Set up Segments to work for you
Segments group your subscribers who meet (or don't meet) certain criteria. Here's how to create one:
Go to the Subscribers page. You'll see an All Segments section on the right, below the Add Subscribers button.
Click the + icon to the right of this section to create a new Segment.
A Create Segment window will appear. Give your Segment a name, then use the filter groups to define which subscribers will be grouped in it.
Within a filter group, you can select subscribers matching any, all, or none of the following.
Here's what these options mean:
Any: Subscribers who meet any one of these filter requirements
All: Subscribers who meet all these filter requirements
None: Subscribers who don't meet any of these filter requirements
For example, to create a Segment of subscribers who are subscribed to a Form and also have a certain Tag, set your filter group to "Matching all of the following":
Subscribed to [Form name]
Subscribed to [Tag name]
Click Add Filter to set up more filters within your filter group as needed.
A Segment has one filter group by default, but you can click Add Filter Group to set up more. This is helpful for creating a Segment whose subscribers match any of certain filters in one filter group, but none of certain other filters in another.
Example use of a Segment
If you write about more than one subject, you may want to promote your content to just the subscribers interested in that subject instead of everyone on your list. Create Segments to group subscribers by interest, then send a Broadcast to the appropriate Segment.
Let's say your Kit account has these Forms and Tags:
Forms
Newsletter
Mastering Product Launches
Designing Web Apps sample chapter
Book Prelaunch List
A Brief Guide to Selling Digital Products
Design
Tags
Purchase: Designing Web Applications
Purchase: The App Design Handbook
Purchase: Creator Marketing Book
About half of these are design-related, and half are marketing-related. Rather than selecting all the relevant Forms and Tags as your Broadcast's recipients each time, organize your subscribers into two Segments:
Segment: Design—subscribers who match any of the following:
Form: Designing Web Apps sample chapter
Form: Design
Tag: Purchase: Designing Web Applications
Tag: Purchase: The App Design Handbook
Segment: Marketing—subscribers who match any of the following:
Form: Newsletter
Form: Mastering Product Launches
Form: Book Prelaunch List
Form: A Brief Guide to Selling Digital Products
Tag: Purchase: Creator Marketing Book
Then, select the relevant Segment of subscribers as your Broadcast's recipients.
A subscriber can appear in more than one Segment. Someone who buys the Creator Marketing Book and downloads the Designing Web Apps sample chapter will be in both Segments—they've expressed interest in both topics.
NOTE: Segments automatically de-duplicate, so you'll never send the same email to the same person twice. If someone opted in to a few things that make up a Segment, they will still appear only once in the Segment.
If you send a Broadcast to two Segments at once, those will de-duplicate against each other as well. Even if a subscriber is in both Segments, they will receive just one copy of your Broadcast.
Adding Segments to Folders
You can group related Segments, Tags, and Product Tags in Folders to keep your workspace organized.
Excluding subscribers within a Segment
A common use for Segments is to group subscribers except for those who meet some criteria. For instance, you may want to send a product pitch email to all subscribers except those who have already purchased that product.
To do this, create a Segment that excludes (i.e., matches none of) subscribers who have purchased your product. Then, send your email to this Segment of non-buyers.
More details in our article on excluding subscribers within a Segment.
Bulk-deleting Segments
You can quickly clean up your workspace by bulk-deleting Segments:
Use the checkboxes to select multiple Segments. Hold Shift while selecting to quickly select everything between your first and last selection.
Click the Bulk actions dropdown menu in the multi-select menu
Select Delete
Confirm the deletion in the window that appears
NOTE: Deleting Segments will remove them from subscribers who currently have them. It may also impact Rules, Email Sequences, or Visual Automations that use them.
The alert icon on a Segment
If you notice a triangle alert icon (⚠️) next to a Segment in the left sidebar, the Segment contains a condition that needs to be reviewed or updated.
To resolve this, open the Segment and review its conditions. Make the necessary changes, then save the Segment. Once saved, the alert icon will be replaced by the subscriber count.
Segmenting tips
Don't create a Tag called "Newsletter" (or similar) and add it to every subscriber you want to send your newsletter to. This group can quickly become outdated if you don't have processes to automatically add the Tag to new subscribers. Instead, create a Segment matching any of the Forms, Tags, and/or Email Sequences your newsletter recipients should be subscribed to. The subscribers in your Segment will automatically update as they meet (or don't meet) its filter requirements. Learn more about when to use Tags versus Segments.
Avoid creating a ton of Rules that subscribe and unsubscribe people from different Forms, Tags, and Email Sequences for grouping purposes. This can get tedious and confusing. If you're trying to group subscribers, a Segment is usually the better fit.
To run multiple sites through a single Kit account, create a Segment for each site. More on running multiple domains here.
You can also filter subscribers by location.