Most effective segmentation criteria
The most effective segmentation criteria for WhatsApp are behavioral: date of last purchase, products purchased, average order value, total number of purchases. A customer who has purchased three times in the last month will react very differently to a promotional message than one who has not purchased in six months.
Geographic segmentation is useful for businesses with a local presence: you can send promotions valid only for the Milan store to Milan customers, or messages with local cultural references to increase perceived relevance.
Implementing segmentation with Chat API
Chat API includes a contact manager where you can add custom tags and attributes to each contact. These attributes can be synced from your CRM via API and used as filters to select the target group for a campaign.
For CRM data synchronization, the typical flow is: CRM calculates the segment based on updated data, exports the list of numbers with relevant attributes, Chat API updates contact profiles. This process can be automated with a scheduled script or via Make and Zapier.
Number quality and segmentation
A WhatsApp number with low quality sees its sending capabilities reduced. The main cause of low quality is sending irrelevant messages that lead to user reports. Accurate segmentation is the most effective preventive measure to maintain high quality.
Testing and optimizing segments
Before sending a campaign to the entire segment, test the template on a 10% sample. Evaluate the response rate, any reports and post-message behavior. Only if the test produces acceptable results proceed with sending to the rest of the segment.
Maintain a log of campaigns sent per contact: which message they received, when, whether they responded. This history allows avoiding contacting the same customer with messages too frequently, which is one of the main reasons for opt-outs and reports on WhatsApp.
