If you’re reading this, you probably have a pile of leads you scraped, found, or bought, and now you’re staring down the barrel of another generic email blast. You know it won’t work. This guide is for marketers, founders, or anyone who wants to actually get replies from cold outreach by making it personal—without wasting hours wrestling with clunky tools. We'll walk through how to segment and export leads from Findthatlead so you can send emails that don’t feel like spam.
Let’s get into it.
Why Segmentation Makes or Breaks Your Email Campaign
Let’s keep it real: sending the same email to everyone is just asking to be ignored or marked as spam. Segmentation means splitting your leads into smaller, more meaningful groups—by industry, company size, location, or anything else that matters. This lets you write emails people actually want to read (or at least won’t instantly delete).
Findthatlead gives you a bunch of raw data. The trick is knowing how to slice it up so your campaigns don’t sound like they were written by a robot.
Step 1: Get Your Leads into Findthatlead
You need leads first. Findthatlead offers a few ways to get them in:
- Use the Prospector: Search by filters like industry, company size, job title, and location.
- Upload a List: Already have emails or LinkedIn URLs? Upload them as a CSV.
- Domain Search: Enter a company website to pull contacts from that domain.
Pro tip: Don’t just go for big lists. Quality beats quantity every time. If you’re just scraping random contacts, your deliverability will tank fast.
Step 2: Clean Up the Mess
Let’s be honest, most raw lead lists are a mess. Duplicates, weird formatting, missing info—it all gets in the way. Here’s what to do:
- Remove duplicates: Findthatlead has basic deduplication, but double-check if you’re uploading your own list.
- Check for missing data: If you’re missing key fields (like job title or company), your segmentation later will be weak.
- Validate emails: Use Findthatlead’s built-in validator, but don’t trust it blindly. Bounce rates still happen, so consider using a secondary validator for mission-critical campaigns.
Ignore: Don’t waste time fixing every single record. If a lead is missing too much info, just drop it. Focus on what you can actually use.
Step 3: Segment Your Leads Like a Human, Not a Spreadsheet
This is where most people get lazy and just export the whole list. Don’t. Here’s how to break it down:
3.1 Decide What Actually Matters
Ask yourself: - What would make me write a different email to this group? - Are there common pain points, industries, or company sizes?
You don’t need 20 segments. Usually, 3–5 thoughtful groups are enough.
Examples of useful segments: - By industry (e.g., SaaS vs. retail) - By role (e.g., CEO vs. marketing manager) - By company size (startups vs. enterprises) - By geography (domestic vs. international)
Ignore: Don’t segment just because you can. “People whose name starts with J” isn’t actionable.
3.2 Use Findthatlead’s Filters
Inside Findthatlead: - Open your leads list. - Use the filter bar to sort by industry, location, job title, company size, etc. - Save filtered views as lists (Findthatlead calls them “Lists” or “Segments”).
Heads up: Filtering options depend on the data you have. If you didn’t collect “industry” at the start, you can’t filter by it now. Plan ahead next time.
Step 4: Export Segmented Lists (Without Breaking Things)
Once you’ve got your segments, it’s time to actually get them out of Findthatlead and into your email tool.
4.1 Export Each Segment
- Select your filtered segment.
- Click the “Export” or “Download” button (usually a CSV).
- Name your file something you’ll recognize later (“SaaS-CEOs-June2024.csv” beats “export.csv”).
Pro tip: Export one segment at a time. Don’t mix them up. Otherwise, you’ll lose all the work you just did.
4.2 Check Your Export
Open the CSV. Make sure: - The right columns are there (name, email, company, job title, etc.) - The data matches your segment (no random industries or titles sneaking in)
If it looks wrong, go back and fix your filters. Better to catch it now than after you’ve sent 500 emails to the wrong people.
4.3 Prep for Personalization
Some email tools (like Mailshake, Lemlist, or even Mail Merge in Gmail) let you use “merge tags” to personalize emails. Make sure your CSV columns line up with what your email tool needs.
Examples:
- {{First Name}}
- {{Company}}
- {{Job Title}}
If you want to get fancy, add extra columns for things like “Pain Point” or “Custom Intro Line” — but don’t overdo it unless you have the data.
Step 5: Import to Your Email Tool and Set Up Personalization
This isn’t a Findthatlead guide, but it’s where most people trip up.
- Import your CSV into your email platform.
- Map columns to merge tags.
- Write a template for each segment. Don’t just swap out the company name—actually tweak the copy to speak to the segment’s real problems or goals.
- Send a test to yourself first. Double-check that the merge fields actually work and nothing looks robotic.
Ignore: Don’t spend hours writing 30 versions of the same email. Two or three well-targeted templates are enough for most.
What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)
- Works: Personalizing by role and industry usually gets the best replies. Mentioning a pain point or recent news (“Saw your company just raised funding...”) works if you have the data.
- Doesn’t work: Over-personalizing. If you try to fake familiarity (“Hope you had a great weekend!”) but it’s obviously a bulk email, people can smell it.
- Ignore: Fancy tools promising “AI-powered segmentation” unless you’ve got a huge dataset and the time to babysit it.
Pro tip: Keep your segments tight and your emails short. No one wants to read a wall of text from a stranger.
Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
- Exporting unsegmented lists: If you just blast everyone, you’ll burn your domain and annoy people.
- Dirty data: Typos, missing names, or wrong job titles make your email look lazy.
- Over-segmentation: Spending hours making micro-segments you’ll never use.
- Not testing: Always send a test email to yourself before going live.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
You don’t need ninja skills or a 50-step workflow to get this right. Start with a few thoughtful segments, keep your data clean, and focus on writing emails you’d actually reply to. The rest is just noise.
If you’re not sure what will work, try it out, watch your replies, and tweak as you go. The best campaigns come from steady improvements, not from chasing the latest trend or tool.
Ready to get started? Segment, export, personalize, and send. Then see what happens—and don’t be afraid to toss what doesn’t work.
Good luck.