Tags, Custom Fields, and Segments – what’s the difference?

It can be confusing when first getting into email marketing. The terms ‘tags‘, ‘custom fields‘ and ‘segments‘ seem to be bandied around, even used (incorrectly) interchangeably.

So, in this article, I’m going to explain the differences and when to use each one when designing and building your email marketing system.

Tags

Think of these as post-it notes that you (digitally) ‘stick’ on your subscriber.

If you’ve ever seen the promos for the film “Office Space“, you’ll recognise

this image.

This is how I imagine my subscribers after they’ve been on my email list for a while – a bunch of ‘tags’ on them.

What exactly are they?

Essentially, ‘tags’ are attributes that can be applied to a subscriber’s profile.

They can be created for any attribute you wish to collect or reference, but only create and apply those that will serve a purpose in your email marketing system – not just ‘for the sake of it’ (not that you’d do that!).

Some examples of tags that could be created;

• ‘Clicked on my newsletter link’
• ‘Attended free webinar’
• ‘Bought one of my products’
• ‘Interested in politics’
• ‘Downloaded free starter guide’

You get the gist; a tag captures the essence of something pertinent to the subscriber and then it can be associated with their profile in Kit.

E.g. if you join my email list and download my free starter guide, you’ll have the corresponding tag (‘Downloaded free starter guide’) stored in your profile.

Tags are best used for identifying attributes that are factual and unlikely to change – the rationale behind this will become clearer after I explain what custom fields are and how we use them.

To give an example to add context, imagine this scenario;

Your subscriber clicks a link inside an email you sent them; clicking the link adds a tag called ‘Main challenge is getting new leads‘ to their profile.

Now, let’s fast-forward a few months and let’s say they now click another option – this time, they select ‘Main challenge is converting leads into clients‘.

With both tags now assigned to their profile, we have no way of knowing which one is correct – which one is their actual main challenge?

This is a situation we want to avoid in our email marketing system.

How to create tags in Kit

There are several places inside Kit where you can create a new tag, both directly (as the sole task), or on-the-fly as you’re performing another task (like building an automation or email sequence).

Let’s look at creating tags directly from within the ‘Subscribers‘ screen in Kit.

Navigate to the menu option ‘Grow‘ > ‘Subscribers‘;

Then scroll down to the section on the right-hand side entitled ‘Tags‘;

Click on the link at the bottom of the Tags section, entitled ‘+ Create a Tag‘;

Type the name of your tag, with a maximum of 50 characters, and click ‘Save‘;

That’s it! It’s as easy as that to create a new tag. Now you can assign it to your subscribers’ profiles (when it applies, of course).

The simplest way to assign a tag is from within a subscriber’s profile, adding it manually by clicking on the ‘+‘ button in the ‘Tags‘ section of the profile;

Choose the tag you wish to apply from the drop-down list that appears after clicking the ‘+’ button;

Once selected, the tag is then applied to that subscriber’s profile and will remain there indefinitely or until removed.

Of course, there are more efficient ways in which to assign tags to subscribers by automating the process – e.g. ‘if a subscriber clicks a link, add a tag’.

Custom Fields

I explained ‘tags’ as digital post-it notes that we stick to subscriber profiles – attributes that can be added and removed at will. I suggested that tags should be there to mark attributes that are factual and unlikely to change or have variable options as answers.

For those more dynamic or variable scenarios, we use ‘custom fields’ because they better handle the concept of a single source of truth.

Following on from my example situation (above) when a subscriber’s ‘Main challenge‘ can change, using a custom field works perfectly.

Let me start by explaining what they are and how they are stored in Kit.

A subscriber’s profile can have many custom fields (a maximum of 140 in Kit), with the most common ones being ‘email address‘ and ‘first name‘.

But, the beauty of Kit is that it allows us to create others for whatever purpose we wish – here are a few examples;

• Surname
• Favourite Colour
• Birthday
• Subscribed Date
• Main Challenge
• etc…(anything you can think of!)

For each custom field in a profile, the default value is blank (i.e. empty, nothing there).

If we decide to store a value against any custom field, we need to collect it either manually (not recommended) or automatically (much preferred), and whichever value we capture will overwrite any existing value – thus, we always have a single source of truth for subscriber data.

Okay, let’s pause and reflect on the key difference between custom fields and tags.

If we have a custom field entitled ‘Main Challenge’, we may initially collect the value ‘Main challenge is getting new leads’, because a subscriber chose it from a list of options.

After a while, the same subscriber now chooses their main challenge to be ‘Main challenge is converting leads into clients‘ – i.e. it was previously getting leads, but now it’s converting them.

The custom field value can always be referenced as the source of truth when making decisions.

To complete the use case in this example, if I want to send the most helpful and relevant emails to a subscriber, I want to be certain of their main challenge.

If I manage this via tags, I’m unsure which one to use as the source of truth.

If I use a custom field to manage this, I always know the stored value is the most recent and, therefore, the correct value.

How to create a custom field in Kit

To create a new custom field, click on any subscriber in your list – this will open up the subscriber profile screen.

Once there, navigate to the bottom-left corner of the profile and click on the link entitled ‘+ Add a new field‘;

In the top-most text box, type the name of the custom field you’re creating (in this example, my custom field is called ‘Main Challenge‘.

Now, you can click the ‘Update Subscriber‘ button to create the new custom field, even if you leave the ‘Field value’ text box empty (this just means that this particular subscriber doesn’t yet have any value for that custom field).

It’s worth noting that once created, the custom field becomes available for EVERY subscriber and not just for the subscriber’s profile in which you created it.

Finally, just like the tag option, you should always look for ways of using custom fields via automations, as this eliminates human error and increases efficiencies.

Segments

You made it! You now know what tags and custom fields are, and how they differ – now it’s time to explain what ‘segments‘ are, and how they relate to both in Kit.

As the name suggests, ‘segments’ are subsets of your email subscribers.

A simple example of a segment could be subscribers who have purchased at least one of your products/services – called ‘Clients‘.

Another simple example could be the opposite – those who have never bought from you called ‘Prospects‘.

A good way to think about ‘segments‘ is as a filtered view of a subset of your subscribers.

The filter can be created using the ‘tags’ and ‘custom fields’ you have in your system.

Here’s an example of how we might create a segment;

Segment name: Clients on LinkedIn

Criteria for segment inclusion:

• Subscribers who have bought from me (captured by a tag)
• AND
• Are active on LinkedIn (captured in a custom field called ‘Active social’)

The segment will now include every subscriber who matches the criteria laid out above. Any subscriber who doesn’t have either one of these would be excluded.

Segments are dynamic and through subscriber attributes (and preferences) changing at any point, so too will the list of subscribers in a particular segment.

How to create a segment in Kit

Navigate to the menu option ‘Grow‘ > ‘Subscribers‘;

On the right-hand side of the screen you’ll see a link to ‘+ Create a Segment‘ – click the link to configure your segment criteria;

Once created, you can use your segment to control the flow of content to each segment.

This is how you craft the most relevant content for your subscribers and keep it fresh with a dynamic membership of segments using tags and custom fields.

⚡️ Summary

Tags, Custom Fields, and Segments – what are the differences?

‘Tags‘ are perfect for capturing attributes of a subscriber that are unlikely to change and are factual (i.e. binary, either true or not).

‘Custom Fields‘ are perfect for acting as a single source of truth where values can change over time, e.g. favourite colour could be ‘green’, but then change to ‘red’ a year later.

‘Segments‘ are filtered views of a subset of your email list, using tags and custom fields to build your filtered view.