Email list segmentation is an underutilized strategy by creators wanting to scale their newsletters.

In January 2024, I started my first local email newsletter.

The premise is simple: I write a weekly review of a local restaurant and give my two cents on the experience.

By around July 2024, I began to gain momentum with acquiring new subscribers.

The subscriber base rocketed higher.

Now, almost 18 months since I sent out the newsletter’s first edition, I’m on the verge of hitting 2,000 local subscribers.

It’s a pretty big milestone for me, especially since the newsletter is focused on a relatively small part of England.

There was plenty of trial and error along the way.

Naturally, I’ve made quite a few mistakes.

Email list segmentation helped me to identify where I was going wrong with subscriber acquisition and ask important questions like:

• Which acquisition channels generate the most sticky subscribers?

• Do some subscriber segments have higher open rates than others?

• What effect does the sign-up date have on subscriber engagement?

• Are subscribers for certain towns and villages more engaged than others?

Before I began segmenting subscribers, I had no idea which acquisition channels were producing the most engaged subscribers.

When I speak to email newsletter creators, many are often frustrated by low engagement.

The creators are not satisfied with the percentage of subscribers opening their emails or engaging with their content.

But they’re not doing anything to investigate trends among sets of subscribers they’ve acquired.

In other words, these email newsletter creators are sitting on a ton of actionable data, and they don’t even know it!

This data could end up reshaping their entire subscriber acquisition strategy.

For instance, segmenting subscribers based on acquisition channels (such as Facebook and Instagram) could help creators identify which channels produce the most engaged subscribers.

I’m going to use this whistlestop guide to show you just how simple it is to segment subscribers and unlock a treasure trove of actionable insights.

beehiiv makes email list segmentation ridiculously easy.

After reading this article, you’ll have zero excuses, I repeat, zero excuses, to skip pulling back the curtain and look at how your subscriber base breaks down.

What Led Me To Email List Segmentation?

​​I had been relying almost exclusively on Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) to grow my subscriber base.

The targeting capabilities were unmatched.

I could lean on Meta’s algorithm to put my newsletter in front of people who had already shown interest in local food, restaurant culture, or Somerset events.

It was working.

I was often picking up subscribers for as little as $0.30, and that’s still the case today.

My open rates were strong, and I was seeing decent click-through rates on the links inside my emails.

But I am a naturally curious person, and I wanted to see if I could expand beyond Meta.

I did not want to become too reliant on one channel.

So I started experimenting with new acquisition strategies.

One of the first tests I ran was a sponsored square widget on a local online newspaper’s website.

It was a simple ad promoting my newsletter to local readers.

It made sense on paper.

The readers were in my target geography, and I figured many of them would be interested in local dining tips.

And it worked.

Sort of.

The subscribers started flowing in.

My list was growing faster than ever.

But something was off.

As my subscriber numbers rose, my open rates started to dip.

Even worse, the number of people clicking on the restaurant links in the emails, which I had come to rely on as a measure of how engaged and interested my audience was, began to decline.

At first, I chalked it up to seasonal variation or a weak subject line.

But it kept happening.

And I could not ignore the timing.

The drop in engagement lined up almost perfectly with the start of that widget ad campaign.

That was my lightbulb moment.

I needed to understand whether different acquisition channels were bringing in different types of subscribers and whether some of those subscribers were just less engaged from the outset.

That is when I started segmenting my list.

With segmentation, I was able to tag subscribers based on where they came from: Meta ads, the newspaper widget, organic traffic, word of mouth, and so on.

Pretty quickly, I saw the pattern.

The subscribers from the local news widget had much lower open and click-through rates.

It made sense in hindsight.

These were people casually browsing a news site, likely looking to kill a few minutes on their lunch breaks.

They were not actively seeking out food content or restaurant reviews.

In contrast, Meta had been serving my newsletter ad to people already showing interest in the kind of stuff I was writing about.

Without segmentation, I never would have spotted this.

I would have kept throwing budget at low-quality acquisition sources, mistaking list growth for success.

How To Create An Email List Segment

Segment Types

When I first started segmenting my list, I didn’t give much thought to what type of segment I was creating.

I was just excited to finally be pulling apart the layers of my audience.

But as I got deeper into analyzing subscriber behavior, I realized the type of segment you choose has a huge impact on how useful the data ends up being.

Each segment type - Static, Dynamic, and Manual - comes with its own strengths and drawbacks.

And depending on what you are trying to learn or do with your newsletter, the right option is not always obvious.

Static

Let’s start with Static segments.

I have used Static segments when I want to freeze a specific slice of my list at a moment in time.

For example, when I ran the widget ad on the local newspaper website, I immediately tagged those new signups and dropped them into a Static segment.

This gave me a locked-in group of subscribers I could measure engagement for, separate from everyone else, without it changing later as new subscribers rolled in.

