Segments for Direct Marketing Efforts

Segments group donors based on a variety of criteria so you can target prospects with customized content based on their characteristics. For example, you can base segments for direct marketing efforts on previous efforts; statistical scoring such as recency, frequency, monetary values; or biographical traits such as age or gender. A variety of features in the program help you analyze the success of individual segments, including the Average Gift Comparison and Retention and Attrition reports. For more information about segment tasks, see Manage Segments on Marketing Efforts.

To view the segments used with a marketing effort, select the Segments tab of the record of the effort. Under Segments, you can view and manage all segments in the effort. You can add individual segments or groups of segments and edit, delete, and move them. You can drag and drop one or multiple segments at a time. For efforts linked to a marketing plan, the tab automatically includes all the segment summaries defined in the plan. These segment summaries allow you to group segments and see values “roll up” for the included segments.

For direct marketing efforts linked to a marketing plan, the Segments tab automatically includes all the segment summaries defined in the plan.

From the grid, you can generate segments for the marketing effort.

• For direct marketing efforts, you can generate segments based on a Segment Builder set and add constituent, list, membership, and test segments.

After activation, the Segments grid displays gift counts, response counts, response rates, and more for each segment and segment group. The grid also includes record counts for segment exclusions. Additionally, the Indirect and unresolved responses grid appears on the Segments tab.

• Indirect responses are those from donors who did not receive an offer and gave a gift to this marketing effort. The donors were not part of the marketing effort but they gave a gift and it somehow got associated with the appeal and marketing effort ID. Essentially, the gift has the appeal and marketing effort ID even though the donor was not directly contacted through the marketing effort.

• Unresolved responses are those from donors who did not receive an offer and gave a gift to the appeal, but the gift cannot be resolved or credited to a specific marketing effort. The donors were not part of the marketing effort, but gave a gift that was somehow associated with the appeal, although it has no marketing effort ID. The gift has only the appeal.

When you refresh a marketing effort, a “matchback” process takes place. This process tries to place gifts into specific segments and remove them from the indirect or unresolved pool based on the source code on the gift record. For more information, see Refresh Marketing Efforts.

The Unresolved Responses report shows all the unresolved donors and all the possible marketing efforts that have been activated against the same appeal. After you generate this report, you can go back to your source system and correct the source code on the gifts that appear in the report.

Use the arrows to move selected segments up or down in the grid. The order of segments in the grid is important because you can only include records in one segment. When you activate a marketing effort, segments are processed from top to bottom. If a record meets the criteria for multiple segments, only the first of those segments will include the record.

If you move segments, select Calculate segment counts to view the updated counts. For more information about how to calculate segment counts, see Calculate Segment Counts.