How Segments work in Flexmail

Segments allow you to create targeted groups of contacts based on specific criteria, such as language, interests, campaign activity, or custom fields. They help you send more relevant campaigns and automate communication with the right audience.

What are Segments?

Segments act as filters on your contact database.

Instead of storing contacts, they define a set of conditions that are evaluated dynamically each time the segment is used. Flexmail checks your entire contact database and returns the contacts that currently match the selected criteria.

This means that:

• contacts are automatically added to or removed from a segment when their data changes
• no manual maintenance is required
• deleting a segment does not delete any contacts, it only removes the filter

What criteria can I use?

You can build segments based on:

• standard contact fields (email address, name, language, source)
• custom fields
• interests
• subscriptions through specific forms
• campaign interactions (received, opened, clicked)
• form and survey submissions
• landing page visits
• the date a contact was added to Flexmail

How do segment rules work?

Each segment can contain up to five rules.

When using multiple rules, you can choose between:

• AND: the contact must meet all conditions
• OR: the contact must meet at least one condition

Why is my segment empty?

If a segment returns no results, the most common reasons are:

• The required data does not exist
  If your segment is based on a custom field that has not been filled in for any contacts, the segment will return no results.
• Incorrect use of AND or OR logic
  One of the most common mistakes is using AND when OR is actually needed.
  As a result, the segment may contain far fewer contacts than expected, or even none at all.
• The contacts are not active
  Segments only include active and confirmed contacts.Unconfirmed and blacklisted contacts are automatically excluded from all segments, even if they match the selected criteria.
• Contact data has changed
  Because segments update dynamically, a segment that previously returned results may now contain fewer contacts or none at all if the underlying data has changed.

What is the difference between Segments and Interests?

Although they are often used together, they serve different purposes.

Segments

• are based on rules and filters
• update automatically when contact data changes
• can use any available contact information
• cannot be managed directly by the contacts themselves

Interests

• act as labels or preference categories
• are added or modified manually or through specific actions
• indicate the type of content a contact wishes to receive
• can be made available to contacts so they can manage their own preferences through their profile page

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Attention!

Segments and Interests work best when used together.

For example, you can allow contacts to choose their interests and then build segments that combine those interests with additional criteria, such as language, country, or campaign behavior. This allows for more precise targeting and more relevant content for every audience.

Read more here: Flexmail Knowledge Base