ARCOS 7 Help

Segments

The Segments section lets you view and download data about the members in your ARCOS database. Specifically, it lets you view, add, edit, browse, download and delete Segments.

What Is a Segment?

A Segment is a set of criteria that defines a subset of your list. You tell ARCOS what characteristics members must meet to be included in a Segment. Then, each time you view or browse a Segment, the members who meet the criteria are returned.

The Segments you create can be as simple as these:

  • All of your members
  • All of your members who live in California
  • All of your members who have ever made a donation
  • All of your members who have never made a donation

The Segments you create can be much more complicated, too — but you'll find that even creating Segments like these is very simple in ARCOS:

  • All of your members who live in a 150 mile radius of New York City and who have clicked in any of your organization's mailings in the last year
  • All of your members who made their most recent contribution in the last 3 months who have not created a community fundraising page
  • All of your members who have donated between $1000 and $2000 but who were not sent a specific mailing

It is important to remember that Segments are dynamic, not fixed. Each time the Segment is requested — either when you View or Browse a Segment, or when you use a Segment in a mailing — ARCOS checks to see which members meet the criteria you specified when creating the Segment, and all members who meet the criteria are returned.

When Would I Need A Segment?

Often! Every mailing you send from ARCOS must be sent to a Segment. Some organizations will send to the same Segments frequently. Others will create slightly different Segments for each mailing. What Segments you need are defined by your organization to meet your particular messaging needs.

In addition to creating Segments for mailings, you can use the Segments tool to better understand the members in your database. How many of your members live in each state? How many have donated more than once in the past year? How many have never opened one of your organization's mailings? You can answer all of these questions and much more using the Segments tool.

What Can I Segment On?

As you will see, the tool you use to create a segment contains a tabbed interface with six tabs: System Fields, Custom Fields, Donation History, Messaging History, Activity History, and Source/Other.

System Fields

Basic contact information. Some of the fields you may find particularly useful are:

  • City
  • State
  • Geographic proximity. To locate members by geographic proximity, choose "Address Line 1" from the drop-down menu followed by "Is within _ miles of" from the second drop-down menu. You will be prompted to enter a number of miles and a complete address or just a ZIP code.

Custom Fields

All your custom list field data. The segmentation options available on each field are determined by the type of field — Boolean, Currency, Date, Float, Integer or Text.

Donation History

Historic contribution data, including first, highest and most recent contribution, contribution frequency and amount, contribution within a specific time range, and community fundraising data

Messaging History

Historic mailing data, including which members were sent, opened, clicked, and took action in response to any mailing or a specific mailing, and which subscription lists members are subscribed to

Activity History

Which members signed petitions, submitted volunteer forms, sent a tell-a-friend message, sent a letter to the editor, etc.

Source/Other

How members joined your list and what segments they belong to

To Find a Segment

  1. Enter the Segment's ID or part of the Segment's name and click the Search button. The search results appear below the search section. For a complete list of Segments, leave the space blank and click the Search button.

To View a Segment

  1. Click the View link next to the Segment you wish to view. This will take you to the View Segment page.

To Rename a Segment

  1. Click the Rename link next to the Segment you wish to rename. This will take you to the Rename Segment page.
  2. Edit the segment name and click the Save button to return to the main Segments page.

To Add a Segment

  1. Click the Create New Segment button at the bottom of the page. This will take you to the Create Segment page.
  2. In the lower half of the screen you will see a tabbed interface with six tabs: System Fields, Custom Fields, Donation History, Messaging History, Activity History, and Source/Other. Create a criterion (rules) using the tabbed interface in the lower half of the screen.
  3. Click the INCLUDE button or the SUPPRESS button to place the criterion in the INCLUDE or SUPPRESS box at the top of the screen. Pay careful attention to the meaning of INCLUDE and SUPPRESS. Members must meet all of the INCLUDE criteria in order to be in the segment. A members who meets any of the SUPPRESS criteria will be not be in the segment. Each INCLUDE criterion or SUPPRESS criterion you add narrows the segment further.
  4. When you have defined all the criteria you wish, click the Review and Save button. This will take you to the Review and Save page, where the following counts are displayed: Your Total Organization List Size; Your Undeliverables; Your Opt-Outs; and your Final Segment Count. Note that the Final Segment Count includes only the deliverable email addresses. For a segment made up of more than one criterion, you may wish to click the More Details ? link to see a line-by-line count of deliverable email addresses that meet each criterion. This can be very useful if you are trying to achieve a certain segment size.
  5. If you are satisfied with your Segment, enter a name for it and click the Save Segment button. Otherwise, click the Make Changes button to return to the previous screen, or click the Quit. My changes will not be saved. button to return to the main Segments page without saving your segment.

To Edit a Segment

  1. Click the Edit link next to the Segment you wish to edit. This will take you to the Edit Segment page.
  2. Add, edit, or delete INCLUDE or SUPPRESS criteria as described under "To Add a Segment".

To Browse a Segment

  1. Click the Browse link next to the Segment you wish to browse. This will take you to the Segment Browser page. Depending on the size of the Segment, this page may take a short while longer to load than other pages in ARCOS.
  2. By default, members who have opted out or whose email address has returned a hard bounce will not be shown. You can change the setting "Include Opt-Outs and Hard Bounces" to Yes and click the Search button to view all members of the Segment.
  3. (Optional) To further narrow the segment you can enter a keyword — part or all of a member's first name, last name, or email address — into the text field and click the Search button.
  4. (Optional) To edit an individual member's record, click the Edit link next to his or her name. This takes you to the Edit Person screen, which is broken into these four tabs: System Fields, Custom Fields, Member Groups, Subscription Lists. Make any changes you wish and click the Save button.

To Download a Segment

To export and save to your computer data about the members in your ARCOS database:

  1. Click the Download link next to the Segment you wish to download. This will take you to the Segment Download page.
  2. From the drop-down menu, select the List Format you wish to use for the data export.
  3. Select whether you would like to export data as a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or TSV (Tab-Separated Values) file.
  4. Select whether you would like to include a Header Row.
  5. Select whether you would like to include the ID Column associated with each member record.
  6. Click the Next button.
  7. Choose whether you would like to process the Segment Download online or offline. If you click the No Thanks, Process Online button, you will need to leave your browser window open and on this screen until the Segment Download completes. If you are processing a large segment, it is a good idea to click the Yes, Process Offline button. If you process the download offline, you do not need to leave your browser window open and on this screen; when the Download completes, you will be sent an email to the email address associated with your ARCOS user account that includes a link to the file.

To Delete a Segment

  1. Place a checkmark in the checkbox next to the Segment you wish to delete.
  2. Click the Delete Checked button at the bottom of the page.
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