Stop Segmenting by Engagement. Segment by Purchase Behavior.

Most brands segment their email list by engagement. "60-day engaged." "90-day active." "Opened in the last 30 days."

This is lazy and it costs you money.

Engagement tells you who's opening emails (and these days with Apple opens, it barely does that). It doesn't tell you who's buying. Those are different things.

The Problem With Engagement-Based Segmentation

Here's what typically happens:

A brand sets up a "60-day engaged" segment — anyone who opened or clicked an email in the last 60 days. They send most campaigns to this segment. They feel good about their open rates.

But they're ignoring the actual question: who's buying?

Someone can open every email and never purchase. Someone else can ignore 10 emails, then buy $500 worth of product. Engagement metrics don't capture this.

When you segment by engagement alone, you:

• Over-send to people who open but never buy
• Under-send to buyers who don't engage with every email
• Miss signals that actually predict revenue
• Create a self-fulfilling loop
• Lose huge groups of your audience & valuable customers

What to Segment by Instead

Segment by purchase behavior. Here's a framework:

Customers vs. Non-customers

The most basic split. Someone who's bought is fundamentally different from someone who hasn't. They've crossed the trust threshold. Your messaging to each group should be different. (P.S. put your welcome code in the non-customer version & give them the offer again. You'll make more money!)

First-time buyers vs. Repeat buyers

A first-time buyer needs to be converted into a second purchase. A repeat buyer needs to be retained and possibly moved to subscription. Different goals, different messaging. Learn more about customer retention strategies.

Lapsed customers

Purchased before, but not in a long time. How long depends on your purchase cycle — 90 days for consumables, 12 months for durable goods. These people trusted you once. Getting them back is easier than acquiring someone new (and more profitable). Use our Churn Calculator to understand your drop-off points.

High-intent non-customers

Never purchased, but showing signals: multiple site visits, add-to-cart, browse abandonment. They're interested but something's blocking them. This is a great group for a discount, a hard-sell, a BOGO — anything to get them to TRY.

Unengaged customers

Purchased before, but stopped engaging with emails entirely. No opens, no clicks, no site visits in 6+ months. Different from lapsed customers — lapsed customers might still be reading, just not buying. Unengaged customers are ghosts. This is actually a really valuable group & shouldn't just be suppressed. Try to get these people's attention — can you use direct mail? Send them a little gift?

How This Changes Your Campaigns

Once you have these segments, your campaigns get smarter:

New product launch:

• Repeat buyers: "You've bought from us before — here's first access."
• First-time buyers: "Based on what you bought, you might like this."
• High-intent non-customers: "Still thinking about us? This might be the reason to try."

Sale campaign:

• Lapsed customers: "It's been a while. Here's 20% off to come back."
• Repeat buyers: "Thanks for being a loyal customer. Early access to our sale."
• Unengaged customers: Skip them. They're not opening anyway.

Win-back flow:

• Trigger on "lapsed customer" status, not "hasn't opened in 60 days"
• The goal is reactivating buyers, not reactivating openers

The Segments You Should Build

Here's a practical starting point. Use our Audience Builder to create these segments quickly:

• Active customers — Purchased in the last [your purchase cycle]
• Lapsed customers — Purchased before, but not in the last [1.5-2x your purchase cycle]
• First-time buyers — Exactly 1 purchase
• Repeat buyers — 2+ purchases
• Subscription customers — If you offer a subscription, track active subscriptions
• VIPs — Top 10% by lifetime value or order count. Calculate yours with our LTV Calculator.
• High-intent non-buyers — No purchase, but: 3+ site visits, add-to-cart, started checkout in last 90 days
• Unengaged customers — Purchased before, no opens/clicks/site visits in 180+ days
• Never-engaged subscribers — On list 90+ days, never opened, never purchased

Adjust the timeframes based on your product and purchase cycle.

What This Unlocks

When you segment by behavior instead of engagement:

Better targeting: You're sending based on what people do, not just whether they open emails.

Cleaner list: You can identify truly dead profiles (unengaged customers, never-engaged subscribers) and suppress them without guessing.

Smarter flows: Trigger flows based on purchase milestones, not email activity.

Honest metrics: When you send to "customers who haven't bought in 6 months" instead of "60-day engaged," you know exactly who you're targeting and can measure actual reactivation, not just opens.

The Audit Question

Here's a quick test: Look at your main campaign segment. What percentage of it has never purchased?

If it's over 30%, you're probably over-indexing on engagement and under-indexing on buyers.

You're optimizing for opens. You should be optimizing for revenue.

Start Here

If you're currently using engagement-based segments:

1. Build a "customers vs non-customers" split. Send your next campaign to customers only. Compare revenue per recipient.
2. Build a "lapsed customers" segment. Set up a dedicated win-back campaign targeting them specifically.
3. Build an "unengaged customers" segment. These people should probably be suppressed, not sent to.
4. Track revenue per segment over 30 days. See which segments actually drive purchases.

Engagement is a vanity metric. Purchase behavior is the signal that matters.