Create a segment of contacts by choosing specific criteria

Group your contacts into segments based on a combination of multiple criteria, like their email activity, list membership, contact details, tags, and ecommerce activity, to send more targeted emails

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You may have heard the term "contact segmentation" or "list segmentation."  It's just a fancy way of saying that you're breaking a large group of contacts into smaller parts based on shared interests, traits, or behaviors. When you segment your contacts and send the right message to the right people, you get better open rates and better overall engagement with your emails.

• How segmentation works
• Examples of a segment
• Using AND and OR logic
• How to create a custom segment
• What to do with your segment

Be a better marketer: Personalization drives effective marketing. Learn more about the power of segmentation.

How segmentation works

With our segmentation tools, you can split your contacts into customized groups based on any combination of their engagement with your emails, the contact lists they're currently on, any personal information you've collected, the tags you've added, and ecommerce activity. For example, you can find your:

• Contacts tagged with a similar trait or interest, to tailor your email content to that interest.
• Most engaged contacts, who consistently open and click through your emails, to send them exclusive discounts as a "thank you."
• Least engaged contacts, who haven't been opening your emails, to reach out with a special promotion to win them back.
• Contacts that are part of the same organization, to send them targeted information that's only relevant to them.
• Shopify customers with similar purchase activity, to entice them into purchasing from you again.

After you select the different criteria for your segment, they're compared to all of your contacts, and only those contacts that meet the criteria are added to your segment. When you're ready to send an email, it can be sent directly to the segment. The segment is reusable and gets refreshed before every send so that you're always sending to the most up-to-date group of contacts that meet your criteria.

Did you know? Segments are also refreshed when contacts are added or updated, whether manually or when contacts take actions like opening an email, clicking a link, or engaging in ecommerce activity that can be tracked through our Shopify integrations.

Examples of a segment

There are several types of segmentation criteria you can use individually or in any combination to filter your contacts. Each segment type can be used once, but you have "and" and "or" logic options to make it as simple or as complex as you need:

• Contact profiles - You can choose any of the standard contact headings or custom fields you use to collect information about your contacts. For example:

  Contacts whose Birthday month is [enter date].
  Contacts whose city is [enter city name] OR contacts whose city is [enter city name] AND contacts whose birthday month is [enter a month].

• Email activities - You can choose from actions you took or didn't take, like sending or not sending an email, actions your contacts took or didn't take, like opening an email or not clicking on a link, and from different engagement levels. For example:

  Contacts who opened your last 5 emails.
  Contacts who were sent a specific email [choose a campaign] AND contacts who didn't click on any links in your last 5 emails.

• Engagement - You can choose from different engagement levels. For example:

  Contacts whose current engagement level is [select engagement level].
  Contacts whose previous engagement level is [select engagement level] AND whose current engagement level is not [select engagement level].

• SMS activities - You can choose to include or exclude contacts based on their SMS status. For example:

  Contacts whose SMS status is [choose status].

• List membership - You can choose to include contacts that are on up to 10 specific lists. For example:

  Contacts who are on list [choose a list].
  Contacts who are on list [choose a list] AND contacts who are on list [choose a list] AND contacts who are not on list [choose a list].

• Shopping activity - You can choose Shopify and then choose behaviors, like placed an order or abandoned an order, or quantities, like the amount spent or number of orders placed. For example:

  Customers who abandoned an order in the last [choose a timeframe].
  Customers who placed an order for amount [enter amount] OR customers who spent an average per order that's greater than [enter amount].

• Sources and providers -  You can choose from your contact sources, like when a contact was created or updated, or how the contact was added to your account. For example:

  Contacts created before [enter date].
  Contacts whose source name is [select source] OR contacts last updated before [enter date]

• Tags -  You can choose to include contacts across different lists that have been labeled with a shared trait or interest. For example:

  Contacts who are tagged with [choose a tag].
  Contacts who are tagged with [choose a tag] AND contacts who aren't tagged with [choose a tag].

When you combine the different criteria into one segment, you have an even more powerful tool to target the right contacts for your message. Here are some examples:

Contacts whose list membership is [choose a list] OR whose list membership is [choose a list] AND who placed an order in the .
Contacts who are tagged with [choose a tag] AND contacts who aren't tagged with [choose a tag].

