Create and Send to a Segment

Segmentation is a powerful tool that filters contacts with similar audience field data, group preferences, e-commerce activity, and much more. Use segmentation to view contacts and send them emails, text messages, or ads based on their interests, purchases, and other criteria they have in common.

In this article, you'll learn how to create simple and complex segments from the contact table, the email builder, or the SMS builder. You’ll also learn how to send an email or text message to existing segments or new segments.

Before you start

• Regular segments can combine up to 5 conditions. They're included with all Mailchimp plans. Advanced segmentation supports multiple, nested conditions and is included with the Standard plan or higher. To learn more, check out Manage an Advanced Segment.
• We make it easy to identify your most engaged and loyal contacts with our pre-built segments.
• Only subscribed contacts within a segment can receive marketing emails or text messages. To learn more about what types of marketing messages you can send to your contacts, read About Your Contacts.
• To learn how to send an automated email to a segment, read Edit Automation Emails.
• To exclude certain subscribed contacts from an email send, use the pasted segment option.

Create a segment

From the contact table, you can create, view, and save segments for later use. Regular segments are available to all plan types and range from simple one-condition segments to complex segments using up to 5 conditions. Regular segments can include email contacts or SMS contacts.

To create a segment from the audience contact table, follow these steps.

Create a simple segment

In this example, we'll create a simple, one-condition segment of contacts who joined the audience after the most recent email was sent. Since simple segments only have 1 condition, the And/Or logic won’t impact the results.

1. Click Audience, then click Segments.
   
2. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
3. Click Create regular segment.
4. Enter your segment name in the Segment name field, then click Add filter.
5. In the the How your contacts were acquired section, click Date added.
6. Click is after, then click the last campaign was sent.
7. Click Review segment.
8. Click Edit segment to make any changes. When you're ready, click Save segment.

Create a complex segment

Complex segments allow you to combine up to 5 conditions to identify specific contacts in your audience. When you combine segmentation criteria, pay attention to the And/Or logic within your conditions.

Create a segment of contacts who meet any of your individual conditions, or all of them together.

In this example, we'll create a complex segment of contacts who are members of a specific group and who joined the audience after a certain date.

1. Click Audience, then click Segments.
   
2. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
3. Click Create regular segment.
4. Enter your segment name in the Segment name field, then click Add filter.
5. In the How your contacts are grouped section, click the group category you want to work with.
6. Click one of, then click the group name you want to work with.
7. To add the second condition, click Add another filter.
8. In the How your contacts were acquired section, click Date added.
9. Click is after, click a specific date, then use the date picker to select a date in the past.
10. Click Review segment.
11. Click Edit segment to make changes. When you're satisfied, click Save segment.

Send to an existing or new segment

When you're ready to send an email or text message to a segment, start from the Segments page in your audience, the email builder, or the SMS builder.

Send an email from the Segments page

To send an email to an existing segment from the Segments page, follow these steps.

1. Click Audience, then click Segments.
   
2. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
3. In the Saved by you section, click the Regular Segments tab. If you have a Free, Essentials, or legacy pricing plan, this tab will be selected as default.
4. Click the drop-down menu next to the segment you want to work with, then click Send regular campaign, Send multivariate testing campaign, Send plain-text campaign, or Send RSS campaign.
   To learn how to send an automated email to a segment, check out Edit Automation Emails.
5. Continue through the email builder you choose, and when you're ready, click Send or Schedule.

Send an email from the email builder

You can create and send any type of email to a segment. For regular, multivariate testing, plain-text, or RSS emails, you'll find segmentation options on the Recipients step within the email builder. To include or exclude individual subscribed email contacts from your email, create and send to a pasted segment within the email builder.

To send a regular email to a segment from the email builder, follow these steps.

1. In the To section of the email builder, click Add Recipients.
2. Click the Audience drop-down, then choose the audience that contains the segment you want to send to.
3. Click the Send to drop-down, then choose a saved or pre-built segment. If you want to create a new segment, click New segment.
4. Create your segment, then click Apply segment.
5. Optional: Use the Do not send to (optional) drop-down to choose a segment or tag to exclude from your email send. Any subscribed contact who’s a member of the segment or tag you select won't be a recipient.
6. Optional: Check the Personalize the "Send To" field box to display the recipient's name instead of their email address. This is more personal and may help you avoid spam filters.
   After you check the box, you'll choose a merge tag that corresponds with the data you want to display in the "To" field. For example, if you choose |FNAME|, a recipient named Bob will see "To: Bob" instead of "To: bob@example.com." The default options are |FNAME|, |LNAME|, and |FNAME| |LNAME|, but you can click Custom to enter an alternate tag or text.
7. Click Save, then continue through the email builder. When you're ready to send your email to your segment, click Send.

Send an email to a pasted segment

Use a pasted segment within the email builder to include or exclude individual subscribed email contacts from your email send.

To send a regular email to a pasted segment, follow these steps.

1. In the To section of the email builder, select Add Recipients.
2. Click the Audience drop-down, then choose the audience that contains the segment you want to send to.
3. Click the Send to drop-down, then click Pasted emails.
4. In the Email addresses field, enter or paste the email addresses of the subscribed email contacts you want to include or exclude from your segment.
5. Click Include these emails in my segment to send an email to the pasted email addresses, or click Exclude these emails from my segment to exclude the pasted email addresses from your email send.
6. When you’re ready, click Save segment, then continue through the email builder.

Send a text message from the SMS builder

To send a text message to a segment from the SMS builder, follow these steps.

1. Click Campaigns, then click SMS.
   
2. If you want to send a draft text message to a segment, click Edit next to the text message you want to work with in the Recent messages section.
3. If you want to send a text message to a segment, click Create SMS.
4. In the Recipients section of the SMS builder, click Edit.
5. Click the Send to drop-down, then select a saved segment. If you want to create a new segment, click New segment or group.
6. If you decide to create a new segment, click Create regular segment on the Segments page.
7. Create a new segment with your desired conditions, then click Review segment.
8. If you’re satisfied with your new segment, click Save segment, then navigate back to the SMS builder and choose your new segment from the Send to drop-down.
9. Click Save, then continue through the SMS builder. When you're ready to send a text message to your segment, click Send or Schedule.

To learn more about how to create and send an SMS text message, check out Create and Send an SMS Marketing Message.