How to Create a Segment

• What is a Segment?

• Why do we need segments?

• How to Create a New Segment

  • Automatically - Using Save as Segment

  • Manually - Create New Segment with Custom Filters

• How to Manage a Segment

What is a Segment?

Segments can be used to filter contacts based on criteria specified. They are dynamic, as long as a contact meets the criteria for the segment, they will automatically be added or removed to that segment, provided exports are completed from the Accounting System. Contacts cannot be removed manually from a segment. 
 

Why do we need Segments?

Segments are necessary as it is not possible to manually type in an email address to send out a campaign. After a contact is added to the email marketing module they must be added to a Mailing List or Segment to receive emails.

Other reasons include: 

• More than one segment can be selected for an email campaign. 
• If a contact belongs on more than one segment, they will only be sent the email once.
• The segment created can also be used to exclude recipients.

Since more than one segment or list can be selected to choose recipients, it is suggested to keep the segments simple with just one or two criteria.

Common segments that clubs create include:

• All Members 
• All Females that have Active Member Status
• All Males with Social Member Status
• All Members that live in Florida

How to Create a New Segment

There are two methods to creating a segment. 

1.  Automatically - Using Save as Segment to create simple segments quickly.
2.  Manually - Create New Segment from scratch using custom conditions and filters.

Automatically - Using Save as Segment

Instead of having to manually select all the different parameters to create the segment, the Save as Segment feature could be used from the Manage Contacts table to create simple segments automatically. For example: this is a quick way to create segments to target members with a specific member status. 

1. Log in to website and access Email Marketing Module.
2. Select Contacts > Manage Contacts from the left navigation. 
3. Start by adding columns of information to search contacts.
   • On the right look for gear icon to show/hide columns, this will display the Contact Fields dialog box to select a max of 15 fields to be displayed at one time in the table.
4. Under the field column, type in search criteria.
   • It can only search for one thing in each field.
   • Not possible to separate search with comma in the manage contacts table. Example: Active, Spouse. Create a separate segment for each member status.
   • ^Tip: When Looking for members by status:

     • Jonas Club Management: Member Status (Active, Spouse, Golf...) use memberstatus field.
     • Encore: Member Status (Active, Deceased, Inactive, Resigned etc..) use clubstatusdescription field.
     • Encore: Classification (Active, Spouse, Junior etc…) use membershiptypedescription field.
     • CSG ClubConnect or ClubSelect: Member Status(A = Active, R = Resigned etc..) use statusfield field.
     • CSG ClubConnect or ClubSelect: Dues Class (01 for single golf, 02 for family golf, DPC for dependent child or DPS dependent spouse etc..) use class field.
   • However, a search can be added to more than one column.
   • In the image below the search criteria to these 3 fields, Status, First Name and emailaddresstype.
5. Click Save As Segment. 
6. The segment conditions and filters are automatically created, this usually uses the contains or is condition.
   • (Optional) Fine tune the segment where necessary by adding additional filters. See Step 1 Define Segment further down the page.
7. Click Next. 
8. Segment Name: Give the segment a name.
9. Segment Type: Dynamic should already be selected.
10. (Optional) Description: Describe which contacts the segment is searching for.
11. Click Finish to save the segment. 

Manually - Create New Segment with Custom Filters

This method requires the administrator to select the filter types, fields, conditions and additional filters manually to build the segment.

1. Log in to website and access Email Marketing Module.
2. Select Lists and Segments > Segments from the left navigation.
3. Click New Segment.

Step 1 Define Segment

The following items will better explain the options to define a segment.

A. Choose a Filter Type

B. Using the Field: (Contact Fields Filter Type)

C. Contacts whose value: (Contact Fields Filter Type)

Examples (Contains, Is, Is one of, Is not)

D. Calculate Contacts that Match Criteria

E. Add Filter

F. Remove Filter

G. Ready to save

A. Choose a Filter Type

• Email Action: Filters contacts who performed an action (open/click, reply, bounce) within an email campaign during a specific time.
• Form Submission: Filters contacts who subscribed or updated their information in a form.
• Contact Field: Filters contacts whose field matches a specified value.
• Segment/Mailing List: Find contacts that belong on an existing segment or list and add additional filters to create a new segment.
• Workflow: Filter contacts that are already added to a workflow campaign

To create a segment based on a member's member status or other member information from the accounting system.

1. Click Select... beside the Filter type:
2. Select Contact field from the drop-down.

B. Using the Field:

Using the field will only display when the Contact Field Filter Type is selected. If another Filter Type was selected the additional parameters to setup the conditions are easy to follow. 

Steps to find field to build criteria with. 

