Segments

Owned by Laura Hounshell (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 30, 2023 by Decision Software
16 min read

A TouchPoint segment contains criteria or statements, describing the group of people you want to select. Since a TouchPoint campaign evaluates conditions from the first (top) segment down to the last (bottom) segment, your most stringent criteria should be entered in the first segment, with each successive segment's criteria being more lenient.

Topics:

Evaluating criteria in this cascading fashion yields the 'Waterfall Effect,' which is discussed later in this manual. By default, customers who match on more than one segment are only chosen once, at the first match. If you wish, you can allow customers to be selected on all matching segments.

Adding and Deleting Segments
You may add as many segments to TouchPoint as you need. There is no limit to the number of segments you can create.

Copying and Pasting Segments
TouchPoint allows you to copy the contents of a segment and paste it above or in front of another segment. This technique is useful for copying and pasting segments between two or more TouchPoint campaigns.

To Add a New Segment

  1. Drag the New Segment from the top left pane to where you want it on the design pane.
  2. The Segment Editor window will open.
  3. Enter a description for the segment in the Name text area at the top of the dialog.
  4. Define selection criteria as described in the following sections.
  5. Click OK.

To Copy and Paste Segments

  • Highlight the segment you want to copy, then click the Copy toolbar button () or select Edit.
  • Choose Copy from the menu.
  • Highlight the position where you want to paste your segment.
  • Click the Paste toolbar button () or select Edit then choose Paste from the menu.

To Delete a Segment

Highlight the segment you want to delete, then click the Delete toolbar button () or press <Delete> on the keyboard.

Working with Statements in Segments

Criteria for TouchPoint segments are entered as one or more statements. The basic components of a TouchPoint statement are:

    • A field name
    • A function (SUM, ALL VALUES, etc.)
    • A condition (Equal, Not Equal, etc.)
    • One or more values

Values are compared to the function and field using the condition.

Note

If you add multiple statements to one segment, a statement must contain a connector such as AND or OR. The "Editing Statements" section later in this manual discusses connectors in more detail. The default connector is AND.

Adding and Deleting Statements 
You can add as many defining statements as you wish, but a segment must have at least one statement.

Adding and Deleting Statements

  1. Double-click the segment you would like to add a statement to.
  2. Choose a Field, Aggregate, or Segment from the panes on the left.
  3. Drag the item from the left pane to where you want it in the Criteria tree.
  4. Click on the hyper-link for conditions and select one of the following conditions in the list (for example "equal to").

  5. Click on the hyper-link for [Values] and enter a value. (If necessary, you can click on the field or function area and change their values as well.)

  6. You can either select Publish to update your changes to the library or press OK to store the statement into the local area.

To Edit a Statement

  • Click the statement you would like to change.
  • Click the part of the statement you wish to make changes to.
  • Press OK to save locally or Publish to save to the library.

To Delete a Statement

  1. Highlight the statement you wish to delete.
  2. You can either click the Delete Field toolbar button () or right-click and select Delete Field or press <Delete> on the keyboard.

Combining Segments

In the Criteria Tab, two or more segments can be combined into a single segment. After selecting the desired segments, right click on one of them and select Combine (). The combined segment includes criteria from each of the individual segments selected to be included in the combination. Segments being combined must be adjacent to one another and must be Include segments. When ‘Combine’ is clicked, each segment is simply nested within the new segment. After clicking OK, the segments being combined will be deleted and replaced with the new segment.

Statement Connectors: ( ) and ( )

There are two kinds of statement connectors in TouchPoint: AND and OR. A statement is a single line in a segment representing a condition for selection. A statement connector joins two statements together. You may use any combination of AND and OR joined statements within a segment.

AND ( )
AND is the default statement connector. Every statement you add is automatically joined by AND when two or more statements are in the same segment. The AND connector is used in situations where you want to return records that satisfy two or more statements. For example, suppose you want to mail to men with an income greater than $75,000. Your segment statements should say:

Segment 1

  • Any value of Gender is Equal to M
  • And Any value of Income is Greater than 75000

Example 1: Using AND connector in a statement

OR ( )
The OR statement connector allows you to define an alternative statement within a segment. For example, suppose your Gender field is blank when the customer's gender is unknown. For your promotion, you want to mail to men, yet include those customers where the Gender field is blank. In other words, you want to mail to men or people whose gender is unknown. Your TouchPoint segment might look like this:

Segment 1

  • Any value of Gender is Equal to M

  • Any value of Gender is Equal to (Blank)
  • And Any value of Income_Code is Greater than 75000

Example 2: Using OR connector in a statement

To Create an OR Statement

    • While in Segment Editor, drag multiple fields over from the left pane to the right pane.
    • Select the statement you wish to change
    • Click the (  ) operator twice to change it to (  ), while in the segment
    • Click it twice again to change it back to (  ).

