How to create customer persona segments based on activity
Learn how to use segmentation to create customer persona segments based on the actions they have taken. This allows you to send more relevant marketing communications so you can gain the most value from your audience.
Before you begin
In the next few sections, you will learn how to build segments based on different sets of actions customers have taken. While you shouldn't necessarily email all of these tiers, looking at the number of contacts in each can give you insight into how your audience is engaging with your emails. Additionally, you can remove the "is or is not in list" conditions if you would like to advertise to these segments on Facebook as well.
There are two types of behavior that you will want to look at:
- Engagement: includes things like browsing your website, or opening/clicking your emails
- Purchasing: how often someone buys from you, the amount they spend, and average order value
With the release of iOS15, macOS Monterey, iPadOS 15, and WatchOS 8, Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) changed the way that we receive open rate data on your emails by prefetching our tracking pixel. With this change, it’s important to understand that open rates will be inflated.
If your campaign analytics show a large number of iOS openers, we suggest identifying these affected opens in your individual subscriber segments.
For both types of actions, there are two dimensions you should consider: recency and frequency. Recency is more powerful than frequency.
The definitions of recent, frequent, and monetary value should be customized for your business. For example, if you sell pianos online, it's highly unlikely that any of your customers purchased more than 3 times in a year. That said, here are some guidelines to start:
Engagement:
- Recent: within 3 months.
- Frequent: 3 times or more
Purchasing:
- Recent: Within 4 months.
- Not recent: 4 - 13 months ago
- Frequent: 3 times or more
- High Monetary Value: over the average order value for your customer base.
We use the AOV of $100 in all of the examples on this page. Replace this value with your own AOV.
High rollers
These are your best customers. They purchase often, recently, and at a high monetary value. Your goal is to retain them by treating them like VIPs. You don't necessarily need to discount aggressively, but other perks and exclusivity go a long way.
Brand enthusiasts
These are loyal customers. They purchase often and recently, but don't spend as much as your VIPs, so your goal is to increase their average order value. To do this, give them a reason to spend more. Try featuring related or complementary products and/or offering volume-based discounts.
Potential high rollers
These customers have the potential to become some of your best customers; they purchased recently and at a high monetary value, but don't buy very often. To increase their purchase frequency, give them a reason to come back. Try teasing the perks of being a VIP, promoting related or complementary products, or send them replenishment flows.
Potential brand enthusiasts
These customers purchased recently, but not frequently and not at a high monetary value. Focus on increasing their purchase frequency or average order value by striking while the iron is hot. Promote bestsellers and popular or related products.
Nearly theres
These are subscribers who open and click your emails often. They've also recently engaged with an email but never purchased. Your goal is to nudge them over the line to make their first purchase by giving them a good reason to buy. Remind them of what they're missing, sell value, and try incentivizing as a last resort.
Waiting for wows
These are subscribers who have never purchased but recently engaged with at least one of your emails. Capitalize on their recent interest by trying "too good to pass up" offers and limited-time deals.
Espresso shot
These customers have engaged with your emails recently, but haven't made a purchase. You can send a reminder email to this group a few days after a product launch or sale announcement for a quick revenue boost.
Window shoppers
These customers have engaged with your marketing and show some desire or intent to purchase, but haven't made the leap yet. Consider sending them a campaign with social proof (like positive reviews or social media posts from your customers) to help convert them into first-time buyers.
For Shopify stores: Based on your Customer Privacy settings in Shopify, Klaviyo may not track onsite events for visitors to your Shopify store in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland, unless they have provided consent. Thus, your window shopper segment will not include non-consented individuals.
Lapsed high rollers
These are customers who have made many past purchases and spend a lot of money with you but haven't made a recent purchase. Win them back by telling them what's new with your business. This includes new releases relevant to what they've bought in the past, along with special offers to incentivize them to buy.
Lapsed enthusiasts
These customers used to purchase often, but haven't made a purchase recently. Experiment with sending winback campaigns, but be wary of low open rates.
One-hit wonders
These are customers who haven't purchased recently and made fewer than 3 purchases, but at a high monetary value. Test winback campaigns against 50% of the segment or 1,000 contacts — whichever is larger. You can do this using the sampling tool, found by clicking into the Manage Segment dropdown and selecting Sample Segment Members.
First, build out the segment:
Then take a sample of the segment members.
When emailing this segment, monitor your open rates closely. The minimum acceptable performance is:
- 10% or higher open rate
- Unsubscribe rate under 3%
- Spam complaint rate under 0.08%
Just passing throughs
These customers purchased once or twice 6-13 months ago, and at a low monetary value. Test winback campaigns against 25% of the segment or 1,000 contacts — whichever is larger.
First, build out the segment:
Then take a sample of the segment members.
When emailing this segment, monitor your open rates closely. The minimum acceptable performance is:
- 10% or higher open rate
- Unsubscribe rate under 3%
- Spam complaint rate under 0.08%
False starts
These customers have not recently opened or clicked an email from you but used to do so frequently. Test winback campaigns against 10% of the segment or 1,000 contacts — whichever is larger.
First, build out the segment:
Then take a sample of the segment members.
When emailing this segment, monitor your open rates closely. The minimum acceptable performance is:
- 10% or higher open rate
- Unsubscribe rate under 3%
- Spam complaint rate under 0.08%
Dead weight
These are subscribers who haven't purchased or engaged recently and should be cleared from your account. Learn more about list cleaning.
Additional resources
- Segment conditions reference
Learn more about segment conditions, including how to filter your conditions and more. When building segments in Klaviyo, conditions are the building blocks that you customize to either include or exclude certain sectors of your audience. In a nutshell, profiles will only appear in your dynamic segments when they meet the specific conditions you make when creating the segment.
- How to enable advanced targeting on Facebook and Instagram
Learn how to enable advanced targeting on Facebook and Instagram. Advanced targeting strategies can engage your customers creatively, targeting them on multiple channels.
- Advanced segmentation reference
Learn effective advanced segmentation strategies that provide insights into your customer base and create highly personalized experiences for your subscribers.
- Creating a sending schedule based on email engagement reference
Learn how to create a sending schedule based on customer engagement. This is key to achieving strong open rates and maintaining a positive relationship with your subscribers. Sending too often to unengaged profiles will hurt your sender reputation, whereas sending too infrequently to engaged customers is leaving money on the table. It's best to achieve a happy medium through the use of segments and sending schedules. In this article, you'll learn how to segment subscribers into engagement tracks that will inform your sending habits.