Segmentation 101: How to Create Segments in Bikky to Use for Marketing Campaign Targeting

Learn the power of Bikky's segmentation.

Segmentation is the process of dividing a broad group (in this case, of your guests), into subgroups based on shared characteristics. 

This is what Bikky does for you. Not only are you pulling your data across many disparate platforms into one place (including reservations, third-party marketplaces, your own direct ordering, etc.) — but you’re also able to create specific audiences within these groups. You can then make these groups actionable by sending them to marketing automation platforms like Mailchimp to trigger emails with messaging specific to each audience. 

This article will walk you through how to create the top segments we recommend, and then you can go here to learn more about sending emails out to each audience. You can also visit our email templates here. 

Part 1: Consider These Segments for Your Marketing Campaigns. Here’s Why.

Part 2: Follow These Directions to Easily & Simply Create Each Segment in Bikky

Part 1: Consider These Segments for Your Marketing Campaigns. Here’s Why.

First, a quick overview of the ways that you can splice out your guest database: 

Top Segment Recommendations 

We’ll walk you through how to use filters to create these segments in Bikky.

1. First order
2. Second order
3. First order happened 6 months ago
4. Ordered delivery first and then ordered in-store
5. Fifth order is placed
6. Guests who ordered from multiple locations
7. Guest lifetime spend hits a certain dollar amount
8. Ordered dine-in first and then ordered delivery
9. Only one daypart order type (i.e. lunch) 
10. Ordered from a third-party marketplace first and then ordered directly
11. Guests who lapsed from direct ordering to a third-party marketplace
12. A guest has not ordered in 60 days
13. A guest who has only ordered dine-in

Pro Tip: Know that guests can live in more than one segment above, because email campaigns that trigger off of each audience will send during different times in the guest lifecycle. 

These are your first-time guests. Most restaurant brands settle for transactional emails that confirm their order. You can break through the ice by entering them into a nurture that truly introduces your brand and shows them why you’re unforgettable. 

Go beyond “Thank you for your order” → Move to “Hello and welcome. This is why we’re here.”

This message is typically done through drip campaigns of six emails or more, which helps you: 

1. Break through the noise and guarantee that more guests see your message. (With typical email marketing open rates are at 30%, limiting your campaign to one email basically guarantees that 70% of your guests will never see your message.
2. Focus on one main point per email vs. squeezing your entire introduction into one email body. This way you’re more likely to drive the 1 action you want from each topic.

💡Pro Tip: Use these email templates to communicate with each of your audiences. 

2. Guests who just placed their second order. 

Your guests just came back and reordered for the first time. That’s a huge hurdle that they’ve jumped over. And it’s the first indicator of loyalty that shows they’re more likely than other guests to participate in a habit loop where they come back again and again. 

Honor that, and acknowledge it with them.

3. Guests who placed their first order six months ago. 

Anniversaries are a way of celebrating people’s commitment. 💍

And this transcends person-to-person commitment. It can apply to a brand, too.  

Your guest committed to you at one point, so help remind them that they did. In doing so, you prompt them to continue that commitment, if they had a good experience with your brand. 

Bikky has found that six months is a good point to reach out — waiting six months to 1 year would be too far out for a restaurant brand to wait, and one month is too soon, because the guest would still be in the welcome drip.

4. Ordered delivery first and then ordered in-store.

While you can’t associate causation from the delivery order being so good that it got this guest to visit you in-store, you know that the delivery order wasn’t so bad that it prevented them from dining with you in-store.

The important part is, these are good guests to go to with feedback about their delivery order, because it removes out the guests who are so upset that they’d want a discount.

They are also your versatile guests. They came to you not by walking past your storefront or booking a reservation, but by finding you online and then making the effort to come to you in person.

Tell them it was great to see them in person, and include a CTA to order direct in the future or make a reservation. Make sure you wait at least 7 days after their in-person visit.

Sample messaging: It was great to see you! Thanks for venturing out to visit in person.

5. Guests who just placed their fifth order. 

This is a big moment. Five orders is a threshold that Bikky has deemed across quick-service and full-service as the clearest, across-the-board indicator of highest threshold loyalty. 

It’s worth filtering your guest database to the top 10% and offering your most exclusive offers to this audience. (i.e. get a branded item of swag, get a personal message from the founder, etc.)

6. Guests who have ordered from multiple locations. 

It’s uncommon for food & beverage brands to have the holistic data set to see what restaurant locations a guest has dined with, nevermind to acknowledge that history with the guest. 

Acknowledge your guest’s unique engagement with your brand with a targeted thank you message. 

You can also use your message to prompt underserved locations. I.e. if guests have been to your two most popular locations, reminding them of your third location and featuring the perks of that location.

7. Guests who have spent over a certain dollar amount in lifetime value.

We recommend that you send some sort of gift to this segment. For example, let’s say you’re a quick-service brand where lifetime spend of $500 is meaningful to you. This is the point at which you don’t need to do any proactive marketing to get these guests to keep coming back, but you also want to make sure that if they have any negative experience, that they get escalated immediately.

For this segment, determine:

• The lifetime spend you want to recognize and reward is (i.e. $500 spent ever)
• The gift you want to give (i.e. a free dinner on the house if full-service or an order credit of $100 to share a meal with friends if quick-service)
• The line of communication you can offer for any questions or personal feedback (i.e. marketing or director of hospitality point of contact)

Note: if you’re not sure what lifetime spend amount to set, you can also click into your segment above (once you follow the directions in the section below to create it) and you can look at the average lifetime spend for that segment, and bump it up by your average order value to ensure that this segment becomes even more targeted. For example, if my lifetime spend for 5 orders or more is $470, and my average order is $100,  you could round this up to $570 to ensure that there’s a spend gap between the segment above and this segment.

💡 Read our playbook to see which segments to prioritize, what to say, and why. 

8. Ordered dine-in first and then ordered delivery.

These are guests who dropped off from an in-person visit and ordered you through a third party. Keep in mind that they will enter into your welcome drip with their delivery order, but you could use this moment to ask for delivery feedback.

How did the order go? Why did they choose to order through a marketplace? Offer a quick call with your brand to understand why they didn’t order direct. It’s worth offering a more personal touch to this audience than blasting to all delivery guests ever, because they’ve made the effort to dine with you in person in the past.

Sample messaging: How was your delivery order? Our marketing team wants to hear.

9. Guests who have only purchased meals during one part of day (i.e. lunch).

These guests who likely don’t think of your brand as offering meals during other times of day. If a guest always orders for lunch but never for dinner, it’s worth: a) sharing that you DO offer a meal during another time of day, and b) persuading your guest why it’s worth a shot to try.

Sample messaging: Did you know we offer [meal time], too?

10. Guests who moved from a third-party marketplace to a direct order.