How to create a not opted-in segment

You will learn

Learn how to use segments to identify active profiles in your account that haven't yet explicitly opted in to email marketing. When sending campaigns, it can be useful to exclude this segment from some campaign sends. This can be done in lieu of adding conditions to your target segment to only include opted-in subscribers.

Because there are a number of ways active profiles, or emailable contacts, are added to your account, it is important to exclude not opted-in contacts so that you don't receive high unsubscribe or spam complaint rates. Contacts who are not opted in and are not suppressed can still trigger flows.

Create a not opted-in segment

To create a not opted-in segment: 

1. Navigate to Audience > Lists & Segments.
2. Click Create List / Segment > Segment
3. Use the following segment definition: 
   • If someone can or cannot receive marketing > cannot receive > email marketing
     OR
     If someone can or cannot receive marketing > can receive > email marketing > because person > never subscribed.
     

This segment will contain anyone who is suppressed for email (i.e., cannot be emailed, perhaps because they unsusbcribed) as well as anyone who is emailable, but hasn't given explicit consent to receive marketing. These profiles may have been added through general engagement (e.g., by initiating a checkout but not completing it). 

When sending campaigns, use the include/exclude feature to ensure that this segment is excluded from your sends. Then, when you're ready to send your next campaign, clone the previous one. Cloned campaigns will inherit the same recipient groups, so you don't have to worry about excluding this segment every single time you create a campaign.

You can create similar segments for other channels like SMS or push. With these channels, "never subscribed" contacts are unreachable for that channel, so you can simply use this segment definition: 

If someone can or cannot receive marketing > cannot receive > SMS marketing/mobile push marketing

Additional resources

• Guide to creating segments
• Create customer engagement tiers
• Understanding frequently asked questions about GDPR
• How to segment on channel consent