Email Lists and Segments - Something I Am Not Getting...

Hi ​@DrTodd 

Thank you for posting your question in the community, I hope I can help answer some of your questions.

The biggest difference between a platform like MailChimp and Klaviyo, is that MailChimp is a list-centric platform, where lists act as isolated databases. Users are subscribed to specific lists, and unsubscribe from specific lists. 

Whereas Klaviyo, is a contact-centric platform, where they manage a database of profiles and profiles can be subscribed to lists, be included in segments, or none at all and still be within the platform and a contact you can mail to (pending on their subscription status).

Klaviyo stores contact information as profiles and you have active profiles or suppressed profiles. Profiles can be added to your account and never be on a specific list and their subscription status (Subscribed, Unsubscribed) is NOT depended on a list. 

In Klaviyo, Lists are almost like a way to identify a contact’s preference, or organize them by some attribute, but a contact’s subscription status is NOT tied to any particular list. 

The other big thing to define is a list vs. segment. A list is static and users are only added or removed from a list based on some form of opt-in (upload, form, integration, etc.)

Whereas a segment is fluid, its dynamic, based on specific criteria and when a profile has the data to match the criteria of the segment, they will be included in the segment. But, if their data changes and no longer matches the criteria, they will be removed from the segment. Profiles can go in and out of a segment based on criteria automatically.

With this in mind, let’s me try to answer your specific questions:

When I first go to the Lists and Segments dashboard, I see a bunch of default lists. Is there one master list? No. You can create as many lists and segments as you want and a contact can be on as many lists and segments. I will say, if you are connecting your Klaviyo account with an Ecommerce store, like Shopify, that integration does sync contacts to a specific lists, which a lot of brands then might use as a “master” list, but how you identify and use list is entirely up to you. 

Are things like Lead Platform, Preview List, Engaged (30 Days), Email List, SMS List simply segments of some larger master list? If so, where do I find the master list? I would think of your Klaviyo account as a “master list” or “master database” and within it, you can have contacts added to lists and a part of segments. You can create an “email” or “sms” list, you can create an Engaged (30 Day) segment within your Klaviyo account, and profiles in your account will on different lists and segments. Your “master” database for Klaviyo would be found under Audience > Profiles. As noted above, Klaviyo has Active profiles and suppressed profiles. Active profiles are any profile that has not unsubscribed or been manually suppressed. This would be your “master” in this case.

If I want to see what segment a client belongs to, where do I find that?  When I go into something like Email List, there is no way to see the segments to which a contact belongs. This becomes particularly problematic if a contact belongs to more than one segment. If you want to see which lists or segments a particular profile is a part of, you would search for that specific profile, and click into the Profile details. Within the profile details, you will see a sub-menu, including Lists & Segment. In the screenshot below, you can go to Profiles > Search a profile, find the profile in the list and then click on it.

After you click on the profile, you’re in the profile details page. The profile page contains all information about your profile. Profile Properties are static data points about a profile (Yellow area), whereas the activity log is a chronological view of any behavior/action a profile as taken over all time (green area). But, you can see the area where you can look up which lists and segments a profile is in (red arrow). 

Once you click on that “tab” you’ll be presented with a view that shows all the lists and segments this particular profiles is on. If a contact is on many lists/segments you can filter the view by lists or by segments or search by a list/segment name.

How do manually assign a particular contact to a segment that I create? As mentioned above, segments are based on specific criteria, like Opened an email in the last 30-days. Or Placed an Order in the last 90-days. If a contact has had that behavior within the defined criteria, they will be automatically added to the segment. But lists, which again or static, you would assign a profile/contact to.

I hope this helps! If you have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Thanks,

​@In the Inbox 

​@DrTodd good questions! Klaviyo works a bit differently from Mailchimp. I hope this helps! 

1. There is no master list. Most accounts keep one main list (often called “Newsletter” or “Email List”), but Klaviyo is designed to be segment-driven. Lists are static. Segments are dynamic. 

2. Klaviyo pre-defines a few lists and segments for your account, which might be helpful for targeting campaigns. You can see full database of profiles under Profiles in the left sidebar.

3. To see what segments a profile belongs to: open Profiles, click a profile, and then “Lists and Segments.” You will see every segment they qualify for, in addition to any lists they are in. Segments aren’t subsets of lists, like in Mailchimp. They’re dynamic, rule-based groups of profiles.

4. You cannot manually add a profile someone to a segment. Segments are rule based, so a profile appears only if they match the conditions you set. If you want to manually control membership, use a list instead.

For a good overview, Klaviyo’s “Lists vs Segments” help article is helpful: Understanding the difference between segments and lists | Klaviyo Help Center

Cadence​