Please note that contacts are available on Marketing and Creator Suite plans!
This article contains instructions on navigating the new version of Elastic Email dashboard. If you would like to see the old dashboard version of this article, please use the following link
The difference
Lists are static sets of contacts while Segments are sets of contacts that dynamically change based on the segment's query.
For example, when a .CSV file is uploaded, its contacts are added to a new or existing list. This set of contacts remains static and does not change within that list.
A segment, on the other hand, is fully dynamic and always contains only the contacts that match the segment's query.
A simple typical case is the Engaged Contacts segment which is available by default on most accounts. This segment only ever contains contacts with an Engaged status (the contact has clicked or opened your email within the last 6 months).
Contact lists in detail
Contact lists are static, which means that assigned contacts will never leave their lists without the user's action.
When uploading your contacts, you can add them only to contact lists (with the exception of the All contacts segment that is a default destination for all of your newly uploaded contacts.)
There are two ways to create a contact list:
Create it directly on your Contacts screen
Upload your .csv list, and when prompted, add them to a newly created list during the uploading process.
Contact segments in detail
Contact segments are dynamic, which means their contents will change in relation to the rules (queries) you set up for them.
Rules are divided into General, Statistics and Custom categories.
General - data that is contained within your contact
Statistics - filter your contacts by their performance
Custom - this is the category that contains your own custom fields
Example segment
A practical example of using segments is creating one for non-engaging contacts -those who haven’t opened your last 10 emails. This allows you to quickly exclude them from future campaigns or target them with a specialized re-engagement campaign.
Such a segment would need to include two queries:
Rule: totalopened = 0
and
totalsent = 10
These two rules ensure that the segment includes all contacts who have received at least 10 emails from you but haven't opened any of them.
The contents of this segment will change based on the status of your recipients.
A contact who hasn't opened your last 10 messages will be included in this segment. However, if the same contact opens an email later - despite having missed 20 previous ones - it will be removed from the segment. This is because the contact will no longer meet the condition of 'totalopened = 0.' Only contacts that match the segment's query will remain included.
Clicking the "Evaluate" button will allow you to see how many contacts adhering to your chosen rules are present on your account.
We recommend testing the described features in practice. If you need assistance with managing lists and segments, feel free to reach out to our CS Team. We're always happy to help!