Field Names
The field name is what the value is tested against. For example, if you want to select customers in Montana, choose STATE as your field, and MT as your value.

Statement Conditions
A statement's condition, occasionally referred to as a Boolean Condition, is used to compare the field you specify with the value(s) you enter. Valid conditions include:

  • Equal/Not Equal - EQUAL tests for exact matches. The two values being compared must be identical for this condition to be true. NOT EQUAL reverses this such that the values cannot be identical for the condition to be true.
  • Greater Than/Less Than - Ensures that the rows selected are over or under the entered value. For numeric fields, standard arithmetic rules are used. For character data, an alphabetical comparison is used.
  • Between/Not Between - Used to test for a range of values. For example, ACCOUNT_NUMBER BETWEEN 12345 AND 54321 asks for all the account numbers between, and including, 12345 and 54321. Likewise, ACCOUNT_NUMBER NOT BETWEEN 12345 AND 54321 asks for all the account numbers except for the ones between, and including, 12345 and 54321.
  • In Any/Not In Any - Use IN ANY to enter a list of values to select customers where at least one of the values matches a customer record. Use NOT IN ANY to exclude customers who match at least one of the entered list of values.
  • Is Null/Is Not Null - Searches for null, or missing values. If you use IS NULL or IS NOT NULL, you do not have to enter a value for the field. In fact, MarketWide does not allow you to do so. This menu option is not available if the selected field does not support nulls. Note that Null is not the same as a zero value.
  • Like/Not Like - These conditions are useful for doing wild card searches. The LIKE operator allows you to search character data using partial matches. For example, you might want to retrieve all names containing the word "Corporation." The condition LIKE may only be specified for character fields.

Statement Values 
Statement values are the values you are choosing or excluding with your statements. Usually a single value like Product EQUAL TO xxxx or a pair of values like Order_Date BETWEEN MM/DD/YY AND MM/DD/YY fulfill your needs. Occasionally, you might want to compare the values of two fields.

For example, you might want to select customers that placed orders and had them shipped the same day, which would be ORDER_DATE EQUAL TO SHIP_DATE. The Enter Value dialog allows you to type a value manually or select one from a list of fields, expressions, Picklists, or Lookups.

To Enter a Value in a Statement

  1. Double-click on the value area of a statement to open the Edit Value window.
  2. In the Edit Value window, you can type a value in the ENTER VALUE field, or if the option is available click the Picklist or Lookup buttons and select values individually from there.

Note

The Picklist and Lookup buttons are available only when Picklists and Lookups are established in your catalog. See your MarketWide administrator for more information on making these available to your campaigns.

Using Objects

How to Select an Object

  1. Within the Segments tab of the TouchPoint page, click the object drop-down list.
  2. Please select the appropriate option (New Segment, Match All, and Placeholder).

Match All

The Match All object allows you to catch the remainder of the customers from your database universe without needing additional selection criteria. For example, if your universe had 1000 customers in it, and you wished to solicit customized material for the states of Virginia and Maryland, and then ship generic material to the rest, you would build out a campaign using Match All.

Two statements, one for each state, would catch all the customers who should receive the special material. Then, you would use the Match All object to touch the rest of the universe with generic material. To use the Match All object, drag the Match All (  ) object to the right portion of the TouchPoint campaign window. 

Placeholder
The Placeholder object holds a space for another segment to be filled in later. You can enter in a description for the placeholder segment, but the placeholder does not hold any criteria or you will not be able to choose any matches from it.

Segment Library

After creating the criteria for each segment, you have the option of publishing those segments to a library. The segments inside of the library can then be dragged and dropped as many times as they are needed in the TouchPoint criteria tree. When a segment is not published, it is stored in the local library and is only available for use in in the current TouchPoint.

To Publish a Segment to the Library

  • In the Segment editor window, drag over all appropriate fields from your selected table.
  • Select the appropriate condition and value(s).
  • Press OK to save the segment the local area.
  • Right-click on the segment and select Publish.

