If you’re in B2B marketing, sales, or customer success, you’ve heard it a million times: segment your audience for better results. But most advice is either so vague it’s useless or so complicated you’ll never actually do it. This guide is for anyone who wants practical, real-world steps to segment their B2B audiences in Hf and make personalized outreach that actually lands. No nonsense, just the stuff that works.
Why Bother With Segmentation? (And When It’s a Waste)
Let’s get this out of the way: segmentation isn’t magic. It won’t fix a lousy product or save a terrible email. But when you break your audience into sensible groups, you can talk to people like they’re, well, people.
Worth it if: - Your outreach is getting ignored or marked as spam. - You sell to more than one type of company or buyer. - You want higher response rates without doubling your workload.
Probably overkill if: - You only sell to a tiny, niche group (like 50 companies total). - You don’t have enough data to tell groups apart. - Your product is so specialized that everyone gets the same pitch anyway.
If you’re still with me, let’s get practical.
Step 1: Get Your Data House in Order
You can’t segment what you can’t see. Before you even open Hf, make sure you have: - Clean, up-to-date data on your contacts and companies. - The basics: company name, size, industry, location, contact roles. - Any relevant custom fields (tech stack, funding, renewal dates, etc.).
Pro tip: Don’t chase “perfect” data. Get what you have into Hf, then fill in blanks as you go. If you wait for your CRM to be perfect, you’ll never start.
Step 2: Decide What Actually Matters
Not every field is worth segmenting by. Focus on what actually changes your message or offer.
The classic B2B segmentation buckets:
- Industry (SaaS, manufacturing, healthcare, etc.)
- Company size (by revenue or employee count)
- Geography (region, country, time zone)
- Seniority/Role (VP vs. manager, technical vs. business)
- Tech stack (for software products)
- Lifecycle stage (prospect, current customer, renewal coming up)
Skip these unless you have a good reason: - Overly granular firmographics (e.g., “companies founded in Q2 2013”) - Vague intent data (“interested in innovation” — what does that even mean?) - Personality types (unless you’re a psychologist)
Pick 2–3 dimensions that’ll actually affect your outreach. That’s usually enough.
Step 3: Build Segments in Hf
Now, let’s get into Hf itself. The goal: create clear groups so you can send relevant messages without drowning in complexity.
How to create segments in Hf:
- Log into Hf and head to your contacts or companies view.
- Use filters to slice your data:
- Filter by industry, company size, region, or any custom fields you set up.
- Combine filters (e.g., “SaaS companies in North America with 100–500 employees”).
- Save your filtered view as a segment. Give it a name you’ll recognize later.
Pro tips: - Start broad. You can always get more specific later. - Don’t make segments so tiny that you end up writing 20 different emails. If a segment has less than 20 people, it’s probably too small. - Review your segments every quarter. Companies change, and so do your priorities.
Step 4: Map Segments to Outreach Tactics
Segmentation isn’t the goal—relevance is. Now that you’ve got your groups, decide what actually changes for each one.
For each segment, ask:
- What’s their biggest pain or goal?
- What’s a credible reason to reach out?
- How should you tweak your messaging or offer?
Examples:
- Industry: Healthcare companies care about compliance; SaaS startups want speed.
- Seniority: VPs want big-picture results; managers care about daily headaches.
- Lifecycle: Prospects need education; renewals need proof you delivered.
You don’t need a totally new campaign for every segment. Usually, it’s a matter of swapping out a few lines or tweaking your CTA.
What not to do: Don’t personalize for the sake of it (“I see you’re in Chicago!”). Make sure it’s actually useful.
Step 5: Test, Measure, and Don’t Get Fancy
Personalization is only worth it if it moves the needle. Here’s how to keep yourself honest:
- Test one change at a time. If you tweak messaging for SaaS vs. manufacturing, watch which gets more replies.
- Track the basics: open rates, reply rates, meetings booked. Don’t get lost in vanity metrics.
- Don’t over-automate. If your “personalized” emails sound robotic, you’ll look worse than if you kept it generic.
What to skip: Don’t bother with AI “ultra-personalization” tools that promise to write custom intros for every buyer. Most just spit out clunky sentences—and your prospects can tell.
Step 6: Stay Organized and Keep It Simple
If you’re not careful, segmentation can spiral into busywork. Here’s how to avoid that mess:
- Document your segments and why they exist. If you leave, someone else should be able to pick up where you left off.
- Limit the number of segments. Three to five is plenty for most teams.
- Review and prune regularly. Delete segments that don’t perform or are redundant.
Remember: The goal isn’t to have the fanciest spreadsheet or the most “dynamic” campaigns. It’s to talk to the right people about the right stuff.
What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)
Works:
- Segments based on real, practical differences (industry, role, lifecycle).
- Tight messaging that speaks to real problems.
- Simple, repeatable processes—especially for small teams.
Doesn’t Work:
- Over-segmentation. More segments = more work, not more replies.
- “Personalization” that’s just mail-merge spam.
- Fancy tools that promise to do it all for you. They usually can’t.
Ignore:
- Hype about “hyper-personalization at scale.” Most buyers just want a relevant, useful message.
- Segmentation based on arbitrary or un-actionable data.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
You don’t need a PhD in data science or a pile of shiny tools to segment B2B audiences in Hf. Focus on the basics: use clean data, pick a few meaningful groups, and adjust your messaging where it truly matters. Test, tweak, and ditch what doesn’t work.
Most importantly, don’t get stuck planning. Build a segment, send a targeted message, see what happens, and improve from there. That’s how you actually win more business—no magic, just good, honest work.