The more criteria you choose, the more targeted your resulting segment of contacts will be. If your list is on the smaller side, be careful not to use too many criteria, or you may end up with a segment without any contacts in it.

Using AND and OR logic

Segments are powerful because they can be customized to be as broad or as specific as you need them to be. Here's how the AND and OR options help you to increase and narrow down a segment:

AND logic

The AND logic is the most restrictive. A contact must meet all criteria before they can be added to the segment. For example:

In order to be added to a segment you must meet both requirement A AND requirement B.

• If they meet only requirement A, they're not added to the segment.
• If they meet only requirement B, they're not added to the segment.
• If they meet both, they're added to the segment.
• If they don't meet either, they're not added to the segment.

To further refine a segment, you can add requirement C. Now a contact must meet requirements A, B, and C to be added to your segment.

OR logic

The OR logic is the least restrictive. A contact only needs to meet one of the criteria before they can be added to the segment. For example:

In order to be added to a segment your contact must meet either requirement A OR requirement B.

• If they meet only requirement A, they're added to the segment.
• If they meet only requirement B, they're added to the segment.
• If they meet both, they're added to the segment.
• If they don't meet either, they're not added to the segment.

To further broaden your segment, you can add requirement C. Now a contact has another opportunity to meet a requirement to be added to your segment.

AND logic and OR logic combined

A single segment can have multiple criteria and use AND logic and OR logic combined. This lets you be restrictive with contacts that fall into some criteria, and less restrictive with contacts in other criteria within the same segment. For example:

In order to be added to a segment your contact must meet requirement A AND requirement B, OR requirement C.

• If they meet only requirement A, they're not added to the segment.
• If they meet only requirement B, they're not added to the segment.
• If they meet both requirements A and B, they're added to the segment.
• If they meet requirements A, B, and C, they're added to the segment.
• If they meet requirements A and C, they're added to the segment.
• If they meet requirements B and C, they're added to the segment.
• If they meet only requirement C, they're added to the segment.
• If they don't meet requirements A, B, or C, they're not added to the segment.

Using AND and OR logic with negative conditions

Where the previous examples involve contacts meeting criteria to be added to a segment, segments can also be used to instead exclude contacts who meet criteria. Segments with negative conditions include the word "not." For example:

• Is not
• Were not
• Did not
• Have not

The AND logic with a negative condition is the least restrictive.  In order to be added to a segment your contact must not meet both requirement A AND requirement B. For example:

Contacts who are not on the Birthday Coupons List AND contacts who are not on the Monthly Specials List.

• If a contact is only on the Birthday Coupons List, they're added to the segment.
• If the contact is only on the Monthly Special List, they're added to the segment.
• If the contact is on both the Birthday Coupons List and the Monthly Specials List, they're not added to the segment.
• If the contact is not on either the Birthday Coupons List or the Monthly Specials List, they're added to the segment.

The OR logic with a negative condition is the most restrictive. In order to be added to a segment, your contact must not meet either requirement A OR requirement B. For example:

Contacts who are not on the Birthday Coupons List OR contacts who are not on the Monthly Specials List.

• If a contact is only on the Birthday Coupons List, they're not added to the segment.
• If the contact is only on the Monthly Special List, they're not added to the segment.
• If the contact is on both the Birthday Coupons List and the Monthly Specials List, they're not added to the segment.
• If the contact is not on the Birthday Coupons List or the Monthly Specials Lists, they're added to the segment.

How to create a custom segment

1. In the left-hand menu, click Contacts > Segments.
2. Click the Create Segment button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
   
    
    
3. Give your segment a name so that you'll recognize it in your account later.
4. Click the +Add Criteria button.
   
   
    
5. Select the type of criteria you want to use to narrow your options.
6. Click on a criteria to select it.
   
   
    
