As an experienced e-commerce marketer, you probably already know that email communication is an essential component of your overall marketing strategy. You may also know that segmenting your emails—that is, sending highly targeted messages to smaller subgroups of email recipients—can do wonders when it comes to getting more clicks.

If you think about it, there is probably more than one ideal customer for your brand. Plus, consumers are coming to your site with different wants and needs depending on where they are in the buying process. The more you can tailor your messaging to your individual readers, the better your chances of striking a chord, and getting the results you want.

Want some stats to back that up? According to the Lyris Annual Email Optimizer Report (as reported by HubSpot), 39%of marketers who chose to segment their email lists experienced higher open rates, 28% experienced lower unsubscribe rates, and 24% experienced greater revenue overall.

By studying your customers’ behaviors and purchase history, you can get a better sense of who they are and what they need during every step of the buying process. You can then design specific communications to target as many groups as you like.

There are many ways to approach email segmentation, and also a few things that can trip you up if you’re not careful. As you move forward with your email marketing, be sure to avoid these three email segmentation pitfalls:

1. Not collecting relevant data about your customers.

In order to make your customers happy, you have to know what they want. And to know what they want, you need to collect information. Where do your customers live? What problems are they trying to solve? How do they tend to shop? The better you understand your audience, the better you can customize your messaging and get the results you’re after. Luckily, Strands Retail offers data analysis, behavior tracking tools, and A/B testing to make your analytics easier than ever.

2.Overlooking product sales information.

When analyzing your e-commerce marketing data, it’s easy to focus on customer behavior alone. But don’t forget to monitor your product data, too. Segmenting emails based on product information can help clarify top sellers, reveal cart abandonment issues, and tell you which products simply aren’t selling. Strands Retail segmenting tools can help you implement customized segments in your email marketing strategy so you can take appropriate action—like making way for new inventory or suggesting relevant products for buyers to add on.

3. Forgetting to incorporate direct calls to action.

Sending segmented emails can help generate new data, insights, and even increased sales—but only if you have the right goals in mind. Think about what you want to accomplish (decreasing cart abandonment, up-selling more products, or increasing repeat customers, for example) and work backward from there. Even if you have already targeted the right audience for your segmented emails, you’ll need a clear call to action if you want to engage those customers and see results.

Avoiding these email segmentation pitfalls can make all the difference when it comes to strengthening your email marketing efforts. Strands Retail email customization tools can help you better understand your customers’ purchasing behaviors and improve your communications without taking away from your real goals: improving customer satisfaction.