If you’re trying to get the right message to the right business contacts, you already know you can’t just blast everyone with the same email and hope for the best. Segmenting your B2B contacts—breaking them into useful, meaningful groups—makes your outreach way more effective and a lot less annoying for your prospects. This guide is for anyone using Sendler who wants to get serious about targeting without drowning in buzzwords or over-complicating things.
Let’s get practical. Here’s how to actually segment your B2B contacts in Sendler so you reach the right people with stuff they might actually care about.
1. Know Why You’re Segmenting (Seriously)
Before you start slicing and dicing your list, stop and ask: “What do I want to achieve?” If your answer is “Uh, because I read somewhere it’s best practice,” that’s not good enough.
The real reasons to segment: - You want to send relevant messages (and avoid spam complaints). - You want to test what works for different groups. - You want to make your sales team’s job easier.
Don’t segment just to have more segments. More complexity = more chances to mess things up. Start simple.
2. Get Your Data in Order
Sendler lets you import and manage a bunch of contact data, but garbage in means garbage out. Before you try to segment:
- Clean your data. Get rid of duplicates, outdated contacts, or missing info. If you have “ACME Corp” three times with slightly different spellings, fix it now.
- Standardize fields. Make sure titles, industries, company sizes, etc., use consistent language. “CEO” and “Chief Executive Officer” should be one or the other.
- Decide what matters. Don’t collect a ton of random fields you’ll never use. Focus on the basics: company, role, industry, location, deal stage, last interaction.
Pro tip: If you’re pulling data from sales or CRM tools, set up a regular sync or import. Don’t let lists go stale.
3. Pick the Segmentation Criteria That Actually Matter
Here’s where most folks overthink things. In B2B, a few criteria do the heavy lifting:
- Industry: Are your contacts in SaaS, manufacturing, healthcare, etc.?
- Company size: Small business vs. mid-market vs. enterprise.
- Job role: Decision maker, influencer, gatekeeper? (Don’t get too granular—“Director of IT” and “VP of IT” can usually go together.)
- Location: Especially important if you sell regionally or internationally.
- Engagement: Have they opened, clicked, or replied to past emails?
- Stage in the sales funnel: New lead, MQL, SQL, opportunity, customer.
What to ignore: - Hyper-specific segments like “Companies founded before 1991 with blue logos.” You’ll end up with segments of three people and zero impact. - Personal interests or birthdays, unless your product is… birthday cakes or something.
4. Set Up Segments in Sendler: Step-by-Step
Here’s how to actually create useful segments in Sendler:
Step 1: Import or update your contact list - Upload your CSV or connect your CRM. - Map fields carefully—check for typos and weird formatting.
Step 2: Create custom fields (if needed) - If you need to track “Industry” or “Lead Status” and it’s not already there, set up those fields in Sendler.
Step 3: Build your first segment - Go to Segments in Sendler. - Click “Create Segment.” - Set your filters (e.g., Industry = “Finance” AND Job Title contains “CTO”). - Keep it broad enough to be useful, but specific enough to matter.
Step 4: Save and name segments clearly - Name segments so anyone on your team knows what’s inside. “US SaaS CEOs” is good. “List A1” is useless.
Step 5: Test with a small send - Before blasting your whole segment, send a test campaign to a handful of contacts. Check for errors and weird edge cases (like people with missing fields).
5. Don’t Go Overboard—Start Simple, Then Iterate
It’s tempting to create 27 segments right out of the gate. Don’t. You’ll spend more time maintaining segments than actually running campaigns.
Start with 2–4 segments: - Example: Industry, company size, role, or just “engaged” vs. “not engaged.” - Watch how each segment performs.
As you learn what works, add or tweak segments. If a segment isn’t delivering, merge it back in or kill it off. No shame.
6. Use Dynamic Segments Where You Can
Sendler supports dynamic segments (groups that update automatically based on criteria). This is worth using because:
- New contacts get slotted into the right bucket without manual work.
- Segments stay relevant as data changes (e.g., deal stage or engagement).
- Less risk of sending the wrong message to the wrong person.
How to set up dynamic segments: - Use rules like “Last Opened Email is within 30 days” or “Lead Status = SQL.” - If someone moves from “Prospect” to “Customer,” they should switch segments automatically.
7. Personalize Outreach—but Don’t Get Creepy
Once you have segments, you can personalize your messaging. That’s the point, right? But don’t overdo it.
- Mention industry pain points, not trivial details.
- Use merge tags for first names, company names, or job titles—if you’re sure the data is clean.
- Don’t fake familiarity (“Hey, saw you went to Ohio State!”) unless you actually know them.
Watch out: Automated personalization can backfire if the data is wrong or feels forced. Keep it relevant and useful.
8. Track Performance by Segment—and Act on It
You’re not segmenting for fun. Pay attention to how different segments perform:
- Open rates, click rates, response rates, and (most importantly) conversions.
- If a segment isn’t responding, ask why. Is your message off? Segment too broad/narrow? Bad timing?
- Adjust your segments or messaging based on real data—not hunches.
Don’t get paralyzed by analytics. You want trends, not a PhD thesis.
9. Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
- Over-segmentation: You end up with tiny lists and nothing gets done.
- Relying on stale data: Segments are only as good as the info behind them. Schedule regular clean-ups.
- Wrong fields: If your CRM data is a mess, fix that first. Don’t build segments on bad info.
- Vanity segmentation: Just because you can segment by shoe size doesn’t mean you should.
10. Quick Tips for Team Alignment
If you’re not the only one managing outreach, make sure your team is on the same page:
- Document what each segment means.
- Agree on naming conventions.
- Review segments together every quarter—ditch what isn’t useful.
No one wants to send a “Welcome, new lead!” email to someone who’s been a customer for two years.
Keep It Simple (and Actually Use Your Segments)
Don’t let segmentation become a science project. Start with the basics, keep your data clean, and focus on what’s actionable. Iterate as you learn. Targeted outreach isn’t about being clever—it’s about being useful and respectful of people’s time.
Segmentation done right means fewer unsubscribes, more positive replies, and a lot less wasted effort. Keep it simple, keep it real, and you’ll get better results—no buzzwords required.