The VIP Segments You're Sleeping On | Bathroom Break #111

Summary

The Marketing Millennials – Bathroom Break #111

Episode Title: The VIP Segments You're Sleeping On
Host: Daniel Murray
Guest Host: Jay Schwedelson
Date: June 8, 2026

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Overview

In this “Bathroom Break” mini-episode, Daniel Murray and Jay Schwedelson break down overlooked audience segments in marketing databases, redefining what it means to be a VIP. Moving beyond traditional “frequent buyers” or “top spenders,” they provide actionable segmentation strategies that marketers can implement to drive campaign performance. The conversation is fast-paced, filled with practical examples, relatable rants, and their signature humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rethinking VIP Segmentation

[01:58 – 02:40]

• Marketers default to labeling new buyers, top spenders, or those with high LTV as “VIPs.”
• Jay questions the logic of only rewarding this group, suggesting there are other segments—based on engagement signals—that are just as valuable.
• Quote:
  • “There’s other segments in your database that are also VIPs that I think you’re sleeping on that can radically change the performance of your overall campaign.” — Jay [01:58]

2. Pain Point Segmentation and Event-Based Signals

[02:40 – 03:38]

• Daniel shares the power of organizing segments by “pain points”—derived from what events/content prospects engage with.
  • E.g., Attending specific events or consuming certain resources signals a type of pain or interest.
• He highlights the high intent of event attendees as often underrated:
  • “Honestly, in-person events are the best intent signals out there … if someone’s willing to take an hour … that’s a VIP to me.” — Daniel [03:16]

3. Non-Transactional Engagement Signals

[03:38 – 05:26]

• Jay emphasizes that VIPs aren’t just buyers. Engagement is key:
  • Website visits: Someone who visits the site five times in a window.
  • Email engagement: Clicks on multiple emails over months.
  • Product video views: Watching multiple demos.
• Don’t just add “scores” in CRMs, but actively create and target these engaged segments.
  • “If someone comes to your website five times, they’re not doing that by accident … carve out these segments. These are VIPs.” — Jay [04:22]

4. Audience Lifetime Value: Beyond Purchasers

[05:26 – 07:38]

• Daniel introduces the idea of “lifetime value of audience”—people who engage with content but aren’t customers yet.
  • Treating only current customers as valuable is a big miss; inattentive or irrelevant messaging can “burn” potential future buyers.
  • “Once they are ready to buy, they'll come and be ready to buy … treat lifetime value of audience as close to, as important as customers.” — Daniel [05:41]

5. Post-Purchase Engagement & Longevity

[06:37 – 07:38]

• Jay criticizes brands that only focus on customers near renewal, neglecting long-term clients.
  • Marketers should reward loyalty and longevity (e.g., people who’ve subscribed to a newsletter for 5+ years).
  • “It's really easy to get 10 new clients … It's really hard to have 10 customers for 10 years.” — Jay [07:18]
  • Suggests segmenting and rewarding “long-timers” routinely with special touches.

6. Newsletter Engagement Regression

[07:38 – 08:30]

• Daniel describes using a “regression curve” for his newsletter:
  • Those who last 10–11 months are likely lifetime subscribers.
  • Don’t risk burning this core group by lumping them into aggressive promotional blasts.
• Jay jokes, “Look at you with a regression curve … that’s very fancy.” [07:54]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Event Engagement:
  • “In-person events are the best intent signals out there … that’s a VIP.” — Daniel [03:16]
• On Segmenting Website Engagement:
  • “If someone comes to your website five times … they are VIP. If someone clicks on eight of your emails … they’re not doing that by accident.” — Jay [04:00]
• On Audience Nurture:
  • “Every time you do something irrelevant… you’re burning potential customers that could be in your funnel.” — Daniel [06:04]
• On Retention:
  • “You only hear from these brands … when you’re up for renewal and it’s trash. That is how you destroy a relationship.” — Jay [06:37]

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Timestamps & Segment Guide

| Timestamp | Topic | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------| | 00:07 | Intro to Bathroom Break collab with Jay & Daniel | | 01:58 | The problem with traditional VIP segmentation | | 02:40 | Pain point segmentation & event signals (Daniel) | | 03:38 | Engagement-based VIP lists (Jay) | | 05:26 | Audience value beyond purchase (Daniel) | | 06:37 | Retention and celebrating longevity (Jay) | | 07:38 | Newsletter retention & regression curve (Daniel) | | 08:30 | Segmentation for core engaged audience |

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Signature Banter & Episode Tone

• Light, bantering, self-deprecating: The hosts riff about “Love Island” and “Real Housewives” as icebreakers and in closing, bringing a casual, irreverent flair.
• Memorable moment: Jay’s Outlook notifications interrupting his rant:
  • “Hold on, I’m exploding here on my Outlook … I suck. All right, back to my rant.” — Jay [04:29]

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Actionable Takeaways

• Don’t restrict VIP treatment to obvious, transactional cohorts—engaged prospects are often your next best customers.
• Segment by behavioral signals: event attendance, site visits, email/product video engagement.
• Respect and reward audience longevity and newsletter loyalty, not just purchase metrics.
• Avoid burning core audience segments with untargeted or overly aggressive messaging.
• Find ways to make “audience lifetime value” part of your KPIs, not just customer LTV.

