You’ve got a pile of leads, a tight deadline, and you’re tired of sending generic emails that go straight to the trash. If you want to cut through the noise, you need to sort your leads, figure out who’s worth your time, and speak to them like a real human. This post is for sales folks, growth hackers, and anyone who’s tired of spray-and-pray outreach. We’ll cover how to actually filter and segment leads for hyper-personalized outreach using Leadmagic—and what’s worth your time (and what isn’t).
Why Filtering and Segmenting Leads Actually Matters
Let’s be honest: “personalization” gets thrown around a lot, but most people are just swapping out first names. Real personalization means knowing who you’re talking to and why they’d care. If you’re not filtering and segmenting, you’re guessing—and guessing is a waste of everyone’s time.
When you filter and segment properly, you:
- Reach the right people, not just any people.
- Send less email, but get more replies.
- Stop annoying prospects who will never buy.
- Make your outreach feel like a one-on-one conversation, not a mass blast.
Leadmagic has tools to help, but the real magic (sorry) is knowing what to do with them.
Step 1: Get Clean Data Into Leadmagic
Garbage in, garbage out. If you feed Leadmagic a messy list, you’ll waste time later. Before you even think about segmentation:
- Double-check your CSVs or imports. Are names, emails, and company names in the right columns? No weird symbols or blanks?
- Remove obvious junk. Catch-all emails like info@, outdated contacts, or entries with missing info? Ditch them now.
- Keep your sources clear. If you’re importing leads from different campaigns or sources, tag or note them. Later, you’ll want to know where each bucket came from.
Pro tip: Don’t get precious about keeping every lead. If you wouldn’t want to call them, don’t bother emailing them.
Step 2: Use Filters to Slice Your List
Leadmagic lets you filter leads by pretty much any field you’ve got: job title, company size, industry, geography, engagement, and more. Here’s what’s actually useful:
The Filters That Matter
- Job Title / Function: This is non-negotiable. Selling a sales tool? Filter for sales managers, directors, and VPs. Ignore everyone else.
- Company Size: If you only sell to SMBs or enterprises, use this. Don’t bother small businesses if you sell six-figure software.
- Industry / Vertical: Some pitches only make sense for certain industries. Segment out the ones that’ll care.
- Location: Time zones matter for calls and emails. Also, some products only work in certain regions.
- Past Engagement: If Leadmagic tracks opens/clicks, filter for people who’ve shown interest before.
What to Skip
- Trying to filter by “lead score” if you don’t trust it. Automated lead scoring is often just a guess.
- Over-filtering. If your segment is down to three people, you’ve gone too far.
Pro tip: Start broad, then narrow down after you see where you actually get replies. Don’t overthink it on the first pass.
Step 3: Segment Your Leads Into Actionable Buckets
Filtering is about slicing; segmentation is about grouping for action. In Leadmagic, you can create segments—think of them as smart folders or tags.
How to Segment (Without Getting Lost in the Weeds)
- By Persona: For example, “SaaS Sales Leaders,” “Healthcare IT Directors,” “Ecommerce Owners.” Each gets a different outreach message.
- By Deal Stage: New leads, warm leads (who’ve engaged), and “hand-raisers” who replied before.
- By Campaign Source: LinkedIn event, content download, webinar signup. Tailor your message to their context.
- By Account Tier: High-priority accounts (bigger logos, target accounts) versus regular leads.
Segment Naming Tips
- Be boring and clear: “NYC SaaS CTOs” is better than “Superstars Tier 1.”
- Use dates or campaign names if it helps you remember (e.g., “Q2 Webinar Registrants”).
What to avoid: Don’t build so many segments you forget what’s in each. If you’re the only one who understands your setup, you’ll be the only one who can use it.
Step 4: Build Your Outreach Based on Segments
Now that you’ve got meaningful segments, you can actually personalize with purpose.
Write for the Segment, Not the Individual
- Reference what you know. “Saw you’re leading sales at a fast-growing SaaS company in NYC…”—that’s way better than just “Hi {first_name}.”
- Speak to their pain points. A healthcare CIO and a retail founder don’t care about the same things.
- Don’t fake it. If you don’t know much about their company or industry, don’t pretend you do. Ask a smart question instead.
Leadmagic Features That Help
- Dynamic fields: Pull in company, industry, or other data into your templates.
- Sequence logic: Set up different follow-ups for each segment.
- Reply tracking: Move folks automatically based on who responds or clicks.
Pro tip: Test your messages by sending them to yourself. If it sounds robotic or forced, it’ll land flat with your leads too.
Step 5: Iterate and Clean Up Regularly
You’re not done after one round. The best filters and segments get stale if you don’t revisit them.
- Review segment performance. Which buckets got replies or meetings? Double down there.
- Purge dead leads. If someone hasn’t engaged after several touches, move them out. Don’t keep chasing ghosts.
- Update your segments. As you learn more about what works, tweak your filters and groupings. Sometimes the best segments aren’t the ones you expect.
What not to do: Don’t keep adding more and more filtering rules hoping you’ll stumble on a magic formula. Simple, clear segments outperform complicated setups every time.
What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)
Works:
- Being ruthless about who stays in your outreach list.
- Segmenting by real business logic, not just what’s easy to filter.
- Personalizing based on what you actually know, not just mail merge fields.
- Regularly revisiting and cleaning up your segments.
Doesn’t Work:
- Blindly trusting “AI” to tell you which leads are good. Use your judgment.
- Over-engineering your segmentation. You’re not building a CRM for NASA.
- Sending the same message to every “segment” and calling it personalized.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
You don’t need a 50-field database or a PhD in data science. Clean data, a few smart filters, and real-world segments will get you most of the way. Don’t overthink it, and don’t be afraid to toss what isn’t working. The best personalization is the stuff that feels natural—so keep it simple, check your results, and tweak as you go. That’s how you actually get replies (and keep your sanity).