Overview:
To understand what calculated segments are, you first need to understand or refresh your knowledge of how segments work:
What Happens When You Create + Save a Segment?
When creating a Segment, you apply filters to your student records database. Element451 then queries your database of students and returns the ones that match the filter criteria. Learn more about creating a Segment.
When you save your filters as a segment, Element attaches a segment identifier to the records of the queried students. Then, when you use the Segment in other modules like Campaigns and Workflows, those modules look for the Segment identifier instead of re-querying the database against the Segment filters. This is much less “computationally expensive” and makes segments load much faster.
Default Segment Limitations
By default, the Segment identifier is only attached to the student records that met the filter criteria when the query was run and the Segment saved. Any new students that match the criteria in the future will not be added to the Segment by default because the query is not being re-run.
Calculated Segments
Understanding how Segments work by default, we now see the need for calculated segments. When you set a segment to be a calculated segment, student records will automatically add themselves to the segment when they match the criteria or remove themselves if they no longer match it.
Calculated Segment Evaluation
The evaluation is triggered when data is added, removed, or modified on the student record or when a new activity occurs. If the student matches the segment's criteria when evaluated, they are added to the segment. If they no longer match the segment criteria, they are removed.
Calculated segments are not designed to update instantly and may take some time to reflect updates.
Setting a Segment to be Calculated
Set your Segment to be a Calculated Segment via the Segments module.
Check this article for some step-by-step instructions.
Calculated Segment Use Cases
There are reasons to use default Segments and reasons to use Calculated Segments. Here is an example of when you would need to use a Calculated Segment:
Creating a Workflow for Ongoing Communications
In this example, we're creating a drip campaign to prompt students to finish submitting their applications. We have our Communications and a Workflow ready to go, but how do we trigger the Workflow?
We need to enroll students who have started their application. In this case, we can create a Calculated Segment with a filter that captures students who have started their application. Then, the Workflow trigger can be that a student has joined the Segment.