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Overview

A segment is a saved, reusable group of contacts. Instead of re-building the same filter every time you want to reach "customers who haven't bought in 90 days" or "leads from the West region," you define it once, give it a name, and it's ready to use anywhere you need to pick an audience.

You'll find segments under Audience in the top navigation, on the Segments tab (its companion tab is Contacts). Where this guide says "the Segments page", that's the tab it means.

Segments stay current on their own. A native segment (one you build from conditions) is really a saved question — "which contacts match these rules right now?" — so its membership updates automatically as your contacts change. A connected segment mirrors a list that lives in your connected CRM, so it stays in sync with whatever that system says the list contains.

What you can do here

  • Browse your segments. The Segments page lists every saved segment for your account, with its name, how many contacts currently match, and when it was created.
  • Create a segment three ways. Click + New segment and choose Describe with AI or Build with filters, or save one straight from a filtered contacts list. See "Ways to create a segment" below.
  • Fine-tune membership by hand. On top of the conditions, you can pin specific contacts into a segment even if they don't match the rules, or exclude specific contacts even if they do. Use the filter tabs on a segment's member list — All, Pinned, and Excluded — to see which contacts fall into each group.
  • Target a segment. Use a segment to choose who receives a campaign, or as the entry audience or a branching condition inside an automated journey.
  • Search and manage. Search your segments by name, open one to see its full member list and conditions, or delete a segment you no longer need (deleting a segment never deletes or changes the contacts in it).

Segment sources

Every segment card shows where it comes from:

  • Native segments are built and stored inside the app, from conditions you (or the assistant) define.
  • Connected segments mirror a list from a connected CRM. They show a provider badge (for example "HubSpot" or "Dynamics") and, if the connection is disconnected or the list was removed on the CRM side, a "stale" badge so you know the numbers may be out of date. Connected segments are managed in your CRM — you can view them here and use them for targeting, but you can't edit their conditions or delete them from this app.

Ways to create a segment

Click + New segment from the Segments page and pick whichever starting point fits how you think about the group you want:

  • Describe with AI. Opens a chat where you describe the audience in plain language — for example, "contacts in California who opened one of our last three emails but haven't clicked anything." As you chat, condition chips build up in a side panel along with a live match count, so you can see exactly what the assistant is proposing as it proposes it. Ask for adjustments until the conditions look right, then click Save to create the segment. This chat only helps with segments — if you ask it to do something else, like send an email or edit a contact, it'll point you to the main chat instead.
  • Build with filters. Opens the same visual condition builder used for editing (AND/OR groups, a field picker, a live match count — see Building conditions) directly from the Segments page. Build your rules, then name and save the segment.
  • Save as segment from Contacts. Filter your contacts list down to the group you want, then use Save as ▾ → Save as segment to turn that filter into a reusable segment. See Contacts overview.

Whichever path you start from, the result is the same kind of segment — you can edit it later with either the visual builder or the chat, regardless of how it was first created.

Example prompts

In Describe with AI, say who should be in the group — not what you plan to do with them. Short is fine; you refine from there.

Contact fields

  • "Contacts whose first name starts with B"
  • "Contacts from the company [company name]"
  • "People whose email contains hotmail"

Status and deliverability

  • "Active contacts whose email has not bounced"

Behaviour

  • "contacts that opened emails in the last 24 hours"

Tags

  • "create a segment that includes contacts with the tag webinar-registrant"

Refining what you already have. You don't have to restate the whole segment to change it. Once the conditions are on screen, add to them one at a time:

  • "Also require that the contact has an email address"
  • "Now narrow that to people added in the last 30 days"

A note on what a segment can't reference: membership is built from contact fields, tags, and contact activity — not from other artifacts. "Everyone who submitted the registration form" isn't expressible directly. The way round it is a tag: have the form apply a tag like webinar-registrant on submit, then define the segment as "contacts with the tag webinar-registrant". The tag is the seam between the two, and the segment works from day one even before anyone has submitted.

