Segment condition charts, use cases, and examples

Segments offer a versatile way to organize your subscribers based on their engagement and attributes, empowering you to create highly personalized content. beehiiv provides a broad range of options for crafting segments, giving you a wide array of strategies to enhance your newsletter approach.

We’ll begin with showcasing common segment setups and explaining the logic behind segment conditions. Then, we’ll share detailed tables outlining the segment conditions available for customizing your static and dynamic segments.

There are countless ways to segment your audience for more targeted engagement. Here are a few examples to help you get started:

To find everyone in your list who has opened or clicked a specific email, you can use one of the following conditions in the segment builder:

(Attribute) Post → [name of your post] → was → Opened 

or 

(Attribute) Email to a segment → [name of your segmented email] → was not → Clicked

To find your most engaged subscribers using a benchmark of 80% open rate, you can use the following conditions in the segment builder:

(Attribute) Open rate → is greater than or equal to → 80

To find everyone in your list who has unsubscribed, you can use the following conditions in the segment builder:

(Attribute) Status → is → Inactive

If you have multiple subscribe forms across different pages of your website, you can use the Embed Source condition to see exactly which form a subscriber came from or to send a targeted email to subscribers from a specific source:

(Attribute) Embed Source → was → [name of your embed]

When setting conditions for your static or dynamic segments, you can apply the following different logic types to further customize your segments.

• All (AND): Subscribers must meet all the conditions you've specified to be included in the segment.
• At least one (OR): Subscribers only need to meet any one of the conditions you've listed to be part of the segment.
• None: Subscribers do not have to meet any of the conditions you listed to be in the segment. 
• Condition Groups: This option lets you create more complex segments by grouping multiple conditions together.

The condition groups option lets you create more complex segments by grouping multiple conditions together, applying their own AND/OR logic independently. This means a group can follow different logic from the top-level segmentation. For example, your top-level can require all conditions to be met, while a group within it only requires at least one.

To find subscribers whose email contains "gmail.com" AND who came through a referral channel:

• Top-level operator: All (AND)
• Condition Group (AND):

Email → contains → gmail.com

Acquisition/Channel → contains → referral

Both conditions inside the group must be true, and the group itself must be satisfied for a subscriber to be included.

To find subscribers who are active AND have an open rate above 50%:

• Top-level operator: All (AND)

Subscription/Status → is → Active

• Condition Group (AND):

Email/Open Rate → is greater than → 50

The condition inside the group must be true, and the group itself must be satisfied for a subscriber to be included. 

To find subscribers who either came via referral, OR who are both active and have a Gmail address:

• Top-level operator: At least one (OR)

Acquisition/Channel → contains → referral

• Condition Group (AND):

Subscription/Status → is → Active

Subscription/Email → contains → gmail.com

A subscriber is included if they match either the top-level referral condition or both conditions inside the group. This is a good example of how mixing OR at the top level with AND inside a group lets you cast a wider net while still keeping group conditions precise.

• Each group has its own logical operator (AND or OR) that applies only to the conditions inside it.
• The top-level segment (All / At least one / None) controls how top-level conditions and groups relate to each other.
• Groups cannot be nested inside other groups — only one level of grouping is supported.

When using Static or Dynamic segments, these are the available conditions that you can choose from.  

• Channel: Segment subscribers based on how they were acquired. Enter a value that matches how you've tagged your sources, for example organic, paid, or referral.
• UTM Source: Identify which platform or partner drove the signup, for example linkedin, creator_spotlight, or meta.
• UTM Medium: Filter by the type of marketing channel, for example email, social, or cpc.
• UTM Campaign: Segment subscribers from a specific campaign, for example spring_launch or black_friday_2024.
• UTM Term: Used for paid search; segment by the keyword that drove the signup.
• UTM Content:  Distinguish between two variations of the same link or ad for example banner_v1 or text_link.
• Referring URL: Segment subscribers based on the specific webpage they signed up from.
• Embed Source: Segment subscribers who signed up via a specific embedded form on your site. Useful if you have multiple embeds across different pages and want to see which one is driving signups.

• Unique Opens: The total number of individual emails a subscriber has opened. Use this to find subscribers who have opened a specific number of your emails.
• Open Rate: A subscriber's overall open rate across all emails sent to them. Use this to identify broadly engaged or disengaged subscribers, e.g., everyone with an open rate below 10%.
• Unique Clicks: The total number of emails a subscriber has clicked in. Use this to find subscribers who regularly click your links.
• Verified Unique Clicks: Like Unique Clicks, but filtered to exclude automated clicks. Use this for a more accurate picture of genuine subscriber engagement.
• Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR): The percentage of opens that resulted in a click. Use this to find subscribers who are highly engaged when they do open, even if their open rate is lower.
• Verified Click-to-Open Rate: Like CTOR, but filtered to exclude automated clicks for a cleaner signal.
• Unique Sends: The total number of emails sent to a subscriber. Useful for filtering out newer subscribers who haven't received many emails yet.
• Mailbox Rejections/Deferred: Emails that were temporarily delayed by the recipient's mail server. A high count may indicate deliverability issues for that subscriber.
• Mailbox Rejects/Bounced: Emails that permanently failed to deliver. Use this to identify and clean invalid or inactive email addresses from your list.

• Referral Count: Segment subscribers based on how many people they've referred. Use this to identify and reward your top referrers, or to target subscribers who haven't referred anyone yet.
• Poll Response: Find subscribers who did or didn't respond to a specific poll choice. Use this for sending follow-up content tailored to what subscribers selected.
• Survey Response: Segment based on whether a subscriber submitted a specific form or survey. Use this to follow-up sequences after onboarding or feedback surveys.
• Product Purchase/Any Product: Find subscribers who have or haven't purchased any of your paid products. Use this to target non-buyers with promotional content or to reward existing customers with exclusive offers.