1. Click the field beside Using the field.
2. Select More… if the field to create the criteria does not appear in the drop-down. 
3. In the Contact Fields dialog box, the full list of fields to choose from displays alphabetically.
4. Select checkbox beside field name.
   • If the field desired, is still not appearing in the contact fields dialog box, it will have to be added from the accounting system with these instructions to manage fields uploaded to email marketing.
   • Some examples to help select the correct contact field: 
     • Looking for members by status:
       • Jonas Club Management: Member status (Active, Spouse, Golf...) use memberstatus field.
       • Encore: Member Status (Active, Deceased, Inactive, Resigned etc..) use clubstatusdescription field.
       • Encore: Classification (Active, Spouse, Junior etc…) use membershiptypedescription field.
       • CSG ClubConnect or ClubSelect: Member Status(A = Active, R = Resigned etc..) use statusfield field.
       • CSG ClubConnect or ClubSelect: Dues Class (01 for single golf, 02 for family golf, DPC for dependent child or DPS dependent spouse etc..) use class field.
     • Members that are over a certain age, use ageofmember or birthdate field.
     • Females only, use gender/sex field (this depends on what is set up at the club).
     • Notice the Data type column (Text, True/False, Numeric...), depending on the field selected, the condition options will vary in the contacts whose value drop-down in the next section.
5. Click Select after a field is selected. 

C. Contacts Whose Value:

The contacts whose value section has many conditions to choose from to set up the criteria. The following are some of the items to choose from: contains, does not contain, start with, is, is greater than, is one of, etc.

1. Click the field beside Contacts whose value
2. Select condition in drop-down list that would be best to setup criteria to find contacts.
3. Use the box beside the condition selected to type in criteria.

The image below shows Memberstatus field is set up with Text Data type and has the most options compared to Numeric and True/False Data Types. 

Examples with the 4 commonly used conditions: 

Contains: Will look for a partial match for the entry in the text box.

• Use this to look for any value with a partial word or number.
• Example: type word active, this will find any member with an active or inactive status because the word inactive contains the word active.

Is: (most common) Will look for an exact match for the entry in the text box and is a precise filter search.

• Use this to look for any value with a specific word or number.
• Example: type word active, this will only find members with an active status, this is not case sensitive.

Is one of: Will look for all the entries in the text box separated by a comma (as long as those values fall within the same Contact field).

• Example: type word active, spouse, dependent, this will find any members that have the status active, spouse or dependent.

Is not: Will look for everything but the entry in the text box.

• Example: type word active, this will find any members without an active status.

D. Calculate Contacts that Match Criteria

As the conditions are being entered to build the segment, the number of contacts with a match can be recalculated.

1. Click two arrows going in a circle icon to calculate number of contacts that match the conditions in the segment.

2. Click View contacts in this segment to see the contacts email, first name, last name and status(email status). Reminder only those with a Subscribed or Soft bounce email status will be included in the segment.
   • To see details about a contact, complete segment creation with describe and save step, and then access the segment using List and Segments > Segments or Contacts > Manage Contacts from the left navigation.
3. (Optional) Use default values for blank fields:
   • Box is usually selected, this means it would use default values if they were set from the Contacts > Manage Contact Fields section​.
4. (Optional) Include test contacts only: 
   • Select checkbox to include only test contacts who also meet the segment criteria.
5. Click two arrows going in a circle icon to recalculate the number of contacts, if changes have been made to the conditions.

E. Add Filter 

More filters could be added to further refine the segment criteria. When there are multiple filters, they can be connected with an AND or OR logic operator. For example the segment is looking for members that have a specific status and they have to be female or live in a certain city.

This could help better define the logic of the segment when using multiple filters.

1. Click Add filter to create a new filter.
2. Select AND or OR from the drop-down, this only displays when there is more than one filter in the segment.
   • AND will look for contacts that match all of the filters created. 
   • OR will look for contacts that match at least one of the filters created.
3. Repeat steps A through D above to set additional conditions and criteria.

F. Remove Filter

If a filter is no longer required.
Click Remove Filter under the condition that has been set. 

G. Ready to Save

When all the conditions are setup, click Next in the top or bottom right corner. 

• If the Next button is not visible on screen, use the vertical or horizontal scroll bars within the browser to find the button.

 

Step 2 Describe and Save

Once the segment has been defined with the conditions and filters, give the segment a name and save.

1. Segment Name: Enter a name for the segment, this name is internal and not visible by contacts.
2. Segment type:
   • Dynamic (recommended) should be defaulted.
     • Contacts in the Segment will update automatically based on the criteria.
     • Recalculated automatically, prior to an email is sent. 
   • Static could be used to find contacts that match the criteria on a given day.
     • Contacts in this segment will stay the same.
     • Staff will have to manually add or remove a contact from the static segments.
3. Description: (optional) Is an internal reference for administrator use.  
4. Click Finish in the top or bottom right corner.
   • If the Finish button is not visible on screen, use the vertical or horizontal scroll bars within the browser to find the button.

The new segment will be added to the Segments table. To view contacts or make changes to a segment see How to Manage a Segment.