Editing a segment

Open a segment and you'll find two ways to change its conditions:

  • Edit conditions opens the same visual builder you'd use to build a segment from filters — add, remove, or adjust conditions and groups, watch the match count update live, then click Apply to save. See Building conditions.
  • Edit in chat opens the segment's chat pre-loaded with its current conditions and match count, so you can ask for a refinement in plain language — for example, "also exclude contacts tagged VIP." Each refinement updates the chips and match count in the side panel, but nothing about the saved segment changes until you click Update segment.

Example scenarios

Scenario: Build a segment of contacts who haven't purchased in 90 days

  1. Go to Segments, click + New segment, and choose Build with filters.
  2. In the condition builder, add a condition on your "last purchase date" field (or whichever field you use to track purchases) set to "more than 90 days ago," or use a ready-made behavior like "hasn't purchased recently" if one is offered for your account.
  3. Check the live match count at the bottom of the builder to see how many contacts currently qualify.
  4. Give the segment a name, like "Lapsed 90 days," and save it.
  5. The segment now appears in your Segments list and can be used to target a win-back campaign or an automated journey.

Scenario: Ask the assistant to build a segment for you instead of clicking through filters

  1. From the Segments page, click + New segment and choose Describe with AI to start a new segment session.
  2. In the chat, describe the group you want — for example, "contacts in California who opened one of our last three emails but haven't clicked anything."
  3. The assistant proposes a set of conditions that match your description and shows you the resulting match count in the side panel.
  4. Review the conditions (in plain language, no need to understand how they're built), ask for adjustments if something's off, and confirm.
  5. Save the segment once you're happy with it — it behaves exactly like one you built by hand and can be edited later with the visual builder or by chatting again.

Scenario: Refine an existing segment by chatting instead of rebuilding it

  1. Open the segment and click Edit in chat. The chat opens pre-loaded with the segment's current conditions and match count.
  2. Describe the change you want — for example, "also exclude contacts tagged VIP." The assistant applies that change on top of the existing conditions, leaving everything else as it was.
  3. Check the updated chips and match count in the side panel, and ask for further tweaks if needed.
  4. Click Update segment to save. Until you do, the segment's saved conditions are unchanged.

FAQ

Q: Does a segment update automatically as my contacts change? A: Yes, for native segments. As soon as a contact's data changes in a way that affects a condition — a tag is added, a field value changes, an activity happens — they're added to or removed from every segment whose conditions they now match or no longer match. Connected segments update whenever your CRM syncs.

Q: Does deleting a segment delete the contacts in it? A: No. A segment is just a saved way of grouping existing contacts. Deleting it only removes the saved group — the contacts themselves, and all their data, are unaffected.

Q: What's the difference between pinning a contact and them matching the conditions? A: Conditions decide segment membership automatically. Pinning lets you add a specific contact on top of that, even if they don't currently match the rules — useful for a VIP or an exception you want included regardless. Excluding does the reverse: it keeps a specific contact out even though they match.

Q: Can I use the same segment for more than one campaign or journey? A: Yes. A segment isn't tied to any single campaign — save it once and target it from as many campaigns and journeys as you like. Since it stays current automatically, each time you use it you're reaching whoever matches at that moment.

Q: What happens if I edit a segment's conditions after it's already being used by a campaign or journey? A: The change takes effect right away. Anything currently targeting that segment will see the updated membership the next time it checks who qualifies, so be thoughtful about editing a segment that's actively in use.

Q: Can I combine "has purchased" type behavior with simple field filters in the same segment? A: Yes. The condition builder lets you mix straightforward field conditions (like region or tier) with more advanced behaviors (like recent activity) in the same segment — see Building conditions.

Q: Why can't I edit the conditions on a connected segment? A: Connected segments mirror a list that's defined in your CRM, not in this app. To change who's in it, update the list at the source; the change will show up here the next time it syncs.

Q: My segment's conditions look complicated in the visual builder — can I still change them? A: If a segment's conditions get too complex for the visual editor to display cleanly, the app will let you know and offer to open it in chat instead, where you can describe the change you want in plain language.

Q: If I use Edit in chat, when does the segment actually change? A: Not until you click Update segment. Refinements you ask for update the condition chips and match count you can preview in the side panel, but the saved segment — and anything currently targeting it — stays on the old conditions until you confirm the update.