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Lists & Segments

A list is a group of contacts you send email to. Every campaign needs at least one.

Find them under Email Campaigns → Lists & Segments.

Two Kinds of Audience​

There are two types, and you pick which one when you create it.

TypeHow members get inBest for
ListYou choose the contacts by hand.A fixed group you control. Webinar signups, VIP customers, a hand-picked test group.
SegmentContacts are matched by conditions and stay up to date on their own.Anything that changes over time. "Everyone in Texas", "everyone who opened in the last month".

The important difference: a segment keeps itself current. Add a new contact who matches its rules and they join automatically. Nobody has to remember to update it.

The type is permanent

You cannot change a list into a segment, or the other way round, after it is created. Pick the right one up front. If you get it wrong, make a new one.

Creating a List​

  1. Go to Email Campaigns → Lists & Segments.
  2. Click New list.
  3. Choose the type List.
  4. Give it a Name — this is what you will pick in the campaign composer.
  5. Add a Description if it helps future-you remember what it is for.
  6. Click Save.

Adding contacts​

Open the list and click Add contacts. Search by name or email, tick the people you want, and click Add to list.

You can also add people in bulk from the Contacts page: select contacts (or select everything matching your filters) and use the Add to list bulk action.

Some contacts get skipped

If someone previously unsubscribed from this list, adding them back does nothing. You will see a message like "3 contacts were skipped — they unsubscribed and can only rejoin themselves". That is deliberate. Only the contact can undo their own opt-out.

Removing contacts​

Select rows and click Remove. They leave the list but stay in your CRM, and you can add them back later.

Creating a Segment​

  1. Click New segment (or New list and choose the type Segment).
  2. Name it.
  3. Build the Conditions.
  4. Click Save.

A segment needs at least one condition. An empty one will not save.

How conditions work​

A condition is three parts, read left to right like a sentence:

Field → Operator → Value

For example: State → Is → Texas.

You can stack several conditions and join them with AND or OR:

  • AND means every condition must be true. It makes the group smaller.
  • OR means any one of them can be true. It makes the group bigger.

You can also nest groups, so "in Texas or Nevada, AND opened something recently" is one segment.

Common operators​

You do not need to learn them all. These cover most cases:

OperatorMeaning
Is / Is NotAn exact match on a choice field.
ContainsThe text appears somewhere in the field.
Is One Of / Is Not One OfMatch any of several values at once.
Is Empty / Is Not EmptyThe field has nothing / something in it.
In Last X DaysA date inside a recent window.
Greater Than / Less ThanNumber comparisons.

The list of operators changes to fit the field you picked, so you can only ever choose one that makes sense.

Check before you save​

Under the conditions is a live preview. It counts matches as you build — "1,842 contacts match" — and shows a few example names so you can sanity-check that you built the rule you meant to.

Build it backwards

Start with one condition and watch the count. Add the next and watch it change. If a number jumps in a direction you did not expect, you have found the mistake before you sent anything.

Engagement Conditions​

One field is worth calling out: engagement tier. It labels each contact by how much they interact with your email — Hot, Engaged, New, Cooling, Dormant, Sunset, or Unrated.

Segmenting on it lets you build audiences like "only people who are actually reading". The campaign composer has one-click presets that write exactly these rules for you — see Quick audiences.

Full definitions of each tier are on The Email Agent page.

Unsubscribes​

Unsubscribes are per list, not global. This matters more than it sounds.

  • Someone leaves your Training videos list. They keep getting your Weekly update list.
  • Every marketing email footer carries an unsubscribe link, as the law requires.
  • The unsubscribe page also has an "unsubscribe from everything" button, for people who want out completely. That one stops all marketing email.

Both kinds are recorded and respected automatically. You never have to maintain a suppression list by hand.

Where unsubscribes show up​

  • On the index, the Unsubscribed column shows how many people left each list.
  • Inside a list, filter the Status dropdown by Unsubscribed to see who.
  • Inside a segment, the members table shows only the people who opted out. Everyone else is matched by the conditions, so there is nothing to store. An empty table there reads "Nobody has opted out", which is good news.

Deleting a List​

Deleting removes the list, not the people. Contacts stay in your CRM. Campaigns that already went out keep their reports.

Next Steps​

  • Campaigns — pick these audiences in the composer
  • The Email Agent — how the agent chooses who inside a list gets each email