Segment Flows

Anatomy of a Segment Flow

A segment flow can include:

• A schedule that controls when the flow starts sending. You can send immediately or schedule for a specific time.
• A segment–the audience that receives your messages You can create a new segment or use an existing one.
• Exit rules. When you want a person to be removed from the flow and stop receiving messages.
• Message elements. The emails, SMS messages, or other communications you want to send. You can include one or more messages in your flow.
• Wait elements. Optional delays between messages.

When to Use Segment Flows

Segment flows work well when you want to reach a specific audience all at once, such as with a marketing campaign. Here are some examples of messages you can send with a segment flow:

• A promotional email for all customers who made a purchase in the last 30 days.
• A new product announcement for leads who showed interest in a specific product category.
• A series of onboarding emails for new customers who joined this month.
• A special offer for high-value customers in a specific region.

How Segment Flows Work

Here's what happens when you create and activate a segment flow:

1. You define your audience by creating or selecting a segment.
2. You publish the segment so it includes the most current data about who qualifies.
3. You create your messages and configure when they should be sent.
4. You activate the flow and choose when to start sending.
5. At the scheduled time, if you selected to republish the segment immediately before the flow runs, the segment is republished.
6. The flow sends messages to everyone in the segment.
7. If your flow includes multiple messages with wait elements, segment members receive the messages according to the timing you configure.
8. If you selected to run the flow on a recurring basis, the flow runs on the configured schedule.

Note If you set the re-entry conditions to After completion, a unified individual can’t join the next scheduled occurrence of the flow until they exit the current occurrence.

After you activate a segment flow, it begins sending messages at the scheduled time. To make changes to a scheduled or active flow, deactivate it first.

When you deactivate the flow, you have two options. You can cancel all occurrences and immediately exit all segment members, or let currently running occurrences finish without starting new ones.

Managing Segment Members

• Segment membership is updated when the segment is republished.
• When the segment is republished, individuals who now meet the criteria for the segment are added to the flow. Individuals who no longer meet the segment's criteria are removed from the flow.
• If you choose to update the segment on the segment's publish schedule, the segment is refreshed at the scheduled time. If the publish schedule is set to Do not refresh, the segment's population isn't refreshed.
• If you choose to update the segment immediately before the flow runs, the segment is republished immediately before the flow runs regardless of the segment's publish schedule.
• An exit rule is like a filter that identifies people who should no longer be in a flow. For example, you can create a rule that sends someone to the end of a flow after they renew a contract.
• The flow evaluates the exit rules each time a segment member enters the flow or resumes after a pause. If a segment member meets the exit rule criteria, they are removed from the flow and no longer receive messages.

Getting Started with Segment Flows

Create segment flows through the audience flow in Flow Builder. Select Audience Flow, then choose Segment as your audience source.

If you are using Marketing Cloud Next, the recommended approach is to start from a campaign because it connects the flow with the campaign automatically. When you create a message-based campaign, you can choose a template that includes a segment flow or build your own from scratch.

If you don't have Marketing Cloud Next, or you want to build a more complex flow, you can open Flow Builder to access additional elements and configuration options. Learn more in Create a Segment Flow.

For more information on Audience Flows, see Audience Flows

Managing Your Segment Flows

After you activate a segment flow, you can monitor its progress and make changes as needed, including:

• Pause a flow so you can fix an issue or make changes
• Deactivate a scheduled flow before it starts sending
• Create another version of a paused flow with updates
• View performance metrics to see how your campaign is performing

When you pause a flow, segment members remain at their current position in the flow until you resume. When you resume, the flow continues processing from where it left off, accounting for any time that elapsed during the pause.

Tips for Success

• Always publish your segment before activating the flow to ensure you're working with the most current data.
• Preview segment membership to confirm the right people are included.
• Test your message content before activating the campaign.
• Consider your segment's publish schedule. For the most up-to-date data, select to republish the segment immediately before running the flow.
• Use wait elements to pace message delivery for your segment.