Segments can include multiple conditions when you need to send targeted and personalized emails to contacts that aren't part of a single tag or a single subscription. Segments are part of your list management options.
Duplicates are removed
The contact list matched by segments is de-duped automatically by email address so when you send a message to contacts they only receive it once.
Segments are dynamic
Contacts that match conditions of your custom segment are calculated real-time so the segment doesn't need to be refreshed after new contacts are added to the database or contact statuses change.
Examples of using segments
Segments can accommodate a variety of use cases, here are some examples:
Exclusion lists: Exclude contacts that match certain criteria. For example you want to send an email to contacts who are on list A but not on list B.
Combining multiple lists: Combine multiple subscriptions or tags in order to send a single email to contacts across multiple lists. This helps to reduce the number of emails sent to contacts. Contacts are de-duped so they only receive the email once.
Identify (dis)engaged contacts: Find contacts who opened, clicked or received (or didn't open, click or receive) emails from you in the past X days in order to send a re-engagement email.
Custom segment: Identify contacts based on custom criteria such a date added, custom fields, region, etc.
Where and how to use segments?
You can send email messages to contacts matched by a custom segment. Just select the segment's name when you're choosing the target list for your email campaign.
How to create a custom segment
From the segments page click the "Create segment" button. On the next page, enter a name for this segment and proceed to add conditions to be used for this segment.
Adding conditions
Select a field from the "Add new condition" dropdown selector
Choose a condition type
Select a value that should be matched for that field.
Repeat these steps for additional conditions.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: "Match all" or "match any" conditions
It's critical that the All conditions true vs. Any conditions true true setting is set correctly.
Combining multiple lists
You can combine multiple lists using segments. This way contacts are de-duped by email address so the same person receives an email only once when you send an email campaign to contacts that match this segment.
In the example below contacts who are tagged as Biology and Humanities are combined.
Known inaccuracies related to email opens
When you segment your list for campaign activity using "opened" or "didn't open" as a condition the results may be inaccurate depending on how many contacts on your list use Apple Mail with the Apple Mail Privacy Protection enabled. Read more.
Conversely, no opens are tracked if images are blocked in your contacts' email client. This also affects the accuracy of segments using campaign activity based on opens.
Conditions limit
The number of conditions in a custom segment is limited to contain a maximum of:
20 tags
10 folder-based conditions, for example subscription folders
1 campaign-based condition, for example email clicks
5 custom fields
Segments for internal testing
A segment that is marked as a "test segment" is used when you send test messages. Test segments allow you to send tests to multiple email addresses at once. A test segment can contain up to 20 email addresses.
