Mostly Hype)
Works: - Keeping segments broad but targeted (think: “Tech VPs in healthcare”). - Updating segments as your business changes. - Layering behavioral filters on top of firmographic ones.
Mostly hype: - Micro-segmentation (unless you have a team of data scientists and a huge list). - Over-engineered lead scoring (it’s a nice supplement, not a magic wand). - Chasing the latest AI-powered segmentation tool (Leadliaison’s filters do the job if your data’s solid).
Common Gotchas and How to Dodge Them
- Bad data: Garbage in, garbage out. Clean first, filter second.
- Overlapping segments: Watch for contacts who get stuck in too many lists and end up bombarded.
- Neglected custom fields: If you stop maintaining custom data, your filters break.
- One-and-done mindset: Segmentation isn’t set-it-and-forget-it. Check back and adjust.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
If you take nothing else from this, remember: clean data and a few smart segments beat a tangled mess of micro-lists every time.
Start with the basics, see what works, and tweak from there. The best filter is the one you actually use — and the best segment is the one that helps you send better messages, not just more messages.
Don’t worry about doing it perfectly. Just get started, keep it practical, and improve as you go. That’s how you actually get value out of Leadliaison’s advanced filters—not just another pile of lists to ignore.