Set up Segments to work for you
Segments are a powerful tool for grouping your subscribers who meet (or don't meet) certain criteria. Here's how to create one:
Go to the Subscribers page. You'll see a Segments section on the right, below the Add Subscribers button.
Click the "+ Create a Segment" link under this section to create a new Segment.
A Create Segment window will appear. Give your Segment a name, and then use the Filter Groups to define which subscribers will be grouped in it.
Within a Filter Group, you'll see that you can select subscribers "Matching [ __ ] of the following:"
Any
All
None
[Any] means "subscribers who meet any one of these filter requirements", while [All] looks for "subscribers who meet all these filter requirements." And [None] means to exclude "subscribers who meet any of these filter requirements."
Let's say you want to see which subscribers have subscribed to a Form and also have a certain Tag. If so, create a Segment of subscribers who match [All] (i.e., both) of these filter requirements:
Subscribed to that Form
Subscribed to that Tag
Click Add Filter to set up more filters within your Filter Group as you may need.
A Segment has one filter group by default, but you can click Add Filter Group to set up more filter groups.
This is helpful for creating a Segment whose subscribers match [Any] of certain filters, but [None] of certain other filters, and so on.
So, as you can see, there are a lot of options for this! Feel free to get in there and test different filters and filter groups for your Segments.
Excluding subscribers within a Segment
A common use for Segments is to find some group of subscribers UNLESS they meet some criteria.
For instance, maybe you want to send a pitch to all subscribers except those who have purchased your product.
Segments are perfect for this because you can set up a Segment of all subscribers, and then use the [None] filter group to exclude subscribers who have purchased your product:
More details in our article on excluding subscribers within a Segment.
Segmenting quick tips
Don't create a Tag called "Newsletter" (or similar), and then add this Tag to all subscribers to whom you want to send your newsletter. This group of subscribers can quickly become outdated if you don't have processes to automatically add this Tag to new subscribers. Instead, create a Segment to group and send your newsletter to subscribers matching [Any] of the Forms, Tags, and/or Sequences that your newsletter recipients should be subscribed to. The subscribers in your Segment will automatically update as and when they meet (or don't meet) its filter requirements. Learn more on when to use Tags versus Segments here.
To run multiple sites through a single ConvertKit account, you can create a Segment for each site. More on running multiple domains here.
Avoid creating a ton of Rules that subscribe and unsubscribe people from different Forms, Tags, and Sequences. Doing this can get tedious and confusing. If you are trying to group Subscribers, it is probably best to use a Segment.
Example use case
If you write about more than one subject of interest on your blog, you may want to promote your content to just the subscribers interested in that subject instead of everyone on your list.
In this case, create Segments to group your subscribers according to their interests, and then send a Broadcast to the appropriate Segment.
Let's say your ConvertKit account has these Forms and Tags:
Forms
Newsletter
Mastering Product Launches
Designing Web Apps sample chapter
Book Prelaunch List
A Brief Guide to Selling Digital Products
Design
Tags
Purchase: Designing Web Applications
Purchase: The App Design Handbook
Purchase: Creator Marketing Book
About half of these are design-related, and about half are marketing-related.
Instead of choosing all subscribers who are subscribed to the relevant Forms and Tags as your Broadcast's recipients each time, you can organize your subscribers into two Segments:
Segment: Design
This Segment contains subscribers who match [Any] of the following:
Form: Designing Web Apps sample chapter
Form: Design
Tag: Purchase: Designing Web Applications
Tag: Purchase: The App Design Handbook
Segment: Marketing
This Segment contains subscribers who match [Any] of the following:
Form: Newsletter
Form: Mastering Product Launches
Form: Book Prelaunch List
Form: A Brief Guide to Selling Digital Products
Tag: Purchase: Creator Marketing Book
Then, select the relevant Segment of subscribers as your Broadcast's recipients.
Out of the total subscribers, (let's say 20,000), you might have 12,000 in the marketing Segment, and 10,000 in the design Segment. Obviously, these numbers add up to more than 20,000, which means that someone can opt in to multiple things and appear in multiple Segments. That's totally fine!
For example, someone who buys the Creator Marketing book and downloads the sample chapter of Designing Web Applications will be in both the marketing and design Segments. This is perfect because they've expressed their interest in both topics.
NOTE: Segments automatically de-duplicate, so you'll never send the same email to the same person twice. If someone had opted in to a few things that make up a Segment, they will still appear only once in the Segment.
Also, if you were to send a Broadcast to two Segments at once, those will de-duplicate against each other as well. So, even if a subscriber is in both Segments, they will receive just one copy of your Broadcast. Pretty nifty, eh?