Builds a behavioral segmentation system for lifecycle messaging - RFM-based segments, event-driven membership triggers, one next action per segment, size audits, and send-time suppression rules. Use when someone asks "how should I segment my users", "our emails get ignored, who should get what", "how do I message at-risk users differently", or is personalizing lifecycle campaigns to cut unsubscribes and lift click-through. Do NOT use for building ad-platform audiences - use audience-targeting instead; for narrative customer personas use user-persona or icp-persona-builder; for mapping the full lifecycle stages and journeys use lifecycle-journey-map.
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name: Segmentation Strategy
description: Builds a behavioral segmentation system for lifecycle messaging - RFM-based segments, event-driven membership triggers, one next action per segment, size audits, and send-time suppression rules. Use when someone asks "how should I segment my users", "our emails get ignored, who should get what", "how do I message at-risk users differently", or is personalizing lifecycle campaigns to cut unsubscribes and lift click-through. Do NOT use for building ad-platform audiences - use audience-targeting instead; for narrative customer personas use user-persona or icp-persona-builder; for mapping the full lifecycle stages and journeys use lifecycle-journey-map.
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# Segmentation Strategy
Segmentation is the discipline of sending fewer, better messages to the right people. The goal is not many segments; it is segments that produce meaningfully different messages - because every segment that would receive the same email as its neighbor is pure operational cost, and a bloated segment map is why lifecycle programs stall at "monthly newsletter to everyone."
## Operating procedure
Follow in order: the behavioral axes (Step 2) must be chosen before segments are named (Step 3), and triggers (Step 4) cannot be written until each segment exists with a definition.
### Step 1: Gather inputs
Collect before designing; label estimates as guesses.
1. Product type: transactional (purchases) or engagement-based (sessions, actions). This decides whether the M in RFM is money or engagement depth.
2. The product events available in the messaging tool today - segments can only trigger on events that actually fire.
3. Current list size and rough activity distribution (what share was active in the last 7 and 30 days).
4. The first value moment for a new user, if known ("created first project", "completed first order").
5. Team capacity: how many distinct campaigns can realistically run at once. Default assumption: few.
### Step 2: Start with RFM, not demographics
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