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For more insights, follow Daniel and Jay on LinkedIn, and listen to their shows for more quick-hit tips!

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to a new special series called the Bathroom break. That extra 10 minutes you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom. Or both. But I don't recommend both. But that's your choice.

[A]

This collab is going to be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials and me, Jay Schwetelson from the do this, not that podcast and subjectline.com each episode in the series, we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing top. And if you want to be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out.

[B]

We are back with another episode of Bathroom Break. And I'm here with the Jay Schwedelson. He is coming off of a fantastic. He's tired. His eyes are. He has bags on his eyes. But what's keeping him going is the two most important things ever. Love island and off campus. Which one are you loving more right now?

[A]

That's a good question. The problem with Love island is it's six episodes. The first episode was actually more than an hour. Six episodes a week is a big commitment. And off campus, the first few episodes were terrible. But everyone says you gotta stick with it. But Love island is really out of control. The amount of. I know this sounds so ridiculous, but everybody hooks up with everybody. It's actually gross. It's actually gross. Do you watch it?

[B]

No, I do not watch Love Island. I should. I'm. Now you're inspiring me to watch Love Island. But six days a week is a big commitment. I can't. I don't know.

[A]

Wait. The best is so, you know, all these people have careers. Some people quit their jobs when they got whatever let in. But one of the women is a bikini store manager. I don't think there's a better, more appropriate job for somebody to go on Love island than a bikini store manager.

[B]

That's. That is hilarious. But what's more hilarious is what we're going to talk about today.

[A]

Yes, it is. So we're going to talk about, I think, whether you're a business marketer, consumer marketer, whether you're a nonprofit. You know, when we think about segmentation and we think about these VIP lists, we always make these VIP lists. Oh, these are our new buyers. These are our most frequent buyers. These are the biggest lifetime value customers we have. And we make these VIP segments and we do on the business side as well, you know, these are the people that just, you know, came on and got onboarded. These are our VIPs, whether you call them A VIP or whatever you call them and you treat them specially. There's other segments in your database that are also VIPs that I think you're sleeping on that can radically change the performance of your overall campaign. So I have a few. But Daniel, what do you got first?

[B]

One of the things that I like to look at is when someone attends an event or consumes a piece of content, I like to organize that by pain point that, that they're doing. So someone has like attended this event and they were interested, I want to put them on the list that's interested in that type of pain point. If someone consumes that type of I want to put them on a list of this type of pain point because I feel like pain point segmentation is like one of the best ways to like give relevant content to someone. And also at the end of the day you'll know when they do come and book a demo what they're actually interested in or what they actually feeling and pain. So I honestly believe in person events are the best intense signals out there. Because like if someone's willing to take an hour at a time, pay time to do that, that's a VIP to me. To be honest, like event signals are the most, one of the most important signals out there in my opinion.

[A]

First of all, I totally agree about pain points because very rarely does someone buy a new B2B SaaS product or buy a consumer product or donate to something if they're not frustrated by something that they're working with currently or they don't have access to something they're trying to solve for something always. And making sure your BDRs, your salespeople are ask what that is. I think is a great call. And also what you're talking about with events is a great call. I'll give you some VIP segments that we focus on that are not related to buying that are great. So for example, if, and this is, you know, it's not lead scoring, it's not just adding more scores to your boring marketing automation garbage. I'm talking about really just looking for these segments. If someone comes to your website, for example, five times, okay, they're not doing that by accident within a certain window of time, they are vip. If someone clicks on eight of your emails over, you know, a six month period, if someone watches a product video or multiple product videos of yours, they're not doing that by accident. And these are not just, oh, hold on a second, I'm exploding here on my outlook. I gotta shut my outlook. Are you hearing all those noises.

[B]

No, I don't hear anything.

[A]

Hold on a second. Just leave it in there. I don't care. What happens is I don't know if everybody else has this, but like you're recording something. And then my algorithm, I'm getting like 40 notifications about upcoming meetings and it's making all this noise. I'm like, oh my God, I suck. All right, back to my rant. So carve out these segments. These are VIPs. Treat them like VIPs. They're actually more than your other VIPs. They're about to become customers and treat them as such. And I think it's a big fail by every marketer out there. It's like, oh, they bought something, they signed up for a demo, they're vip. So that's my soapbox.

