Segmentation

Segmentation

Allow a contact to fall within two or more segmentations. Eliminate the 'waterfall' process that exists now. Say I want to segment based on product interest: I might have a contact that is interested in both golf and basketball.

9 Comments
Grant_Booth
Level 10

Hi David,

The general idea behind segmentations is that they don't overlap; so that each segmentation can receive a unique set of dynamic content in an email or on a landing page. How were you intending to use the segmentations in question?

Have you considered just using smart lists instead?
For example, suppose you have two fields: Primary Product Interest and Secondary Product Interest.
Additionally, you could have two smart lists: Golf and Basketball
Then just use the filters Primary Product Interest 'is' 'Golf' and Secondary Product Interest 'is' 'Golf', set with ANY logic, to include everyone who is interested in golf.
You could set up a similar smart list to see who's interested in Basketball.
If you want to see who's interested in both, you could use the Member of Smart List filter, and list both of those smart lists in it.

David_Mason1
Level 3
Thanks for the reply, Grant. I will have to rely on Smart Lists for now.

However, I was under the impression that Segments and Segmentations are meant to be used to reduce response time in cases where a complicated Smart List might contain time-consuming (complicated) logic. Since Segmentations don't have to run each time you run a Smart List I can see that this would save time... Just seems like there will be a case when someone falls under two or more segments. 

I know Segments are new, so maybe this new feature will mature like many others have in Marketo.
Josh_Hill13
Level 10 - Champion Alumni
You could also try the static list builder. That will push the Golf AND Skiing people to one list. Might end up with dozens of lists though.
Dory_Viscoglio
Level 10
Hey David, another idea here would be to identify their interests in a custom field or two. We use segmentations, but also write a primary and secondary interest based on actions that a person takes on our site and via our content. This way you have a record of their interests, you can keep or overwrite them after a certain amount of time, and you can also mix and match as desired for programs or mailings. 
Anonymous
Not applicable

Josh -- When you say, "Static List Builder," do you mean creating a Smart Campaign that automatically adds Leads to a Static List when they are on a Smart List? I'm curious to hear if there's other functionality around automating a list building process.

Elliott_Lowe1
Level 9 - Champion Alumni

We have a segmentation for communications preferences and have segments for each of our 3 preference options and segments for each possible combination of those segments.  If there were many more preference options, this technique could become cumbersome.  Creating a static list for each preference and using the Member of List filter to combine them might be easier.

Casey_Noland
Level 2

What about situations such as

Primary Platform:

Windows

Mac

PC (*)

Xbox

Playstation

Console (*)

iOS

Android

Mobile (*)

We can segment on specific platforms no problem but we would like the flexibility of the (*) segments where we can target simple groups. The actual data is all segmented, no group options.

Grant_Booth
Level 10

It looks like a lot of good workarounds are suggested here. The fact that segments don't overlap is very intentional, however, as one of their primary functions is to specify dynamic content in emails. It's important that a lead only qualify for a single segment in order for the system to process what dynamic content will be included for them. Segmentations can be used to save processing speed when qualifying leads for campaigns, but it's not necessarily their primary purpose.

kh-lschutte
Community Manager
Status changed to: Open Ideas