Email List Segmentation

Segments are a useful way to divide a subscriber list into groups of people with common traits. After you create a segment, you can use it to:

• Send a campaign to a specific audience.
• Trigger a journey.
• Send journey emails to select groups of people.
• Tailor content to specific audiences with dynamic content.
• Exclude certain subscribers from receiving an email.

In this article we'll explain how your subscribers' data can be used to build segments.

Before You Start

Here's some useful information if you're just getting started with segments.

• Segments are created based on subscriber data stored in your account. This includes:
  • Subscriber data that you've imported.
  • Information submitted by subscribers through signup forms.
  • System-generated data, like date subscribed or location.
  • Recipient activity data from previously sent emails.
• Subscribers are automatically added to segments when data associated with their data matches the rules of a segment.
• You can create as many segments as you want within a list, however they are contained to that list — you can't create segments that span multiple lists.

Build a New Segment

To set up a new segment:

1. Click Email Lists.
2. Click on the vertical ellipses (3 dots) on the right of the desired Email List.
3. Click Add segment.

 

The segment builder will load.

 

Create a rule

Click the Define a rule based on menu to select an attribute for your first rule:

Attributes include:

• Subscriber details – Includes email address, name date subscribed, and location.
• Custom fields – Displays every custom field you have set up for the list.
• Campaign activity – Recipient activity data from previously sent campaigns. This option is only available after you've sent at least one campaign to the selected subscriber list.
• Journey activity – Recipient activity data from previously sent journeys. This option is only available after you've activated a journey for the selected subscriber list.

After you select an attribute, you then need to apply a condition to it to create a rule. For example, the screenshot below shows the attribute "Name" with the condition "matches exactly".

The value entered is "Fred", so the rule created for this segment is: name equals Fred. The "matches exactly" condition is not case sensitive, meaning "Fred" is equivalent to "fred".

Each attribute has a specific set of conditions that can be applied to it. Here's another example where Campaign activity  Specific campaign has been selected to build a rule:

The rest of this section covers rule-building in more detail. If you're already familiar with AND/OR logic, jump ahead to the section on testing a segment.

 

Connect rules in a segment

To create a segment with more than one rule, you need to connect the rules by choosing AND or OR every time you add a new rule, as shown here:

In the example above we've selected AND to add the next rule. This generates a new row to build the rule, starting with the Define a rule based on menu to select another attribute.

It doesn't have to be a different attribute. You can choose the same attribute and apply a different condition to it. For example, a segment of people who subscribed between October 10 and October 20 can be created using two rules based on an "Date subscribed" custom field.

To set this up you would apply a "is after" condition to the first rule with a value of October 10, AND a "is before" condition to the second rule, with a value of October 20:

 

When to use AND versus OR

You can connect rules in a segment using both AND and OR, but first, this is how to use one or the other:

• Use AND to connect rules when you want to group subscribers who match all of the rules in your segment.
• Use OR to connect rules when you want to group subscribers who match any of the rules.

Rules connected by AND

Here is the age segment referenced earlier with some extra rules added that are also connected by AND:

This segment is to group 25 to 35-year-old women in Detroit. To fit the segment, subscribers must be: older than (greater than) 24 AND younger than (less than) 36 AND of the female gender AND living in Detroit.

 

Rules connected by OR

Here's a segment containing three rules based on the custom field "Color preference", that are connected by OR:

Assuming each one of these colors is a preference of at least one subscriber, this segment would contain some subscribers who like purple, some who like red and others who prefer yellow.

A broader target audience can make it difficult to focus campaign content but the same type of segment would be ideal for other purposes. For example, a conference being held in Detroit, Cincinnati and Chicago could be promoted only to subscribers who live in those cities.

 

Rules connected using AND and OR

For this example, let's say the owner of a national franchise wants to email store managers and assistant managers about some training workshops happening in their area.

The franchise owner creates a segment containing rules connected by AND and OR:

To fit this segment, subscribers must be a manager OR assistant manager AND work at a store in the region of Subiaco OR Jolimont OR Churlands.

 

Test a new segment

When you have finished adding the rules to build your segment, give it a name that will be easy to recognize later, then click Save and preview. This creates the segment of people on the subscriber list who match the criteria set by your rules, or rule.

The total number of active subscribers in the segment will be displayed on the page. You'll also get a sample of some of those subscribers, as shown here:

It's a good idea to check that the segment includes the subscribers you expect it to. Here are a few ways that you can check this:

• Use the search tool above the list of sample subscribers to check for people who should be in the segment, based on the segment rules.
• Click the Export segment button, next to the search box, to download a CSV file containing all subscribers in the segment.

Edit or delete segments

To view all segments that have been created for a list

• Click Lists & subscribers, then select your list.
• Click Segments in the right sidebar.

To delete a segment you no longer need, click the menu dots on the right, then click Delete

Deleting a segment will not affect anything else in your account. Subscribers who were in the segment will still be active on your list and subscriber data will be exactly the same.

To edit a segment, click the segment name on your "Segments" page, pictured above, to open it. If you need to delete one or more rules from a segment, just hover your cursor over the rule row, then click the trash can icon that appears:

Rule data types and conditions

Each subscriber attribute or custom field has a data type, which determines what it can contain, and what rule conditions are available to it in a segment.

For example, a custom field with the data type "Number" can only contain numbers, and has conditions like "greater than" and "less than or equal to". On the other hand a "Text" data type accepts text, but has conditions like "contains" and "starts with".

Below is the complete list of conditions available to each data type.

 

Email address

Conditions available:

• contains
• does not contain
• matches exactly
• does not match exactly
• starts with
• does not start with
• ends with
• does not end with

 

Name

Conditions available:

• matches exactly
• does not match exactly
• is provided
• is not provided
• contains
• does not contain
• starts with
• does not start with
• ends with
• does not end with

 

Data subscribed

Conditions available:

• is before
• is after
• equals
• does not equal
• is on or before
• is on or after
• is between

 

Location

Conditions available:

• is known
• is not known
• is near
• is in
• is not in

 

Text

Conditions available:

• matches exactly
• does not match exactly
• is provided
• is not provided
• contains
• does not contain
• starts with
• does not start with
• ends with
• does not end with

 

Number

Conditions available:

• matches exactly
• does not match exactly
• is provided
• is not provided
• greater than
• less than
• greater than or equal to
• less than or equal to
• is between

 

Date

Conditions available:

• is before
• is after
• equals
• does not equal
• is provided
• is not provided
• is on or before
• is on or after
• is between

 

Campaign activity

Conditions available:

• Specific campaign – was opened
• Specific campaign – was not opened
• Specific campaign – had any link clicked
• Specific campaign – had a specific link clicked
• Specific campaign – was opened with no links clicked
• Specific campaign – was opened and did not have a specific link clicked

 

Multiple option custom fields

Conditions available:

• matches exactly
• does not match exactly
• is provided
• is not provided

 

Journey activity

Conditions available:

• Specific journey – was opened
• Specific journey – was not opened
• Specific journey – had any link clicked
• Specific journey – had a specific link clicked
• Specific journey – was opened with no links clicked
• Specific journey – was opened and did not have a specific link clicked