[B]

And it's also, you need to separate pre purchase and post purchase stuff too. I think. I honestly believe in people don't track this as like there's lifetime value of a customer, but there's also like lifetime value of audience. You want to keep like the people who are in your audience that are viewing your content, you want to keep them engaged for as long as possible because once they are ready to buy, they'll come and be ready to buy. And a lot of people only think about, oh, I need to treat my customers or people with all this respect. But every time you do something that's irrelevant or stupid or, and burning your, your list of people that potentially could buy or you're not treating them like vaps, you are burning potential customers that could be in, in your funnel. So I think you need to treat a lifetime value of audience as close to, as important as customers. Because some SaaS software is like, you know, these are two different ballgames like retention versus like acquisition are two different games that you're trying to play with your audience. Like games. But you know what I'm talking about.

[A]

Yeah. And I would also say that, you know, and this happens, you know, whatever products you're buying continually or SaaS products or whatever you're signed up for, you get no love after that first year or two. Right. They only, you only hear from these brands or whatever when they're up for renewal and it's, it's trash. It's like up, you're up for renewal. We'll tell you about the new features or whatever. That is how you destroy a relationship when somebody is, you know, with you for five years. You need to really segment out. Okay, They've been with you for three years. Or they've spent X amount of money. You. You need to carve out and really recognize the longevity. Okay. It's really easy to get 10 new clients, 10 new customers. It's really hard to have 10 customers for 10 years. Okay. You want to focus on some of the longevity of some of the people that are buying from you, subscribing from you. Take your newsletter file. Anyone that's been subscribed for over five years, do a special send just to those people. Stop taking everybody for granted. That's in your database.

[B]

Yeah, and there's like a. We went with my newsletter too. We do. We do this, like, regression curve. And, like, after 11 months, if someone stays in your newsletter for 11 months or 10 months, they're. They're pretty much lifetime on your newsletter.

[A]

Look at you with a regression curve that's very fast.

[B]

If you. If you get to a point of, like, 10, 11 months, like, that person's gonna be there, and you don't want to screw up those people who have been consuming content being in your audience just for that. So segmenting 10 them out on some blast that you're trying to do to get those quick sales and stuff like that might be a good idea when you're trying to keep these people who are actually loving what you're doing. Believe in your. Your mission, your. Your content, your pain points, your whatever, but they're not ready to buy yet.

[A]

All right, so back to the original topic of horrible tv. So I know you got a small, young child, so you're probably just watching Bluey or whatever, but what. What do you watch? What are you watching? That's not Bluey. And I know you watch Harry Potter still, because you're a weirdo. What are you watching? That's not that.

[B]

First of all, we're not watching Screed. So for him, but for me, it's kind of crazy because. Oh, we are watching, obviously, Summer House Reunion.

[A]

Oh, my God. The Summer House reunion was crazy.

[B]

So Summerhouse Reunion. Ari is a big Bravo person. So when we watch tv, it's. It's either like, have you seen Real Housewives of Rhode Island?

[A]

Real Housewives. Rhode island is the best show in the history of television.

[B]

Yeah. So realize Rhode Island. We're watching Summer House. We need the city. Just get in. The city just came out. I tried off campus, like you said. Like, AR's like, let's watch it. And we watch, like, an episode and a half, and we haven't got anywhere with off campus. I'm like, in the middle of a Lot of shows. Good. I forget to go back. Like, Paradise. I'm in the middle of.

[A]

Oh, yeah, I watched both seasons of that. That was awesome. Yeah.

[B]

So I'm, like, halfway through, like, season two of paradise, so I'm watching some tv. But it's.

[A]

You know what I realized by Real Housewives, Rhode Island. Everyone's here. Like, I'm not watching. But here's what I learned. I had no idea how horrendous the accent was for people that are in Rhode Island. No offense. Well, it is offense. The accents of people in Rhode Island. It's like a Boston accent that somebody threw up on. Yeah.

[B]

I mean, also, I didn't know, like, Dolores from New Jersey looks exactly like that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I swear, when I first saw. I don't know, I forgot her name already, but when I saw her, I was like, that's Dolores. Like, and then. Then Dolores appears on the screen. I'm like, wait, they actually are frats.

[A]

Right? Shocker. Well, we've lost everybody on this episode 1000%, but we appreciate you being here. Leave Daniel a review of the Marking Millennials, or do this, not that, or do something. And don't watch any show we recommended because we don't know what we're talking about. Later, Daniel. Come on, man. I gotta get back to work. Get out of there. All right, while he's still in there. This is Jay. Check out my podcast, do this, not that, for Marketers. Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing and hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

[B]

Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Market Millennials podcast, but also tune into this series. It's once a week, the Bathroom Break. We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out. And it could be anything from email, subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out.

[A]

Later.