How to Create a Segment in Mailchimp

How to Create a Segment in Mailchimp: Steps 1 to 4

Here is your simple step-by-step guide on how to create a segment in Mailchimp:

Step 1: Log in to Mailchimp (or sign up for a free account at https://mailchimp.com/)

Step 2: Click the Audience icon on the left hand menu

Step 3: Click ‘Segments’ on the Audience menu (on the left hand side)

Step 4: Click the grey ‘Create Segment’ button on the right hand side

Before moving on, let’s take a step back and look at:

a) Why segments are useful, and

b) How they work

How Segments Can Improve Your Email Marketing Campaign

Mailchimp offers several ways to categorise your subscribers, enabling you to create campaigns aimed at one or more subsets of subscribers rather than your entire list.

Targeted campaigns ensure your subscribers only receive relevant emails. This, in turn, should boost open and click rates. Subscribers who receive useful emails are also less likely to unsubscribe.

One method of categorising subscribers is to apply a ‘tag’. This is a data label only visible to you. For example, you could apply a ‘Book Buyer’ tag to all subscribers who purchased a book, a ‘TikTok’ label for a subscriber who signed up because of your TikTok campaign or perhaps a ‘Homeowner’ tag.

Unlike tags, segments do not add data to your subscribers but they do enable you to filter your list using the data you have.

When you create a segment, you can set up to five conditions using data from across five different data categories: Subscriber Data, Merge Fields, Integrations, Tags and Email Marketing Engagement.

For example, from the Subscriber Data category, you could select the Campaign Activity data type.

The conditions you can set will vary by data type. For the Campaign Activity data type, you can choose to apply the condition to activity in response to a specific campaign or to your aggregated campaigns (e.g. the last five campaigns).

So, having clicked the ‘Create Segment’ button in Step 4, you can now start adding your conditions.

How to Create a Segment in Mailchimp: Steps 5 to 11

Step 5: Using the dropdown menu, choose whether subscribers in your segment will need to meet ‘all’ conditions or if meeting ‘any’ condition will suffice.

Step 6: You will notice that the ‘Date Added’ data type is pre-selected in the first box. Click the box. You will be presented with a dropdown menu containing all data categories and types.

Step 7: Choose one data type from the list presented.

Step 8: You will see that the options you have will change depending on the data type selected. For example, for the ‘Signup Source’ data type you can specify that the source either ‘was’ or ‘was not’ from an API, signup form, admin add or import.

Step 9: If you want to add another condition, click ‘+ Add’ and repeat steps 6 to 8.

Step 10: Once you’ve finished adding conditions (you can add a maximum of five), click the ‘Preview Segment’ button.

Step 11: You will be shown a summary of the conditions you have set. If you want to change them, click the ‘Edit Segment’ link. Otherwise, click the ‘Save’ button.

To check your segment has been created, go back to ‘Step 3’. You should now see the segment listed. The next time you run a Mailchimp campaign, you will be able to choose to send it to this segment rather than your entire subscriber list.

Now you know – in theory – how to create a segment in Mailchimp, it’s time to put your knowledge into action ahead of your next campaign.

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