If you're using Totango to manage customers, you probably know that just blasting the same message to everyone is a waste of time (and mildly embarrassing). Segmentation is how you get specific—so your outreach actually lands and doesn’t make you look like you’re asleep at the wheel. This guide is for customer success folks, CSMs, and anyone in charge of making sure accounts don’t fall through the cracks.
We’ll walk through how to segment accounts for targeted outreach in Totango, with honest takes on which features are worth your time and where things can go sideways. No fluff—just what you need to get more relevant, more useful, and less annoying with your outreach.
1. Get Clear on Why You’re Segmenting
Before you click a single filter, nail down why you’re creating segments. If you don’t know the outcome you’re chasing, you’ll end up with a mess of lists and no way to use them.
Ask yourself: - Am I trying to renew more accounts? - Do I want to upsell certain features? - Is this about preventing churn, or just keeping high-value clients happy? - Who actually needs to see this segment—just me, or the whole team?
Pro tip: If your answer is “because my boss said so,” get clarity. Otherwise, you’ll be making busywork.
2. Audit Your Data First (Don’t Skip This)
Segmentation is only as good as the data behind it. If your account info in Totango is a dumpster fire—missing fields, outdated statuses, or messy tags—your segments will be junk too.
What to check: - Account fields: Are they filled in? Are key fields like lifecycle stage, industry, plan type, and ARR up to date? - Health scores: Are they actually being calculated, or are they stale from last quarter? - Owner info: Do accounts have a real owner assigned, or is everything “TBD”? - Custom attributes: If you rely on anything custom (e.g., “Adoption Phase” or “VIP”), make sure it’s not just wishful thinking.
If you find garbage: Clean up what you can now, or at least flag it. Don’t build segments on top of broken data.
3. Decide Your Segmentation Criteria
Time to choose how you’ll slice and dice your accounts. Here are the most common (and useful) ways to segment in Totango:
- Lifecycle stage: New, onboarding, at-risk, mature, churning, etc.
- Account health: Good, average, poor (assuming your health scores are real).
- Contract value: High ARR vs. low ARR. (Don’t waste 1:1 time on tiny accounts.)
- Product usage: Heavy users, light users, dormant.
- Industry or vertical: If you have enough data, this can help with tailoring messaging.
- Engagement: Accounts that haven’t logged in, or haven’t responded to outreach.
- Renewal date: Coming up in 90 days? Time to get moving.
What not to do: Don’t go overboard with hyper-granular segments. You’ll drown in lists and never act on most of them. Start simple—two or three core criteria is plenty.
4. Building Segments in Totango
Here’s the meat of it. Totango calls these “Segments,” and building them is pretty straightforward—if you know what you want.
Step-by-step:
- Navigate to Segments: Open the “Segments” tab in Totango. This is where you’ll create and manage all your slices.
- Choose Your Object: You can segment on Accounts, Users, or Tasks. For most outreach, stick to Accounts.
- Add Filters: Use the filter builder to select your criteria. Example:
- “Lifecycle Stage equals ‘At Risk’”
- “ARR greater than $50,000”
- “Health Score is Poor”
- “Renewal Date is within next 90 days”
- Stack Filters: Combine filters for more targeted segments, but don’t get fancy unless you actually need the complexity.
- Preview Results: Totango shows you how many accounts match. If you’re getting “2 results” when you expected 200, check your filters (or your data).
- Save the Segment: Give it a clear, specific name. “High-Value At Risk Q2” is better than “Segment 1.”
Pro tip: You can save segments for just yourself or share with your team. Only share what’s actually helpful—don’t clog up everyone else’s workspace.
5. Sanity-Check and Refine
Don’t just trust that your segment is perfect because Totango says so.
- Spot-check a few accounts: Are these actually the types of customers you expected?
- Look for weird patterns: If all your “at-risk” accounts are just small contracts, maybe your health scoring needs work.
- Iterate: Segments aren’t set-and-forget. Expect to tweak them as your business or data changes.
What to ignore: Totango loves to offer charts and graphs on segments. Don’t get distracted by pretty dashboards unless they actually help you take action.
6. Use Segments for Outreach (Don’t Just Admire Them)
A segment is only useful if it drives action. Here’s how to turn segmentation into actual outreach:
- Targeted emails: Export the segment or use Totango’s built-in campaigns to send targeted messages.
- Task assignment: Create tasks for CSMs based on segment membership (e.g., “Call all at-risk, high-ARR customers this week”).
- Playbooks: Launch standardized playbooks for specific segments—like onboarding sequences for new customers or win-back campaigns for dormant ones.
- Reporting: Share segment insights with sales, marketing, or leadership—if they’ll actually use them.
Caution: Don’t spam. Just because you can email every “at-risk” customer doesn’t mean you should. Make sure your outreach is actually relevant.
7. Revisit Segments Regularly
Account data changes. Your priorities change. Segments that made sense last quarter might be useless today.
- Set a reminder: Review key segments every quarter. Delete or update any that aren’t driving action.
- Ask for feedback: If you share segments with your team, find out if they’re actually using them.
- Stay honest: If you’re not using a segment, kill it. Less clutter means more focus.
Don’t: Build segments just to hit a dashboard metric. They’re a tool, not a trophy.
Real Talk: What Works, What Doesn’t
Works well: - Simple, actionable segments tied to a real business outcome - Keeping your criteria to a few key fields - Regularly cleaning up old segments
Doesn’t work: - Over-complicating with dozens of filters or custom fields you don’t use - Letting your data go stale (garbage in, garbage out) - Creating segments you never use just to “cover all the bases”
Ignore: - Fancy visualizations or “AI-powered” segment suggestions unless they genuinely save you time - Pre-built segments that don’t fit your actual business needs
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Segmentation in Totango isn’t rocket science, but it’s easy to overthink. Start with the basics: pick a clear reason, keep your segments tight, and actually use them for outreach. If something’s not working, tweak it or toss it. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s progress.
The best segments are the ones you use. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of done.