This was very useful for comparison.

If I saw that 500 people from the widget ad had an open rate of 24 percent and a click-through rate of 2.1 percent, I could then weigh that against my Meta-acquired subscribers without worrying that the group was being diluted over time.

But Static segments are a bit rigid.

They are a snapshot, and once you create them, they do not change.

If I forget to tag subscribers or someone slips through the cracks, they will not be included.

There is no going back to automatically sweep them up.

So I mainly use Static segments when I am doing short-term testing or A/B style comparisons between channels.

Dynamic

When I need something a bit more fluid, I turn to Dynamic segments.

This is where things really started to click for me.

Dynamic segments update automatically.

So if I set the condition to pull in subscribers from a certain postcode, or anyone who has clicked on more than two links in the past 30 days, beehiiv keeps that list fresh.

It is perfect for my more ongoing, behavior-driven strategies.

Let’s say I want to promote a new restaurant in Bath.

Maybe I got invited to an opening night, or I am doing a giveaway.

Instead of blasting that to all 2,000 subscribers, I can create a Dynamic segment for anyone who lives near Bath and has clicked on Bath-based reviews in the past.

I have seen better open rates and more replies when I tailor content this way.

Dynamic segments are really a game-changer for local targeting.

But they are not without their downsides.

They rely on the data being clean and well-structured.

If you have not been consistent with your tagging or if some subscribers do not have geographic data, you might miss out on a big chunk of the audience you thought you were targeting.

Still, I use Dynamic segments the most often now.

They are ideal for recurring campaigns, especially when I am resurfacing older reviews to newer subscribers based on interest signals.

Manual

Then there is the Manual segment type.

This one feels a bit old school, but it still has its place.

With Manual segments, I can upload a list of emails directly, maybe from a spreadsheet or some one-off source like event attendees.

I used this when I hosted a local social gathering for newsletter readers.

I collected emails at the door, cleaned the list, and manually uploaded it.

Then I sent a follow-up newsletter just to those people, thanking them for coming and linking out to a special behind-the-scenes post I wrote about the event.

Manual segments are clunky if you are dealing with large, fast-moving lists.

But for hyper-specific outreach, like thanking a group or following up with contest entrants, they are a great tool.

The main limitation is that you are responsible for every part of the list.

No tagging, no rules, no automation.

It is all on you.

In the early days, I leaned heavily on Static and Manual.

Now that the newsletter’s audience has grown and I am pulling in subscribers from different towns and acquisition channels, I have shifted my focus more toward Dynamic.

The key thing is to choose the segment type that matches the job you are trying to do.

Static for snapshot testing.

Dynamic for automated behavioral or geographic targeting.

Manual for one-off curated groups.

It is less about the tech and more about the intention.

And for a newsletter like mine, where local relevance is everything, the ability to slice and dice my audience in smart ways is what keeps my engagement strong, even as the list grows.

Segment Conditions

Segment conditions are filters you apply to define and analyze groups of subscribers based on shared characteristics or behaviors.

While they are often used to send targeted campaigns, they are just as powerful when used to uncover patterns within your audience.

You can define segment conditions with practically any piece of data, including but not limited to:

• Acquisition sources

• Subscriber tags

• Subscription tier

• Sign-up date

• Custom fields

In fact, you can even have a segment with conditions as specific as subscribers who opened or clicked on a certain edition of your newsletter.

I’ve included an example of this below.

When you apply different conditions, you can make sense of your segment data in ways that inform your content, cadence, and overall newsletter strategy.

For instance, when reviewing how well a recent edition about a Yeovil food market performed, I can break down open rates and click-throughs by acquisition source.

Did the people who found me through Google perform better than those who signed up through Instagram?

In comparing these subsets using segment conditions, I can identify which platforms drive not just the most subscribers, but the most engaged ones.

Another valuable lens is the subscription tier.

Let’s say I’m running a free and paid version of the restaurant reviews newsletter.

By filtering data based on tier, I can quickly analyze how paid subscribers interact with content compared to free readers.

If I see that paid users click more often on links to long-form write-ups or reservation-only events, I know to double down on that premium value in future editions.

The sign-up date condition also opens up a time-based view of subscriber behavior.

By isolating those who joined in the last month and comparing them to long-time readers, I can see how engagement evolves over time.

If newer readers are more responsive to headlines with specific place names, while older readers prefer broader coverage or themed guides, I can adjust the newsletter layout accordingly.

Custom fields are another tool that reveals deeper patterns in segment behavior.

For example, if I collect favorite dining times or preferred types of cuisine at signup, I can create segments to see how these variables relate to email engagement.

Do evening diners tend to engage more with weekend content?

Do fans of Mediterranean food respond better to photo-driven reviews versus plain-text formats?

