How to segment and nurture leads in Yamm using advanced filters

If you’re trying to wrangle a growing list of leads in Google Sheets and send targeted emails without losing your mind, this guide’s for you. Yamm (that’s Yet Another Mail Merge) is a handy tool for sending personalized emails from Google Sheets. But let’s be honest—once you’ve got more than a dozen leads, blasting the same email to everyone just doesn’t cut it. You need segments. You need filters. And you need a way to keep things personal without spending all week hunched over spreadsheets.

Let’s break down how to actually segment and nurture leads in Yamm using advanced filters—what works, what’s a waste of time, and how to keep things simple.

Why Segmenting Leads in Yamm Matters

Before we get into the weeds, here’s the no-nonsense reason to bother with segmentation: targeted emails get more replies, and fewer people mark you as spam. If you’re sending the same pitch to a CEO and an intern, you’re doing it wrong.

Segmenting lets you:

  • Send the right message to the right group.
  • Avoid annoying people with irrelevant info.
  • See what actually moves the needle in your outreach.

Step 1: Get Your Data in Shape

You can’t filter what you can’t see. Yamm works straight from Google Sheets, so your lead list is basically a spreadsheet. Before you start segmenting, make sure your sheet isn’t a trash fire.

Bare minimum columns you want:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email Address
  • Company
  • Lead Source (e.g., webinar, referral, website)
  • Status (e.g., new, contacted, demo booked)
  • Industry (optional, but useful)
  • Last Contacted (date)

Pro tip:
Don’t overcomplicate things. Add columns only if you’ll actually use them for filtering or personalization.

What to skip:
Columns you never fill in or that are always blank—just noise.

Step 2: Add Useful Data for Segmentation

Yamm’s filters are only as good as the data you feed them. If all your leads have the same “Status,” you’re going nowhere.

Ideas for segmentation columns:

  • Location (country, state, or city)
  • Product Interest (if you have more than one offering)
  • Engagement Score (could be as simple as “hot,” “warm,” “cold”)
  • Last Email Opened (if you track this with Yamm’s email tracking)

Keep it real:
Don’t create a “custom field” for every possible thing. Start with two or three filters that matter most to your outreach. You can always add more later.

Step 3: Use Yamm’s Advanced Filters

Here’s where most people mess up: they either skip filters entirely or get bogged down trying to do something too fancy. Yamm’s built-in filters are simple but powerful—if you set up your sheet right.

How to filter in Yamm

  1. Open your Google Sheet with your leads.
  2. Click the Yamm add-on menu, then Start Mail Merge.
  3. In the setup sidebar, look for the Recipients section.
  4. Click the Filter button (it might say “Advanced filter” or similar).
  5. Build your filter using dropdowns and conditions.

Examples:

  • Send only to leads where Status is “new.”
  • Target people in the Industry column that matches “Healthcare.”
  • Email everyone with Last Contacted more than 30 days ago.

You can stack multiple filters:
For example, leads in “California” AND Product Interest is “Premium.”

What works well:
- Filtering by status or stage (e.g., new vs. follow-up) - Filtering by engagement (e.g., only emailing “hot” leads) - Excluding people you already contacted this week

What doesn’t:
- Overly complex filters with six conditions—Yamm can get slow or buggy. - Filtering on columns with inconsistent data (e.g., “San Fran,” “SF,” and “San Francisco” all in one column).

Pro tip:
Use Data Validation in Google Sheets to keep your filter columns consistent (dropdown menus for “Status” or “Industry” save headaches later).

Step 4: Personalize Your Emails (But Don’t Go Overboard)

Segmentation only works if you tailor your message. Yamm supports merge tags, so you can pull in any column from your sheet into the email.

How to add personalization:

  • In your Gmail draft, use {{First Name}}, {{Company}}, or any column header surrounded by curly braces.
  • You can get creative: “Hi {{First Name}}, I saw you’re interested in our {{Product Interest}} plan.”

What works:
- First name, company, and product interest are safe bets. - Mentioning something specific to their segment (like “Since you’re in healthcare…”).

What to skip:
- Trying to personalize every line—it gets awkward, fast. - Using personalization on fields you haven’t double-checked (nothing says “spam” like “Hi ,”).

Test before you send:
Send a test email to yourself using real data from your sheet. Catch those embarrassing merge mistakes.

Step 5: Nurture Leads with Follow-up Campaigns

One-off emails rarely cut it. The magic happens in the follow-up. Yamm lets you send additional campaigns using the same segmented filters.

How to do it:

  1. Update your Status or Last Contacted columns after each send.
  2. Next time, filter to target folks who haven’t replied or who opened but didn’t respond.
  3. Send a new, relevant message—don’t just re-send the same pitch.

Tips for nurturing:

  • Space out your emails. Don’t pester people daily; 3-7 days is a good window.
  • Change up your message. Reference their last interaction or provide new info.
  • Track replies and update your sheet. Yamm won’t magically know if someone replies unless you update the status.

What works:
- Short, friendly follow-ups (“Just checking in—any questions?”) - Re-segmenting based on engagement (move “cold” leads to a less-frequent cadence)

What doesn’t:
- Blasting the same follow-up to everyone, especially if they’re in different industries or stages. - Forgetting to update your sheet after replies—leads will get annoyed if you keep emailing after they respond.

Step 6: Analyze and Adjust

No one gets segmentation perfect on the first try. The good news: Google Sheets makes it easy to tweak as you go.

What to look for:

  • Open and reply rates by segment—did your “hot” leads actually respond more?
  • Which filters are too broad or too narrow—are you missing people or spamming the same folks?
  • Which columns are always blank or messy—clean them up or drop them.

How to improve:

  • Add or remove filters based on what works.
  • Standardize data entry (e.g., always use “CA” for California).
  • Build simple dashboards in Sheets if you want to get fancy.

Don’t get stuck:
If a filter isn’t helping, drop it. The goal is fewer, more useful segments—not spreadsheet art projects.

Quick Recap: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often

Segmenting and nurturing leads in Yamm isn’t rocket science—it’s about having clean data, using a couple of smart filters, and sending emails people actually want to read. Don’t waste time overengineering your sheet or chasing the “perfect” filter. Start with the basics, see what works, and tweak as you go. Your future self (and your reply rate) will thank you.