Organising your database allows you to send campaigns to only an audience that is interested in that specific subject/topic. To do this effectively, it’s important to understand the difference between tags and segments.

• Tags are quick labels you can apply to contacts.

• Segments are dynamic lists that update automatically.

When used together, they make it easier to target the right people at the right time, leading to higher open rates, stronger conversion rates and a more personalised customer experience.

When managing your contacts, tags and segments are the two key tools for organising your database. Both help you group and target your audience, but in different ways. You can also create custom contact fields to further categorise and group your data based on your specific needs.

Tags are labels you can manually or automatically apply to contacts. They add extra information to a contact’s profile and help you categorise people based on specific attributes.

• A contact can have multiple tags.

• You can combine tags when sending campaigns.

• Tags can be added manually, in bulk (via Contact Search), via imports when uploading a spreadsheet of data or automatically assigned (and removed) via automations. 

Examples of tags:

• Booked function

• Attended event

• Premium member

• Mailing list subscriber

• VIP

• Previously dined

Tags are flexible and quick to use, especially when making ad-hoc changes or adding new contacts.

Simply put, Tags contain a collection of contacts whereas Segments contain a collection of criteria/filters. 

Unlike tags or contact fields, Segments do not add additional labels or data to your contact profile. Instead, segments use the information that you do have to create groups.

Since segments contain a collection of filters, it means that they are dynamic and automatically update whenever the profile of a contact changes or if a new contact is added.

Segments also allow you to bring in data from all parts of the platform to tie everything together. This allows you to specify criteria from:

For example, if the information was available in the account, you could create a segment to find all contacts that have a birthday this month, are aged above 25, have previously dined at the venue in the last 7 days, have spent over $500 in the last 6 months and are not currently VIPs.

As data about each of your contacts updates, so do your segments. This makes them very powerful as they will always return the most up to date results based on the filters and criteria specified. 

Segments can be used for reporting, sending campaigns and to trigger automations (example: when somebody enters the 'Spent More Than $500' segment, send them a thank-you email).

Segments vs Tags

Key differences at a glance:

• Tags → Static labels applied directly to a contact

• Segments → Multiple criteria combined into a dynamic, auto-updating group

 

💡Tips: Recommended Workflow

Use tags and segments together for maximum impact:

Step-by-step example:

1. Upload contacts → Tag as “Website Signup”

2. Create a segment combining: “Website Signup” + “Interested in Wine” + “Local Area”

3. Save the segment as “Local Wine Enthusiasts”

4. Target the segment for your Wine Tasting Event campaign

5. Tag attendees as “Wine Event 2024” for future segmentation

👉 This creates a powerful system where tags provide basic organisation, while segments enable sophisticated targeting that drives campaign effectiveness.