Each of these questions becomes answerable when segment conditions are applied to historical data.

Segment Examples

In the segmentation section on beehiiv’s platform, you can play around with an endless number of different ways to slice and dice your audience.

Here’s just one example of a segment I’ve made in beehiiv for my restaurant reviews newsletter:

What does this mean?

This segment consists of people who have unsubscribed after a specific date and initially subscribed via my website.

I like getting super granular with the segments.

It’s also useful to look at bigger cohorts, too, as it helps me see “bigger picture” trends.

Here’s another example of a segment I often look at:

This segment includes people who have opened every single email (100% open rate) since subscribing to the newsletter.

These guys are my most loyal, engaged subscribers.

If I wanted to, I could set an extra condition that ensures subscribers in this segment have been reading the newsletter for at least three months.

Here’s what that would look like:

Adding this extra condition is important because it gives me an accurate list of diehard subscribers who have been reading the newsletter for at least three months.

Segment Engagement

Once you’ve saved your draft segment, beehiiv’s platform works its magic and generates a ton of data for you to sink your teeth into.

Thankfully, as you can see below, it’s all presented in a way that’s super easy to scan.

427 subscribers have read every edition of my newsletter since opting in.

As per the conditions I set for this segment, these subscribers have all been reading the newsletter for at least three months.

Of those 427 subscribers, 64 have since unsubscribed.

If you want to make some quick changes to your segment, you can click on the “Configure” tab and start tweaking your segment conditions.

I like having this flexibility, particularly if I’ve gone too granular and want to open things up with fewer conditions for a segment.

I can make those changes to the segment right away, and beehiiv will refresh the data.

How To Apply Subscriber Tags To Segments

When I’m creating new segments, I like to apply subscriber tags so I can keep track of who’s who.

To create some relevant tags, you’ll need to head over to “Audience > Subscribers" and then switch to the "Tags" tab.

You can then create a color-coded subscriber tag that’s ready for applying to relevant segments.

For this segment, I’ve applied my “most engaged subscribers” tag to all subscribers in this cohort.

When I’m scrolling through my email list of subscribers on beehiiv, I can now quickly flag up my “most engaged subscribers” and take a look at how they are engaging with the content.

Are they clicking on in-content clicks?

Are they referring new subscribers to the newsletter?

Are they responding to polls in the newsletter?

These are all important questions I want to know the answers to.

I can also add a subscriber tag to a segment of my most disengaged subscribers.

Once added, I can then scroll through the list and look at which editions of the newsletter they’ve opened.

Are they only opening emails when I mention specific towns in the subject line?

These data points are worth investigating, particularly if you’re not satisfied with your current average open rate and see room for improvement.

How To Send Emails To Segments

Another potential use case of segments is sending emails to exclusive groups of subscribers.

Once you’ve finished composing an edition of your newsletter, you can click on the “Audience” tab and choose who gets to receive it.

As you can see below, with the “Scale” plan, you can include and exclude specific segments of subscribers from receiving editions of your newsletter.

This is useful if you’re trying to create content aimed at very narrow cohorts of subscribers, or even split-test content across a few different sets of subscribers.

The possibilities are really endless.

Segmenting Is About Understanding Your Audience

Ultimately, the goal is not just about trimming down the number of subscribers in my newsletter.

I’m more interested in understanding what truly captures the interest of the people who choose to receive my restaurant reviews.

Knowing which parts of the newsletter resonate helps me create content that keeps readers coming back.

Finding where my subscribers are most engaged gives me valuable insight into what they enjoy and expect.

This makes it easier to focus on sharing the kind of recommendations and stories that matter most to them.

It also helps me recognize where I might need to put more effort into attracting new readers who will appreciate the newsletter as much as the current ones do.

The quality of my subscriber list is more important than just having a high number of sign-ups.

Those who open emails regularly, click through, and respond to the content are the real supporters.

They are the ones who make writing and sharing worthwhile because they care about what I have to say.

Instead of worrying about the size of the audience, I focus on building a community that values honest, useful reviews.

This means making sure the newsletter feels relevant and engaging to those who receive it, which ultimately leads to better connections and more meaningful conversations around food.

Keeping this focus helps me grow the newsletter in a way that benefits everyone involved.

It means attracting subscribers who will stay loyal and genuinely enjoy what I share, making the whole experience more rewarding both for me and for the readers.

If you’re not using beehiiv’s segmentation tools, why not?

Even free users get access to all of the segmentation features I’ve mentioned in this article.

Yes, all of the above is possible using a free plan.

It’s pretty generous.

But when you’re a bootstrapped email newsletter creator, this is exactly what you need.

beehiiv’s platform is setting you up for success and giving you the tools needed to make smart decisions around your newsletter strategy.

Not already a user? You can get started with beehiiv right away for free.