To Edit a Published Segment

  • Right click over the Segment you would like to edit and click Edit.
  • Make all the appropriate changes.
  • Click on the drop-down arrow next to the OK button and select Publish ( ).

Selecting a Table in TouchPoint

TouchPoint needs to know which tables contain the customers you want to search through for your campaign. When you start a new campaign, TouchPoint automatically selects the last used table(s) for the campaign. Use SQLManager to choose a different table.

To Select a Table(s)

  • Double-click on an already chosen segment or drag and drop a new segment in the Campaign area to open the Segment Editor window.
  • Click the Add Table button (  ) to open SQLManager.
  • Expand the database, in which you will see all the available tables that you can choose from.
  • Highlight the table you want to use in the left pane of SQLManager.
  • Click OK.

Exclude Segments

Segment Excludes are applied within the TouchPoint selection tree at the exact position where they are placed, and affect only consumers who reach the exclude.

For example, if a Segment Exclude is created to exclude recent buyers, and is placed beneath a parent that selects females, the Recent Buyer exclude is only applied to females and not to males. Segment Excludes are useful for managing campaign logic and preventing consumers from reaching certain segments, while still allowing other segments to evaluate them.

Why Use Exclude Segments?

Both Table Filters and Global Excludes block customers from the entire campaign. At times, you may want to define customers to be excluded only from certain segments of the campaign. The Exclude segment provides a way to block customers from only part of the campaign.

To Create an Exclude Segment

  1. Create a new segment and enter all the necessary statements.
  2. Click the Include/Exclude toggle on the top right to toggle the option to Exclude.

See  Segments for more information on Adding and Deleting Segments.

Note

  • You can highlight the segment description and click Toggle Exclude segment on the toolbar again to convert an exclude segment back into a normal segment.
  • Exclude segments are independent. You cannot make another segments dependent on an exclude segment. See Using Cell Dependencies to Streamline Campaigns for more information. 
  • You can place exclude segments within a campaign to capture and exclude certain customers before they are evaluated in segments below it. See Making Segments FallThru or Discrete for more information.

Making Segments FallThru or Discrete

By default, segments are mutually exclusive. If a customer is eligible for more than one segment, he or she is selected only once, at the first match. After being selected, the customer is not available for additional matches. 

You can change this default behavior by making segments FallThru. TouchPoint will still start at the first segment and work towards the bottom, but if segments are FallThru, TouchPoint will select customers in each segment they match, rather than just the first like a discrete segment.

In TouchPoint, FallThru segments are designated by a check mark in the segment icon window, while discrete segments appear with an empty window: 

Gold Customers
  Sum of Purchase_Amt is Greater than or equal to 1000
Silver Customers
 Sum of Purchase_Amt is Greater than or equal to 500

Example 4A: Example of two Discrete segments 

Gold Customers
 Sum of Purchase_Amt is Greater than or equal to 1000
Silver Customers
 Sum of Purchase_Amt is Greater than or equal to 500

Example 4B: Example of one FallThru and discrete segment

Due to the differing exclusivity, the campaigns in Example 4A and Example 4B give different results. In Example 4A, when a customer is selected in the first segment as a Gold customer, he or she is excluded from selection as a Silver customer, despite satisfying the Silver conditions.

On the other hand, Example 4B has Gold Customers as a FallThru segment. This means that after a customer is selected in the first segment as a Gold customer, he or she can pass through and be selected again in the next segment for matching the conditions of a Silver customer.

Example 4A (Discrete) yields 100 Gold customers and 300 Silver. Example 4B (Fallthru) selects 100 Gold customers and 400 Silver, since all Gold customers also qualify as Silver customers.

To make a Segment FallThru 
Under the Local Properties, set Selection Type to FallThru.

To make a Segment Discrete 
Under the Local Properties, set Selection Type to Discrete.

Copying and Pasting Segments

TouchPoint allows you to copy the contents of a segment and paste it above or in front of another Segment. This technique is useful for copying and pasting published segments between two or more TouchPoint campaigns. 

To Copy and Paste Segments

  • Highlight the segment you want to copy and click Copy on the toolbar or select Edit and then click Copy from the menu.
  • Highlight the position where you want to paste your segment and click Paste on the toolbar or select Edit and then click Paste from the menu.

Note

Commonly used segments can be added to the library by right-clicking on the segment and selecting Publish. This makes the segments available in the library for all your TouchPoint campaigns. If the Segment contains an aggregate the aggregate must be a published aggregate, not a local aggregate, if you would like the segment to be published.

