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About Using Segments with Marketing Cloud Personalization
Learn about using segments.
Ways to Use Segments in Campaigns
There are several ways you can use segments to increase the impact of your campaigns:
| Approach | Description |
|---|---|
| Personalize campaigns | You can target segments of users with specific personalized content. For example, you can show first-time users an introductory video about your company, but not show it the next time they visit your site. |
| Set goals and filters | You can use a segment to specify certain actions as the goals for a campaign. For example, the goal for first-time users who watch your introductory video is to connect with an advisor by completing a short web form. You can also use segments to set a global goal. |
| Filter statistics | You can use segments to filter campaign statistics to see how various groups of users are reacting to a campaign. |
| Analyze trends and engagement | You can see trends in a particular segment, view specific users or accounts in a segment, or compare data across multiple segments. With Segment Compare, you can compare certain segments with other segments, or with your entire site, to see differences in key metrics and behaviors. You can also filter reports by segments to learn more about a segment's behavior. |
| Analyze member details | Each segment user has a unified customer profile that shows specific details about their behavioral data. |
| Import or export segment membership | You can sort and export segment data, including any defined segment rules. You can also synchronize segments with your CRM so you can include everything the Personalization system captures about a lead, contact, or account. |
Campaign Qualification
You can use segments to show a campaign to a specific subset of users based on the criteria you set. For example, you only want to show a campaign to users who have read three blog articles today. You already have a segment that captures users who meet this criteria, so you can use it to create a campaign-wide rule.
In this example, users who read their second blog article today don't qualify to see the campaign. As soon as those users read their third blog, they immediately join the segment and qualify to see the campaign. See Add Rules for Campaigns, Experiences, and Messages for more information.
Experience Qualification
There are several ways to determine the effectiveness of campaign experiences against each other and against a control group:
| How Determine | Description |
|---|---|
| A/B testing | Split traffic randomly into different groups and show each group variations of a message to see which version is most effective. |
| Rule-based testing | Create multiple experiences, then assign rules that control the visibility of each experience to target specific groups of visitors. |
Retail Examples
The following examples show ways to use segments for retail business.
| Target | Strategy | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| Cart abandonment | Prevent cart abandonment with a bounce message campaign. | Category: Items Rule: Item Action Count Rule parameters: added to cart, any, Products, at least, 1, today AND Category: Items Rule: Item Action Count Rule parameters: purchased, any, Products, at most, 0, today |
| Upsell | Group users who purchase a certain value in a specified time period, so you can target them with a campaign for an upsell. | Category: Items Rule: Purchases Value Rule parameters: Purchased between, $XX, and $XXX, worth of any, Products, in the last, X days |
| Lifetime Value | Group your high-value customers so you can target them or analyze their behavior. | Category: Items Rule: Purchases Value Rule parameters: Purchased at least, $XXXX, worth of any, Products, in the last, X days |
| Persona | Identify your customers by their affinities for brand, category, price, and so forth, and create personalized campaigns for them. | Category: Items Rule: Favorite Rule parameters: Select an option from the User’s favorite dropdown and configure the applicable parameters. |
| Lead generation | Identify users who haven’t signed up for your email marketing efforts. | Category: Thirdparty Rule: External ID Rule parameters: has or does not have; select the application and configure the applicable parameters. |
| Location | Identify your International users. | Category: Location Rule: In Rule parameters: User’s country, is not one of, United States |
Travel Examples
The following examples show ways to use segments for travel business.
| Target | Strategy | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| Persona | Identify users based on actions they take on your site. | Category: Actions Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: User did, any of specific actions, enter an action and configure its settings |
| Location | Identify users based on location | Category: Location Rule: In Rule parameters: User’s country, is one of, select country |
| Lead generation | Group users that subscribe to your other marketing channels, so that you can communicate with them in a more personalized manner. | Category: Metrics Rule: Text Attribute Rule parameters: User Name (userName), exists AND Category: Metrics Rule: Text Attribute Rule parameters: External User ID (extUserId), exists |
| Upsell | Identify users that purchased during a previous season and deliver a targeted upsell. | Category: Items Rule: Purchases Value Rule parameters: Purchased at least, $1, worth of any, Products, between dates, MM/DD/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY |
| Behavior | Group users based on the content they interact with, such as users who look at wedding-related content. | Category: Items Rule: Item Action Count Rule parameters: viewed, specific, Category, enter a category, at least, 1 times, for all time |
Customer Success
The following examples show ways to use segments to target customer success.
| Target | Strategy | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| First login | Identify users that log in for the first time. | Category: Visits Rule: Time Since First Rule parameters: Visited, for the first time for all time AND Category: Visits Rule: Anonymous Rule parameters: User is not anonymous |
| No login | Identify users that don’t log in for a certain amount of time. | Category: Visits Rule: Visit Recency Rule parameters: Did not visit, in the last X days |
| New feature usage | Identify users that use a new feature. | Category: Actions Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: User did, any of specific actions, enter an action, at least 1 time, for all time |
| Feature usage | Identify users that use one feature, but not another. | Category: Actions Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: User did not do, any of specific actions, enter an action, at least 1 time, for all time AND Category: Visits Rule: Time Since First Visit Rule parameters: Visited, for the first time in the last, 15 days AND Category: Actions Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: User did, any of specific actions, enter an action, at least X times, for all time |
| Subscription change | Identify users that have a change in their subscription level. | Category: Subscription Rule: Time Since Lifecycle Rule parameters: transitioned from Customer (Pick), to Customer (Paying), in the last, 30 days and, stayed in that state |
| Unsubscribed | Identify users that unsubscribe from email or push notifications. | Category: Metrics Rule: Text Attribute Rule parameters: Exact Target Status (etStatus), equals, unsubscribed |
Demand Generation
The following examples show ways to use segments for demand generation.
| Target | Strategy | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| Engaging with blogs | Identify users who read your blogs. | Category: Actions Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: User did, any of specific actions, enter an action (such as Blog - View Article), at least X times, for all time |
| Engaging with email | Identify users who sign up for email. | Category: Metrics Rule: Text Attribute Rule parameters: Email Address (emailAddress), exists |
| Engaging with content but not video | Identify users who view content, but not video. | Category: Items Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: Viewed, any, Products, at least, 1 times, for all time AND Category: Actions Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: User did not do, any of specific actions, enter a video option, at least X times, for all time |
| Engaging with favorite products | Identify users by a favorite product. | Category: Items Rule: Favorite Rule parameters: User’s favorite Category, enter a category, measured by viewed, for all time |
| Engaging with demos | Identify users from a known company that request a free demo. | Category: Actions Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: User did, any of specific actions, enter a demo action, at least 1time, for all time AND Category: Location Rule: Company Rule parameters: User’s Company is known |
| Engaging with free trials | Identify users that participate in a free trial and log in multiple times. | Category: Metrics Rule: Text Attribute Rule parameters: UserAccountType, equals, Free Trial AND Category: Visits Rule: Visit Count Rule parameters: Visited, 1 or more times, for all time |
| Engaging with customers | Identify users who log in. | Category: Actions Rule: Action Count Rule parameters: User did, any of specific actions, ClickedLogin, at least 1 time, for all time |
