Goal
Apply a segment to target contacts. Depending on where you apply it, a segment can work in three ways: persistently by transferring matching contacts into a group's membership, transiently by filtering a sendout at the moment of delivery, or inside an automation to limit which contacts it affects.
Segments let you narrow an audience to a defined set of contacts, such as contacts with certain behaviors or profile attributes. A segment can contain as many criteria as needed.
Apply to a Group (Transfer)
Transfer contacts who match your segment criteria into an existing group's membership. This helps validate complex segment logic, refresh an audience, or prepare groups for campaigns and automation. For example, if you have created a segment with several behavioral and profile-based conditions, you can transfer the matching contacts to a temporary group and review individual profiles to confirm the segment returns the contacts you expect.
Procedure
There are two ways to transfer contacts. The best option depends on where you start:
Segmentation Builder – Ideal when you want to validate or refine a segment you are currently working on.
Contact Management – Ideal when you want to update an existing group and review its context before transferring contacts.
Option 1: From Segmentation Builder
Go to Audience > Segmentation > Segmentation Builder.
Click the segment plan you want to add to a group once. A bar with the options More and Edit appears at the top.
Click More and then click Transfer. The Transfer Segment window opens to the Update Existing Group tab.
In the Transfer Segment window:
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Select transfer mode:
Add – Add contacts not yet in the group.
Replace – Replace all current members with matching segment contacts.
Remove – Remove matching contacts from the group.
Choose a group.
Choose the amount to transfer: All, Percentage, or Number (selected randomly by ID).
Click Transfer.
Option 2: From Contact Management
Go to Audience > Contact Management > Group Members.
From the Group drop-down list, select a group.
Click the Add Segment button.
Configure the transfer
Select All, Percentage, or Number of matching contacts.
Select Add, Replace, or Remove.
Enter a Notification Address if a system user should receive a message when the transfer is complete.
Click Transfer.
Mapp Engage transfers the contacts who match the segment criteria into the group.
Apply at Sendout (Filter)
Deliver a message only to the specific subset of contacts in a group who match your chosen segment criteria. Unlike a transfer, this does not change group membership: the segment filters the sendout group at the moment of delivery only.
A sendout group is always required. The segment filters the group but does not replace it. You can apply one segment per sendout, but the segment itself can contain as many criteria as needed.
Note
When a segment is calculated, Mapp Engage shows the number of contacts who currently match the criteria. During sendout, the final number of messages may be lower because addresses with known delivery issues are skipped. For more information, see Skipped Messages (tab).
Procedure
Create a message.
In the Compose Message wizard, open the Prepare Sendout step.
Select the sendout group.
In the Segment area, choose the segment you want to apply.
Only one segment can be applied per sendout.
Continue with message sendout.
Mapp Engage sends the message only to group members who match all criteria in the selected segment.
Apply to an Automation
You can limit an automation to specific contacts or users by adding a selection.
Time-based automations
In time-based automations, you limit the impact of the automation to certain contacts or users. See Time-Based Automation v1.0.
Event-based automations
In event-based automations, you can limit:
whether a contact can trigger the event,
contacts that will be impacted by the trigger.
Some whiteboards require a selection. For example, the automation that you use to send a birthday message requires a selection. See Event-Based Automation.
Note
All automations provide an input field where you can add a selection.
Procedure
Go to Automations > Whiteboards.
Create a whiteboard. The interface provides a drop-down list where you choose the type of selection.