Locating Existing Selections & Segments in GAIL

Locating Existing Selections & Segments in GAIL

Are you creating new segments every single time you process a marketing effort? Did you know that most of the time this step is unnecessary? Once a selection has been created and transformed into a segment, it will continue to exist in GAIL with the potential to be used for multiple future marketing efforts. 

Let’s revisit our GAIL Dictionary for just a moment.

  • Analytics & Reporting Team: the wizards who take the criteria from your AskIT tickets and build your selections
  • Selection: Basically, a selection is your “list” as it lives in GAIL. The Analytics & Reporting team writes a query based on your criteria that pulls all the constituents who meet that criteria into a selection that can then be run through communication modules.
  • Segment: Used only with marketing efforts, a segment is built from a selection and allows the marketing effort module to compile your email or mailing list. Multiple segments can be added to a single marketing effort. 

Before we learn how to find an existing segment, it is important to note that even if the name of the segment looks like what you need, you should still submit a ticket to AskIT so that the Reporting & Analytics team can review the segment and ensure you’ll be pulling the constituents you want. 

For example, you find a segment named A&S – All Donors This Year. You add the segment to your marketing effort and don’t recognize any of the names from your most recent solicitation. Upon further investigation, you realize the segment includes a selection that only pulls donors from 2016.

Locating an Existing Segment

From the Marketing & Communications functional area, click Segments to view the list of existing segments. 

Here you can search through all of the existing segments to find ones relevant to your purpose. You can also sort and filter the list by Site in order to see all of the segments that have been created for your unit. You may need to click on Columns to make the Site column visible in your list. You can also read the descriptions of the segments here in order to determine which will be best for your marketing effort.

Once you’ve located a segment to use, open a ticket to AskIT, set the Help Topic to Reporting and Query Request, explain the audience you’re trying to  reach, and give the name of the segment. They’ll be able to tell you if it’s appropriate for your marketing effort and if it’s not, they can refer one that is or begin creating one for you.