Audience Segmentation Logic

Article Level: Intermediate | Estimated Read Time: 8 Minutes

Data is only useful if it's actionable. The Audience section is where you turn raw customer data into targeted marketing lists — finding exactly the right people for each campaign and understanding who's in your audience at any given moment.

Encore Pro gives you two tools for this: Lists and Segments. Understanding how they work, and how they work together, is the foundation of effective audience marketing on the platform.

1. Lists vs. Segments

Lists are for managing who's opted in to hear from you. Segments are for finding specific subsets of your audience based on what they've done.

Lists

Lists are static groupings of contacts, organized by communication channel — Email or SMS. A contact is on a list because they've explicitly opted in, either through a Lead Capture form, a manual addition, or an import. Lists are the foundation of your permission-based marketing — a contact must be on a list to receive campaigns sent to that list.

Segments

Segments are dynamic, rule-based audience groups. You define a set of conditions and Encore Pro automatically identifies every contact in your database who currently matches — and keeps that list up to date as your data changes. Segments are built using the visual segment builder, which uses AND/OR logic to combine filters.

1. Building a Segment

Accessing the Segment Builder

1. Go to Audience > Segments in the sidebar.
2. Click Create Segment to start a new one, or click an existing segment's name to edit it.

Filter Types

Filters fall into two broad categories:

Most segment use cases in Encore Pro rely primarily on behavioral filters — event dates, productions booked, and ticket quantities — since these are directly tied to purchasing activity.

Adding Filters

In the segment builder, give your segment a clear name at the top, then:

1. Click Add filter to add your first condition.
2. Choose a filter type from the dropdown (e.g., Event date or Booked for production).
3. Set the value for that condition (e.g., a date range, a show name, a ticket count).

Use the pencil icon to edit a filter, or the trash icon to remove it.

AND/OR Logic and Groups

This is where segments get powerful. By default, multiple filters in the same level use AND logic — a contact must match all of them. To introduce OR logic, use groups:

• Add filter — adds a condition at the current level (AND logic by default)
• Add group — creates a nested block of conditions where you can set OR logic between groups

For example: to find everyone who booked Show A OR Show B, put each production in its own group, then set the relationship between groups to OR. You can also nest groups inside groups for more complex logic.

Conditions within a group can be reordered by dragging the handle icon on the left side of each row.

Note: 'Add filter' and 'Add group' are the two buttons at the bottom of the segment builder. A filter adds a condition to the current group; a group creates a new nested block you can fill with its own conditions.

Checking Your Audience Size

As you build your segment, Encore Pro calculates how many contacts currently match your conditions. The count updates in real time as you add or change filters — so you can confirm you're reaching the right number of people before you commit to a campaign.

Tip: If the count looks unexpectedly high or low, check your date filters first. A missing or misconfigured date range is the most common cause of a segment that doesn't behave as expected.

Saving Your Segment

1. Click Save (or Create for a new segment) when you're happy with the filters.

Your segment now appears in the Segments listing page and is ready to use in campaigns or automations.

1. Worked Example: The "2025 Buyers" Segment

To find everyone who booked for a specific show or show type within a given year — useful for re-engagement campaigns, subscription conversion, or cross-sell targeting.

1. Using Segments in Campaigns

Segments become actionable when you use them as the audience for a campaign or automation. When creating an Email or SMS campaign, the first step is Audience — any segment you've saved in the segment builder will be available to select here, along with a live contact count so you can confirm the size before you send.

Segments can also be used as trigger conditions in Automations, letting you build sequences that fire automatically when a contact meets a set of conditions.

Tip: Build your segment first, verify the count looks right, then go straight into campaign creation. The segment will be ready and waiting for you in the Audience step.

1. Common Segment Examples