How to send to a clean, engaged segment in ActiveCampaign (without automation)
Maybe you’ve read that for email marketing best practices, you should “clean your list”, and “send to engaged subscribers”.
Or maybe you’ve read that ActiveCampaign recommends setting up “Engagement Tagging” automations, but never quite figured out how to use them properly.
Sending campaigns to engaged users is an important part of a healthy email list (especially if your list is more than 1-2 years old), but with ActiveCampaign, this has historically required setting up automations that are neither simple nor flexible.
However, recently, ActiveCampaign has vastly simplified this process by adding new filtering options, so I’m going to cover:
why you should use an engaged segment
how to create an engaged segment in ActiveCampaign (without using Engagement Tagging automations)
(By the way, here’s the link to my calendar in case you’d like my ActiveCampaign expertise to help you set up a clean list rather than doing it yourself)
Why you should send to an engaged segment
Think about it like this: as your list ages, it accumulates dead weight - subscribers who aren’t interested in your offerings anymore, but haven’t unsubscribed. These people are highly unlikely to engage with (open/click) your emails, and continuing to send unopened emails is a small red flag to inboxes like Gmail and Outlook.
To counteract this, I recommend sending most of your emails to the portion of subscribers who are engaging with you - the aforementioned “engaged segment”.
Typically, this segment will include anyone who “has opened any email in the last 90 days”, or “has clicked any email in the last 180 days”, or “has purchased in the last year”. These are subscribers who have taken action to show that they are interested in what you’re sending.
Now, sending to an engaged segment will lower the number of people you send to, which I know can be an uncomfortable prospect (as it has been for many of my clients). But, you will see open and click rates increase, and this will have positive effects on your email deliverability over the long term (i.e. how much your emails are trusted, and thus how likely they are to avoid spam).
This doesn’t mean you can never send to “un”-engaged contacts - I still recommend sending major announcements and promotions to your entire list. But for your more regular emails, stick to the engaged segment. So your email schedule might look like this:
Regular email - send to Engaged segment
Regular email - send to Engaged segment
Regular email - send to Engaged segment
Black Friday promo! - send to Entire list
Regular email - send to Engaged segment
How to create an engaged segment in ActiveCampaign
As I mentioned above, previously, ActiveCampaign users had to set up “Engagement Tagging” automations to build an engaged segment. These automations clogged up contact histories, were clunky to update, and took time to work. But recently, ActiveCampaign has added engagement filtering directly into their segment builder.
To build and use an engaged segment, you’ll need to use ActiveCampaign’s segment builder. I’ve already created a guide on how to use the builder in case you want to dive into more detail. But the basics are:
Go to your Contacts page
Click “Search contacts” in the top-right, then click “Advanced Search”
Add the conditions shown in the image below (also see the optional conditions further down this post)
Click “Search”
Click “Save as segment” and give it a name
Use this engaged segment when you send a campaign (further details below)
As you can see from the conditions, an engaged segment typically includes contacts who have recently opened, or clicked a link, in one of your emails. We also add in anyone who was recently created (to make sure we don’t exclude contacts who haven’t even had a good chance to engage with our emails yet).
Notice that the timeframe is longer for clicks than opens. This is because someone who clicks a link in an email is generally considered “more engaged” than if they had just opened the email (and not clicked anything).
Also, you can change these conditions to your preferences. For example, if you only send one email per month, you might like to double these timeframes (6 months for opens and 12 months for clicks).
Optional: Include purchasers, members, or any other VIP contact
Your subscriber list may have other ways that they indicate how engaged they are. Or, you may just want to make sure that certain people are always included in your campaigns. For example, one of my clients wanted to ensure that their paid members were always sent emails, no matter if they were engaged or not.
Here are some examples of how you can include these subscribers in your engaged segment:
This segment includes anyone who has ever made a purchase. Note that unfortunately you cannot define the timeframe that a contact made their purchase.
This segment includes anyone tagged “Member”. Note that you will need to have manual systems or automations in place to add/remove tags to your members in ActiveCampaign.
How to use your engaged segment
Once you’ve defined your segment and saved it, you’ll typically use it when you go to send a campaign.
Create or edit a campaign
In the “Recipient Selection” of the campaign designer, check “Segment”
Choose your engaged segment from the dropdown menu
(make sure you choose one or more Lists to send to as well)
You’ll see that your “Total Contacts” number will probably decrease (because you’re filtering out all of the unengaged contacts).
Again, I know it can be scary to see this number drop - if it drops worryingly low, you can always edit the segment so that it has looser conditions (and thus includes more contacts). If it looks extremely low, it could be a sign that a mistake was made when building the segment.
Once your segment is selected, continue on with campaign design and sending as usual.
How to check which segment a sent campaign used
If you’re looking back through your campaign reports, and wondering whether you used a segment or not, simple click the “Details” button on the right of the campaign report screen (to get to a campaign’s report, click the “Reports” icon, then “All Campaigns”, then click “View Report” for the campaign you’re interested in).
Useful links
ActiveCampaign’s guide to better email deliverability
My guide on how to create a segment and use it to send a campaign
Oh and here’s the link to my calendar again in case you’re looking for an ActiveCampaign specialist for setting up engaged segments, or anything else email marketing!
