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Using Segments in Campaigns and Journeys

You've built your segments — now put them to work. Here's how to use segments to send the right emails to the right people across campaigns and journeys.

In Campaigns — Pick Who Gets Your Email​

When you create a campaign, the Targeting step is where you choose your audience. Segments make this flexible and precise.

Adding a segment to a campaign​

  1. Open your campaign and go to Targeting
  2. Click Add Target
  3. Choose Segment as the type
  4. Pick the segment you want
  5. Set it to Include (send to these people) or Exclude (don't send to these people)

Include and exclude — the real power​

You can add multiple segments and lists, mixing includes and excludes to get exactly the right audience.

Example — Promote a premium feature to engaged free users:

  • Include segment: "Free plan users who opened an email in the last 30 days"
  • Exclude segment: "Users who already upgraded this month"

Example — Send a win-back email without annoying active users:

  • Include segment: "Inactive for 90+ days"
  • Exclude list: "VIP customers" (a manually curated list you don't want to risk)

The final recipient count works like this:

Everyone in your included segments and lists, minus everyone in your excluded segments and lists, minus anyone who's bounced, unsubscribed, or been suppressed.

Check your audience before sending​

After setting up your targets, always click Estimate Recipients to see the final count. This runs your segment rules against live data, so the number is current. If it looks off — too high, too low, or zero — revisit your segment rules or check your exclusions.

In Journeys — Automate Based on Audience Membership​

Segments work in two powerful ways inside journeys: as entry triggers and as branching conditions.

Start a journey when someone matches a segment​

When you set up a journey's entry trigger, you can tie it to a segment indirectly:

  • List-based trigger — Add contacts to a list, and anyone on that list enters the journey. Pair this with a segment by first filtering your audience with a segment, then enrolling matching contacts into a list.
  • Email event trigger — Start the journey when someone opens, clicks, or bounces on a specific campaign. Since campaigns target segments, your journey audience naturally follows from your segment definitions.

Example — Welcome series for new premium users:

  1. Create a campaign targeting the segment "New premium signups this week"
  2. Set up a journey with an email event trigger: "Opened" on that campaign
  3. The journey automatically enrolls everyone who opens your welcome email

Branch the journey based on segment rules​

Inside a journey, you can use condition steps to send people down different paths. While conditions are based on email events (opened, clicked, etc.), you can combine this with your segment-driven campaign targeting to create sophisticated flows.

Example — Re-engagement journey with escalation:

  1. Target your "Inactive 60+ days" segment with a re-engagement campaign
  2. Journey trigger: anyone who receives that campaign
  3. Condition: Did they open it?
    • Yes → Send a follow-up offer
    • No → Wait 3 days, then send a stronger incentive

Tips for Getting the Most from Segments​

  • Name segments by their purpose, not their rules — "Win-Back Candidates" is easier to pick from a dropdown than "No opens 90 days AND active AND not premium"
  • Reuse segments across campaigns — if your "Engaged US Subscribers" segment works well, use it again rather than recreating similar rules
  • Combine segments with lists for precision — segments handle the dynamic targeting, lists handle the manual overrides and exclusions
  • Always estimate before launching — segment audiences change over time, so the count you saw last week might be different today
  • Think in funnels — use broad segments for awareness campaigns, narrower segments for conversions, and highly specific segments for re-engagement