====== Audiences ======

An Audience in Sentori is a custom segment of your contacts, created using the Audience Builder tool. The Audience is defined using simple rules, for example:

<code>Select all Contacts who are in Mailing List A and who are Tagged as Customers</code>

Audience can be simple or very complicated, including multiple AND/OR clauses. No programming experience is necessary in order to create an Audience.

===== Audience Builder =====

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Sentori's Audience Builder allows you to visually create custom segments of your contacts; for example, all contacts in Mailing Lists A and B but not C. The Audiences that you build can then be used to send emails to or to export the segmented data to an external source (Excel, your CRM, etc.)

Note: The feature requires no knowledge of programming, however its use is considered advanced and it is intended for users comfortable with managing their data.

To create an Audience, go to Contacts > Audience Builder. Once you have clicked to create an Audience and named it, the screen you are presented with prompts you to add a Query Group and Query. Doing so will then present you with a single Query Group containing one empty Query to start to build your Audience.
===== Creating a Query =====

The first drop-down in a Query asks you to choose the type. You can select contacts by:

  * Contact Field
  * Mailing List
  * Tag
  * Upload Group

It is possible to use combinations of Query Groups, Queries, and an Exclude Group, to create complex Audiences.

==== Selecting Contacts by Contact Field ====

The Audience Builder can select contacts based on your Contact Fields; for example, First Name, Last Name, or even custom fields that you have created.

  * In the first drop-down, the Query type should be set to Contact Field. 
  * The next drop-down allows you to select the field that you wish to select contacts by, for example First Name.
  * In the next drop-down you should choose the condition by which you wish to select contacts by. The options available are: equals, is not equal, contains, does not contain, starts with, ends with.
  * The final box that appears is a text field; in here you type the text that you wish to look for.

==== Selecting Contacts by Mailing List ====

The Audience Builder can select contacts by Mailing Lists that they are subscribed or not subscribed to.

  * In the first drop-down, the Query type should be set to Mailing List.
  * The next drop-down allows you to choose the Mailing List that you wish to select contacts from.
  * The final drop-down has two options to select contacts by: subscribed and not subscribed.

==== Selecting Contacts by Tag ====

The Audience Builder is able to select contacts by the Tags that they have or do not have.

  * In the first drop-down, the Query type should be set to Tag.
  * The next drop-down allows you to choose the Tag that you wish to select contacts by.
  * The final drop-down allows you to choose whether you select contacts who are tagged or not tagged.

==== Select Contacts by Upload Group ====

The Audience Builder can select contacts by the data imports that they were in (Upload Groups).

  * In the first drop-down, the Query type should be set to Upload Group.
  * The next drop-down allows you to choose the data upload that you wish to select contacts by.
  * The final drop-down allows you to choose whether you wish to select contacts who are in or not in an Upload Group.

===== Complex Audiences =====

The Audience Builder can be used to create complex Audiences, for example using multiple AND / OR clauses to create advanced logic to segmentation.

^ Clause/Type ^ Description ^
| AND | Queries inside a single Query Group are AND'd together; in other words, all of the Queries must be true in order for a contact to be selected. |
| OR | An Audience can contain multiple Query Groups. Query Groups are OR'd; in other words, a contact can be selected if any of your Query Groups' criteria are met.  |
| Exclude Group | It is possible to always exclude contacts from your Audience -- irrespective of whether your Query Groups would otherwise select them -- by using an Exclude Group. Contacts matching its Queries are always excluded from your Audience. |

==== Using the AND clause ====

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==== Using the OR clause ====

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==== Using an Exclude Group ====

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