Getting Started with Segments

Your audience has a lot of information about your contacts. It includes when they joined, where they live, and how they use your marketing content. Use this information to filter contacts into segments, and then send them targeted emails, text messages, or ads.

In this article, you'll learn how segments work in Mailchimp.

Definitions

• Segment
  The term segment is used as a verb and a noun. To segment is to filter and divide similar contacts. The resulting list of contacts is also called a segment.
• Conditions
  The rules that determine how contacts are included in a segment.
• Logic
  The and/or variable that determines whether a single or all conditions must be true in a segment.
• Subscribed contact
  Someone who's opted in to receive your email or SMS marketing.
• Unsubscribed contact
  Someone who previously received your email or SMS marketing, but has opted out.
• Non-subscribed contact
  Someone who's interacted with your online store, but hasn't opted in to receive your email or SMS marketing.

About segments

Segments are used to target contacts in your audience who share data. When you create a segment, you'll set conditions to filter contacts based on the information that's available in your audience.

For anyone with a Free or Essentials marketing plan, each segment can include up to 5 conditions and use one and/or logic operator.

Anyone with a Standard, Premium, or Legacy plan with Mailchimp Pro can use the advanced segment builder. Each segment with the advanced builder can have unlimited conditions, with nested and/or logic operators.

Depending on the segment's condition and/or logic, only 1 or all conditions must be met.

Here's an example: You want to invite new subscribed contacts to your online store. You can create a two-condition segment of contacts who signed up for your audience in the last 30 days, but haven't made a purchase yet. For this example, your logic will be "and," because both conditions must be met.

Segment builder Preview

After you build the segment, you can send a targeted message to your contacts, such as a welcome message or special offer.

Build and save segments to use with emails, text messages, and ads. If you're working with an email or text message, we'll remove anyone who isn't subscribed to receive your email or SMS marketing.

Segments can be created in the email builder, the SMS builder, or the contact table. Save a segment in the contact table if you know you want to target contacts regularly. Make as many segments as you want and add contacts to multiple segments, as long as they share data that meets the segment conditions.

Mailchimp also offers a selection of pre-built segments based on email engagement, purchase history, and other valuable information. These segments can be found in the To section of the email checklist and on the audience Segments page.

How the advanced segment builder works

Advanced segments are similar to regular segments, but you'll find more depth to their logic and structure. The advanced segmentation builder is a feature available to anyone with a Standard, Premium, or Legacy plan with Mailchimp Pro. It allows you to efficiently filter contacts and test your emails. This tool can use nested conditions to combine different data you’ve collected, like what people buy, their gender, age, and more.

For example, instead of sending 2 emails to 2 regular segments, you can send a single email to 1 advanced segment that includes the same contacts.

When you combine and/or logic in a single segment, you're able to include contacts who meet significantly different conditions. There's no limit to the number of conditions in an advanced segment. However, the generation process may slow down as you add more conditions.

The advanced segment builder is a powerful tool that can help you identify complex relationships that your contacts share.

Advanced segment builder logic

The advanced segment builder combines individual conditions to sort contacts into nested groups. A top-level segment filter is required, and shares its logic with the groups that follow it. Secondary logic can be applied to the conditions inside each group, but each group is taken collectively and weighted equally.

Read our article on logic in the advanced segment builder to learn how to build your segments. See examples of complex segments in the article as well.

Differences between segment builders

Segmenting options

Mailchimp offers a lot of segmenting options that will help you make the most out of your audience. With the right kind of data, you can create focused segments of your contacts for emails, text messages, or ads.

To learn more about the segmenting conditions, take a look at All the Segmenting Options.