7. Use the drop-down menus to select the operators for each criteria in your segment:

• Contact profiles
   

  Contact profile criteria	Operator 1	Operator 2	Operator 3
  Anniversary	on not on before after	Enter date
  	contains	Enter date range
  	is set is blank
  Birthday month	is is not	January February March April May June July August September October November December
  	is set is blank
  Company	contains starts with ends with	Enter a few characters of the company name
  	is is not	Enter the full company name
  	is set is blank
  Custom field Note: If you want to create a new custom field, you have to do it before you create the segment.	Select a custom field	is is not	Enter the custom field variable
  		contains starts with	Enter a few characters of the custom field variable
  		is set is blank
  Home city	contains starts with ends with	Enter a few characters of the city name
  	is is not	Enter the full city name
  	is set is blank
  Home country	contains starts with ends with	Enter a few characters of the country name
  	is is not	Enter the full country name
  	is set is blank
  Home state	contains starts with ends with	Enter a few characters of the state name
  	is is not	Enter the full state name
  	is set is blank
  Job title	contains starts with ends with	Enter a few characters of the job title
  	is is not	Enter the full job title
  	is set is blank
  Postal code	contains starts with ends with	Enter a few digits of the postal code
  	is is not	Enter the full postal code
  	is set is blank

  
   
• Email activities
   

  Contact profile criteria	Operator 1	Operator2
  Clicked	a specific email	Select the sent email
  	any email	Select a date range
  	any of your last 5 emails
  Not clicked	a specific email	Select the sent email
  	any email	Select a date range
  	any of your last 5 emails
  Not opened	a specific email	Select the sent email
  	any email	Select a date range
  	any of your last 5 emails
  Opened	a specific email	Select the sent email
  	any email	Select a date range
  	any of your last 5 emails
  Sent	a specific email	Select the sent email
  	any email	Select a date range
  	any of your last 5 emails

  
   
• Engagement - Please see our article on segmenting contacts based on their engagement for more information about creating a segment based on contact engagement, including using pre-built segments.
• List membership
   

  List membership criteria	Operator 1	Operator 2
  List membership Note: If you want to create a new list, you have to do it before you create the segment.	is is not	Select a contact list
  	is set is blank

  
   
• SMS activities
  
  

  SMS activities criteria	Operator 1	Operator 2
  SMS status	is is not	Select the status
  	is set is blank

  
   
• Shopping activity - Please see our article for creating a custom segment based on ecommerce activity for detailed information about ecommerce criteria.
• Sources and providers
   

  Sources and providers criteria	Operator 1	Operator 2
  Created	on not on before after	Enter date
  	contains	Enter date range
  	is set is blank
  Last updated	on not on before after	Enter date
  	contains
  	is set is blank
  Source name	is is not	Select source
  	is set is blank

  
  
  
• Tags
  
  

  Tag criteria	Operator 1	Operator 2
  Tag membership Note: If you want to create a new tag, you have to do it before you create the segment.	is is not	Select the tag
  	is set is blank

  
   

8. Select additional criteria to further narrow your segment. Keep in mind that the size of your list matters for segmentation. If your list is on the smaller side, keep the criteria to a minimum because you run the risk that no contacts meet your criteria.
   Note: You can add logic to your criteria by clicking + OR or + AND. Selecting + OR finds contacts who meet any of the selected detail criteria, while + AND finds contacts who meet all of the selected criteria. Criteria groups allow you to add + AND and + OR between multiple criteria.
9. Click the Save Segment button.
   
   
    

Your new segment can be found on the Segments dashboard and is available to select when you schedule your email. Your segments are automatically refreshed at the time your email is sent, ensuring that only the contacts who meet your criteria at the time you send your email receive it.

Did you know? Bounced email addresses aren't included in your segment results. If you're expecting to see a specific email address in your segment and it's not there, check your email reporting for bounces. Learn more.

What to do with your segment

Segmentation is very flexible and can change to accommodate your organization's needs.

• Send an email to your segment - Once your segment is created, you can send emails to it regularly, just like you can send to any list. The segment refreshes before each send, ensuring that you're reaching the most current group of contacts that meet your criteria.
• Export your segment - When you view a segment you always have the option to export it so you can manage it using a spreadsheet.
• Add your segment to a list - There may be times when different audiences need to receive the same message. You can create segments to find your audiences based on different criteria and then combine them into a single list.
• Edit your segment - If the group of contacts in your segment is too large or too small, you can change the criteria at any time. The segment can even be renamed to reflect your changes.

Be a better marketer: Check out our Customer Spotlight to learn about a real Constant Contact customer who uses segmentation to better communicate with different audiences! CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival: Music to Build Community

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