When a contact list lacks historical segmentation data, manually tagging contacts by product interest or business type is unreliable. A practical alternative is self-segmentation: sending emails that let contacts reveal their own interests through their behavior (clicks, quiz responses, or content downloads). This approach was developed for [1] to support their stick pack campaign launch, where the existing Pipedrive contact list had no consistent tagging from prior sales activity.
American Extractions' contact list was built by a sales team that wasn't tracking product interest, business type, or lead stage. Back-tagging contacts manually is time-consuming and largely guesswork. Third-party enrichment services (e.g., Clearbit, ZoomInfo) can fill some gaps — particularly company size, industry, and number of employees — but cannot reliably identify product interest (e.g., stick packs vs. gummies vs. clear mix).
Key segmentation dimensions the client wants to capture:
- Product interest (stick packs, gummies, clear mix, cannabinoid products)
- Business type / industry (manufacturer, retailer, beverage brand, etc.)
- Lead stage (prospect, active customer, past customer, and what they've purchased)
Rather than trying to infer interest from external data, send an email that lets contacts self-identify by clicking on content relevant to them. Whatever they click on becomes their attributed interest in Pipedrive.
A single in-email question with clickable answer buttons.
"Quick vote — what are you developing next?"
- Hydration stick packs
- Gummies
- CBD / Delta 9
- Ready-to-mix beverage base
Each button links to a small thank-you page. The click is captured and written back to a Pipedrive field as the contact's product interest. Hidden fields on the thank-you page can also capture role and timeline if desired.
Pros: Extremely low friction, high completion rate, works inline in email.
A short external quiz (5 questions, all click-to-answer) that segments on multiple dimensions at once. At the end, the contact receives something of value (a resource, a recommendation, or entry into a gift card drawing).
Incentive options that have worked:
- Starbucks gift card for completing the quiz
- Entry into a drawing for 2–3 × $50 Amazon gift cards, winner announced in 3 days
Pros: Richer data, can capture multiple segmentation fields in one pass.
Cons: More friction than a poll; incentive may be needed to drive completion.
An email presenting 2–3 content pieces (articles, guides, or one-pagers), each targeting a different audience segment. The contact clicks to download whichever is most relevant to them.
Example content buckets for American Extractions:
- "The shift to powdered beverages: increasing margin with stick packs" → tags: stick pack interest
- "How to enhance your products with cannabinoids" → tags: cannabinoid interest
- "Private label gummy manufacturing: what to know" → tags: gummy interest
Because the contact is already in the system, no gate (form fill) is required — just click and receive. The click itself is the data point.
Pros: Delivers immediate value, feels less like a survey, aligns with content marketing goals.
Cons: Requires content assets to exist or be created.
For the American Extractions stick pack launch, the agreed approach was:
Third-party enrichment works best on business email addresses. For contacts using Gmail or Yahoo, enrichment yields little useful B2B data. For business domains, services like Clearbit can return:
This is most useful for the business type segmentation dimension. It does not replace self-segmentation for product interest or lead stage.
Action item: Research cost of enrichment services (Clearbit, ZoomInfo) for the American Extractions list size. ZoomInfo subscription (already held by Asymmetric) may be usable to enrich the list in the near term.
Before sending any campaign, perform a data hygiene check on the full Pipedrive contact list:
- Remove invalid or bounced addresses
- Flag duplicates
- Identify contacts with no email address on record
The list can be exported directly from Pipedrive for this purpose.