If you’re sending gifts to customers or prospects and hoping for better results, but your campaigns feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall, this is for you. Segmentation isn’t a buzzword—it’s how you make sure the right people get the right gifts (and you don’t blow your budget on branded socks nobody wants). This guide is for marketers, sales teams, or anyone using Sendoso who’s tired of generic, scattershot gifting and wants to actually move the needle.
Let’s cut through the fluff and get practical.
Step 1: Get Clear on Your Gifting Goals
Before you even open up your Sendoso dashboard, ask: Why are you sending gifts in the first place? If you can’t answer that in one sentence, stop and figure it out.
Some common (real) reasons: - Book meetings with hard-to-reach prospects - Move stalled deals forward - Show appreciation to top customers - Warm up cold accounts
What doesn’t work: - “We just want to increase brand awareness.” (That’s vague and hard to measure.) - “Everyone else is doing it.” (You’ll waste money copying bad strategies.)
Pro tip: Write down your top 1-2 goals. These will shape who you segment, what you send, and how you measure success.
Step 2: Audit Your Audience Data—Don’t Skip This
Segmentation is only as good as your data. You don’t need a PhD in data science, but you do need to know what you have.
- What info do you have in Sendoso? Think: email, job title, company size, deal stage, industry, location.
- What’s missing? If your CRM or marketing tools have richer data, connect those to Sendoso. (Yes, it’s worth the effort. Manual CSV uploads work too.)
- How clean is your data? If you’ve got job titles like “CEO, cofounder, janitor,” fix them. Bad data leads to awkward gifting moments.
Ignore: Fancy AI tools promising to “auto-segment” for you. If your data’s a mess, no algorithm will save you.
Step 3: Choose Segmentation Criteria That Matter
You don’t need 10 micro-segments. Start with what actually maps to your goals. Here are a few real-world ways teams segment in Sendoso:
By Account Stage
- New leads (haven’t booked a meeting)
- Open opportunities (in active deal cycle)
- Closed-won customers (new or long-term)
- Churned customers (for win-back campaigns)
By Persona or Role
- C-suite vs. manager vs. end user
- Sales vs. marketing vs. IT
- Champions vs. blockers
By Industry or Company Size
- Enterprise vs. SMB
- Tech vs. healthcare vs. manufacturing
By Engagement Level
- Opened your emails? Attended a webinar? Ghosting you for weeks?
What to ignore: Don’t over-complicate. “People who clicked a webinar link on a Tuesday and work for companies with blue logos” is not a useful segment.
Step 4: Build Segments in Sendoso (and Integrations)
Sendoso isn’t a CRM, but it plays well with others. The more you integrate, the less manual work later.
In Sendoso
- Use Sendoso’s built-in filters to group contacts by tags, lists, or attributes you’ve imported.
- Upload CSVs if you’re building quick-and-dirty segments. (Not glamorous, but it works.)
With CRM/Marketing Automation
- Connect Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, or Outreach.
- Use your CRM to build lists (e.g., “Open Opportunities in Q2”) and sync them directly.
- Map custom fields (like persona, industry, or renewal date) so you can target with precision.
Pro tip: Test with a small batch first. If your “CFO” segment includes interns, your data mapping is off.
Step 5: Match Gifts to Segments (Don’t Phone It In)
Generic gifts = generic results. Once you have segments, pick gifts that actually make sense.
- For new prospects: Light, easy opt-in gifts (e.g., coffee e-gift cards, handwritten notes)
- For key decision-makers: Higher-value gifts, maybe something tailored to their role or industry
- For customers: Thoughtful appreciation (e.g., local treats, branded swag they’ll use, not toss)
- For event no-shows: “Sorry we missed you” gifts—small, but personal
What works: Tying the gift to their pain points or interests. Saw them mention loving coffee on LinkedIn? Send a coffee sampler.
What doesn’t: Sending everyone the same mug, regardless of role or context. (It’s lazy, and people can tell.)
Step 6: Set Up Gifting Triggers—Automate, But Don’t Overdo It
Segmentation is pointless if you’re stuck manually clicking “send” for every gift.
- Automate via CRM triggers: E.g., when an opportunity moves to a new stage, auto-send a relevant gift.
- Build nurture flows: Set up multi-step campaigns—gift after meeting booked, or after contract signed.
- Batch send, but personalize: You can queue up gifts to a segment, but always include a personal note or detail.
Caution: Don’t set and forget. Automated gifting that feels robotic is just as bad as spammy email.
Step 7: Track Results by Segment (Not Just Overall)
To know if your segmentation is working, you need to track the right numbers.
- Gift acceptance rates: Who actually claimed the gifts?
- Meeting booked rates
- Deal velocity: Did gifts help move deals faster?
- Renewal/retention rates (for customers)
- ROI by segment: Are some groups responding better than others?
Ignore: Vanity metrics like “gifts sent.” If nobody’s acting on your gifts, you’re just burning money.
Step 8: Iterate—Don’t Be Afraid to Ditch What Doesn’t Work
Nobody gets segmentation perfect out of the gate. Try, measure, and adjust.
- Double down on what’s working: If CFOs in healthcare respond to coffee cards, do more of that.
- Kill underperforming segments: If your “all of marketing” list never replies, rethink your targeting or your gift.
- Ask for feedback: Sometimes the best segmentation insight comes from a simple “What did you think of the gift?”
Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to get specific. Sometimes a small, well-targeted segment outperforms a huge, generic one.
Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
- Over-segmentation: If you’re building 15 micro-segments and sending 2 gifts to each, you’ll drown in logistics. Keep it simple.
- Ignoring context: Sending branded swag to a cold prospect rarely works. Warm them up first.
- Forgetting to update segments: People move jobs, deals progress, customers churn—your lists should reflect that.
- Treating gifting as a silver bullet: It’s a tactic, not a magic trick. If your messaging or targeting is off, no gift will save a bad campaign.
Wrapping Up: Simple > Complicated
If you remember anything from this guide, it’s this: Segment for a reason, keep it simple, and always measure. The best gifting strategies don’t try to impress with complexity—they just make the recipient feel like you actually get them.
Start small, run an experiment, and tweak as you go. Most teams never get past “send everyone the same thing.” If you can segment and personalize just a little, you’re already ahead of the pack.
Happy gifting—just don’t send another mug.