Segment Properties

When a segment is selected, you can either view the segment properties at the bottom left side of the Criteria tab or right-click the segment and select Properties in the context menu. In the segment properties, you can update the match limit settings, update the segment's description or touch ID. 

  • Description - Alias to describe the segment.
  • Touch ID - Indicates the field in the Promo History Table used as the unique identifier for touch nodes for a campaign.
  • Selection Type - Determines if matches are exclusive to the selected segment(s). Discrete - Makes the matches in a selected segment ineligible to be selected in any segment after. FallThru - Makes the matches in each selected segment eligible to be selected in any segment after.
  • Match Limit - Section that allows the option of setting a limit of matches you would like matched to a Segment.
  • Remainder - The remainder column gives two options on what to do with the non-matches that do not meet the segments match limit criteria. Selectable - This allows any match that was excluded from your segment due to a Match Limit to be eligible to be selected in another subsequent segment. Discard - This marks all matches that are excluded from you segment due to a Match Limit as ineligible to be picked up in a subsequent segment.

You also can update the Match Limit settings in the Tracking tab. See the topic about Match Limit.

Changing Cell Priority

TouchPoint lets you easily change the order of segments by moving them up and down. Moving segments is an efficient way to change a segment's priority, or evaluation order. Since TouchPoint evaluates conditions from the first segment to the last segment, and thus selecting a customer once for the first segment he or she matches; your highest priority segments should contain the most stringent conditions and be located at the top of the selection criteria tree.

Suppose you want to select Gold and Silver customers. Gold customers, being those who have purchased $1000 or more and Silver customers, being those who have purchased $500 or more. Your campaign in TouchPoint could be ordered in one of the following ways, significantly altering your report. 

Gold Customers
 Sum of Purchase_Amt is Greater than or equal to 1000
Silver Customers
 Sum of Purchase_Amt is Greater than or equal to 500
Example 3A: Gold Customers segment has higher priority
 
Silver Customers
 Sum of Purchase_Amt is Greater than or equal to 500
Gold Customers
 Sum of Purchase_Amt is Greater than or equal to 1000
Example 3B: Silver Customers segment has higher priority

Because TouchPoint evaluates conditions from top to bottom and selects customers for the first segment they match, the campaigns in Example 3A and Example 3B yield different results. In Example 3A, TouchPoint first selects all customers who have purchased $1000 or more in merchandise, then selects customers with purchases of $500 or more.

Out of 400 customers, suppose the results show 100 Gold customers and 300 Silver customers. If you make the Silver customers high priority, as in Example 3B, TouchPoint first selects all customers with purchases of $500 or more, which will include customers who purchased more than $1000 or more, i.e. the Gold customers! By giving Silver customers a higher priority, TouchPoint's results would show 400 Silver customers and 0 Gold since the Gold customers matched the Silver conditions, which had higher priority.

To Move a Cell Up (Higher Priority)

  • Highlight the cell description.
  • Click Move Up () on the toolbar or select Criteria and then click Move Up () from the menu.

To Move a Cell Down (Lower Priority)

  • Highlight the cell description.
  • Click Move Down () on the toolbar or select Cell and then click Move Down () from the menu.

Using Cell Dependencies to Streamline Campaigns

When building your selection criteria, several of your segments may share conditions. For example, if every segment contains the same income requirement, you can enter the income condition once and have TouchPoint evaluate the purchase amount requirement only for customers that match that income condition. In other words, to save time, make the purchase amount requirement dependent upon matching the income requirement by indenting the segments for the purchase amount under the segment for the income requirement. Use the Set Dependency (  ) button to indent the cell and create this dependency.

Filter Segments
Filter segments contain the selection conditions common to all the dependent segments. To select customers in dependent segments, they must first match the filter segment criteria. As the name implies, filter segments filter customers through to the dependent segments. 

Selection Segments
Selection segments are where customers are selected based on criteria. Whereas filter segments contain common conditions, selection segments contain unique conditions defining the exact group of customers selected. You can create as many levels of segment dependencies as you need when building campaigns. 

To Make a Segment Dependent

  1. Highlight the segment you wish to make dependent upon a previous segment.
  2. Click Promote Cell ( ) on the toolbar.
  3. Once the dependency has been set, the cell will become indented, and the filter cell will display a filter icon.



To Make a Segment Independent

  1. Highlight the segment for which you want to remove a dependency.
  2. Click Demote Cell ( ) on the toolbar to remove the indentation and dependency.