Segmenting Leads Without Over-Personalizing Emails

You can’t “prompt” your way out of bad targeting. Yes, AI is great, personalizing Cold Emails is awesome 🔥   But there’s a better hack:   Break your list into smaller targets.   Let me tell you a story 👇   A few months ago a client came to us asking to target: “Ecommerce founders.” That was the whole brief.   So, what do you do?   You ask questions. For example:   → Shopify or Amazon? → Fashion or supplements? → Funded or bootstrapped? → Do they grow through paid ads or organically? → Who’s handling growth?   Then you build the list:   → Shopify brands → Selling skincare → Based in the EU → Running Meta ads → Hiring but no Head of Growth → Founder posts 3x/week on LinkedIn   Now your Cold Email doesn’t need a clever opener. It’s already relevant.   This is how we build Outbound at SalesCaptain. We don’t stop at “industry.” We segment by:   📦 Category → Not just HR software → but compensation platforms, 100–300 headcount, scaling in LATAM, using Gusto   📡 Signal → Not just “growing teams” → Teams hiring SDRs, posting on LinkedIn, with no RevOps function in place   We use AI, but not to fake relevance. We use it to find signals that show who’s actually in-market.   Because in 2025: Signals > prompts Context > copy   The broader the list, the harder the message has to work. Shrink the list. Sharpen the context. Let relevance do the work. Have a nice weekend.   #b2bsales #coldemail #leadgen #gtm #personaliztion #aiinsales

If you’re segmenting based on engagement, you’re already behind. Everyone does 30/60/90 day engagement windows. It’s not advanced. It’s basic hygiene. Here’s the real segmentation play most marketers miss: Segment by intent signals, not just opens/clicks. Examples: • Viewed shipping/returns policy? ➝ Hit with reassurance focused CTA • Time on product page > 30 seconds? ➝ Trigger a cart based reminder • Opened 5+ product emails but never clicked? ➝ Try plain text emails with a customer story • AOV based segments - low priced vs high priced ➝ show them the right products • FAQ viewers ➝ Give them more trust • Recent abandon carts/checkouts ➝ Leverage their interests • Time since they opted in for a coupon ➝ Remind them about it • Time since last purchase ➝ Show them complimentary products The list goes on and on... THEN add your engagement for best deliverability Engagement ≠ intent. Intent = actual buying behavior. Stop treating every click the same. Treat the reason behind the click differently.

Segmentation beats personalization. Personalization is terribly inefficient... (and oftentimes unnecessary outside of highly strategic enterprise selling). Think about the ads that really grab your attention. None of them have your name in them. Or mention podcasts you were interviewed in or posts that you wrote. These ads work because they're segmented based on patterns amongst small-ish groups of people. Outbound should be treated similarly. Pro tip: this approach works WAY better over the phone than via email. The expectation for personalization and quality is much higher in emails than over the phone. Here are a few ideas for segmenting your lists so you don't have to personalize so much: ✅ By region/location If you sell anything brick & mortar, SLED, etc—segment your accounts by geographic region. You really don't have to personalize much when you can: - Name-drop local businesses/organizations - Drop the location This sounds like: "Hi David, we work with Fit & Fashion right down the road in SLU. It's Jason with ________. Ring a bell?" ✅ By tech stack Let's say you sell a tool that enhances Salesforce. Or Jira. Or some other specific tool. Segment your accounts by tech stack. This sounds like: "Hi Katie, we're partnering with engineering teams who wish sandboxes were way easier to set up and use in Zendesk. It's Jason with ________. Got a min?" ✅ By persona Let's say you sell to ecomm solutions to SMB retail business owners. This sounds like: "Hi Tom, we're working with several retailers in the Seattle area. It's Jason with ________. Heard our name tossed around?" (H/T Armand Farrokh) ✅ By trigger This list gets pretty extensive. Hiring, job changes, customer/champion change, M&A, expansion/contraction, promotion, etc This sounds like: "Hi Dave, congrats on the promotion. It's Jason from __________. Was just talking to a new HR leader yesterday who's running into all kinds of complications scaling international hiring. That by chance something you're running into?" ✅ By niche One of my favorites. Take a well-recognized logo like Rippling. You could go after direct competitors, but it's even better to focus on non-competitive products selling to the same personas. This sounds like: "Hi Cierra, we're working with Rippling to help scale their product suite for HR leaders. It's Jason with ________. Thought you might want to hear how they've doubled ACV in the last 6 months. Have a min?" ~~~ Before you think of personalization, start with segmentation. Do the work upfront to avoid having to customize too much. Agree or disagree? We're training entire sales orgs at companies like Shopify, Rippling, Zoom, and many more on how to land more meetings with outbound. Interested in custom training for your team? DM or email me jason [at] outboundsquad.com for more info.