Segmentations

Segmentations are used to define targeted groups of constituents you want to communicate with — for example, lapsed donors, constituents who donated less than $500, or even a combination of both. Their purpose is to let you organize and target your constituents in the way that best fits your strategy.

A segmentation is made up of two key components: the Global Group and Segments. Both use Inclusions and Exclusions, but they serve different purposes.

The Global Group is the starting point of a segmentation. It defines a pool of constituents using inclusions and exclusions. This pool determines the full set of constituents you want to segment.

For details on how inclusions and exclusions works, check the Inclusions and Exclusions section.

Segments are sub-groups created from the global pool. Like the global group, they use inclusions and exclusions — but always within the context of the global group’s pool and the segmentation hierarchy.

Segments follow a strict order: once a constituent is targeted in one segment, they cannot be targeted again in later segments. This ensures that each constituent only belongs to one final segment.

For more details, check the Segment Hierarchy section.

In both global groups and segments, inclusions add constituents while exclusions remove them. However, their behavior differs slightly depending on context.

Inclusions in a global group adds constituents to a pool, while Exclusions remove constituents from it — even if they appear in an Inclusion.

A segment’s inclusions only apply to constituents from the global pool who have not already been targeted by a previous segment, while exclusions remove specific constituents from that segment’s results.

A Catch All segments contains no inclusions or exclusions. Its role is to capture any constituents from the global pool who were not targeted by previous segments.

Segments are organized in a hierarchy, which means the structure of your segments matters. Here's a few key terms you need to understand:

In this hierarchy, calculations are performed from top to bottom. The first segment calculates its targeted constituents, and once complete, its first child segment and next sibling segment begin their calculations. It is important to note that when a segment finishes calculating, the next sibling will only run its calculations on constituents that were not targeted by any previous segments.

Child segments follow the same logic and start calculating based on the constituents targeted by their parent segment.

When a segmentation is updated, calculations are triggered automatically and the result determine how many constituents are targeted by each segment.

If your datasource updates (for example, updated constituent lists), you can refresh a segmentation to recalculate the targeted constituents. To do this, click the Recalculate button on the segmentation page.

If you need a segmentation with a similar structure to an existing one, you can duplicate it from the dropdown menu. The new segmentation will appear with “- Copy” appended to its name.

Within a campaign, segmentations are used alongside channels. Each segment without a child segments becomes a targeted group.

Campaigns then cross these segments with their defined channels to determine how each group of constituents prefers to be reached (Mail, Phone, or Email).

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