Manage segments

Introduction

Customer segmentation organizes customers into specific groups based on shared characteristics or similar behavior that matter for your use cases. These groups represent different target audiences for your business, making it easier to deliver more relevant content and experiences to your web app visitors.

Before creating segments, you must first collect and prepare customer data. There are several options available:

• Embed Prepr tracking code in your web app for automatic customer data collection. Check out Capturing event data for more details.
• Import customer data as a CSV file. Learn how to do this in Customer profiles.
• Add customer profiles manually. Follow the steps in Customer profiles.
• Use customer data maintained in external CRM/CDP systems.

The first three options imply that you will use Prepr as storage for customer data. The last option means you will reference your external segments in Prepr, while all the data will be stored and maintained in your chosen CRM/CDP system.

Once the customer data is prepared, you are ready to create segments.

Create segments based on Prepr data

If you collect and store customer data in Prepr, you can create specific segments for these customers using multiple filters and conditions. For example, you can filter based on personal characteristics such as age or gender, or events such as page visits or conversions.

To create a segment for people who viewed specific content, follow these steps:

1. Go to Segments > + Create segment.

2. Provide a meaningful name for the segment. The value of the ID field will be generated automatically based on the segment name. You can update the value manually if needed.

3. Create the filter for the segment. For example, select Viewed, Content item, and choose the content item that determines to which segment the customer belongs.

4. Click Save segment.

5. Add additional segments if necessary.

Use external segments from CRM/CDP systems

If you maintain your customer segments in an external system or segment visitors based on a social media campaign, you can set up Prepr to reference those external segments as follows:

1. Go to Segments > + Create segment.

2. Provide a meaningful name for the segment.

3. Copy and paste the segment unique identifier from your CRM/CDP system or the UTM tag (for instance from a social media campaign) to replace the automatically generated ID value in Prepr.

4. Click Save segment to confirm.

5. Repeat the previous steps to add as many segments as needed.
   
   

This setup will work as a reference to the segment created in the external system, so you don't need to specify any conditions for this segment in Prepr.

Manage customers

Customers are all persons who have interacted with your content. Meaning all persons who have read, clicked, shared, bookmarked, or commented on content items. A customer profile is created for each person. You can manage these profiles in Prepr. With this, we enable you to segment and personalize content for your customers. Learn more about capturing events and processing customer data.

Adding customer profiles

There are several ways to add customers to Prepr. You can add a single customer, or import multiple customers at a time.

Adding one customer profile at a time

To manually add a customer profile to Prepr, go to the Segments tab. Click on Add customer to create the profile. Enter the available fields such as name, email address, address, and additional data such as social profiles and tags.

Importing customer profiles

Prepr provides a solution for the manual import of customers. To do so, select the Import customers button on the customer list. You are asked to upload a CSV file.

Import template

The import takes place on the basis of predefined column titles. The table below lists all column names that should be used in the file. We have also described the required format of the fields. Check the Prepr customer template

Column title	Variable	Format
first_name	First name
last_name	Last name
email	Email address	Valid email address
phone_number	Phone number	Valid phone number, example 310302271710
gender	Gender	F, Female M, Male O, Other
date_of_birth	Date of birth	yyyy-mm-dd OR dd-mm-yyyy
street	Street	Only full address allowed (Street, number, zip code, city, country)
house_number	Number(+ adding)
zip_code	Zipcode
city	City
country	Country	Only English notation allowed
job_title	Job title
organization	Organization
tags	Tags	Comma-separated
reference_id	Reference	Only alphanumeric characters allowed.
terms	Terms	Comma-separated, format: yyyy-mm-dd:TermID OR dd-mm-yyyy:TermID

Customer matching

Customers are matched based on the email address:

• If an email address does not yet exist in Prepr, this customer will be added.
• When an e-mail address already exists in Prepr, this customer will be updated. If the field is filled in the import file, but not in Prepr, the field will be filled in Prepr.
• When no email address is imported, the customer will be added in Prepr.

Import handling

After the import, the user will receive an email (one email per 1,000 customers) with the following information:

• How many new customers have been created
• How many existing customers have been updated with new information
• How many customers were already fully present in the database
• How many rows were imported (and how many failed, reason included)

Updating customer profiles

A customer profile can contain the following fields in Prepr:

Category	Detail	Explanation
Details	Full Name	Customers' first name and last name. You can search customers by full name in the customers list
	Organization
	Job title
	Gender
	Date of birth
	Email address	You can search customers by email address in the customers' list.
	Phone number	You can search customers by phone number in the customers' list.
Latest activity		Overview of all interactions that this customer with your brand, organization, or website. This field can't be filled manually but is added by the API connection of your front end, or implementation of the pixel. Learn more about capturing events.
Tags		Tags can be helpful in segmenting customers. Learn more about smart segments. The default view is a keyword input field. You can also group predefined tags with tag groups via Settings > Publish > Tag groups. Select 'customers' to display the tags on a customer profile.
Subscriptions		The subscription of this customer.
Terms		Consent given by this customer. For example as a registration for a newsletter or the general terms and conditions.

Merging customer profiles

A good customer database is a tidy database. This means that profiles have been enriched with the correct customer data and that any duplicates have been removed. Prepr offers a feature that allows you to easily merge customer profiles. In this way you can combine duplicate profiles, where one profile contains certain data and the second profile contains other data about the same person.

To merge two profiles, go to the customer profile you want to hold, and click 'Merge'. Select the customer whose data you want to merge and click Merge. Both profiles will now be merged, with the following merge rules:

• All fields of which only one is allowed (such as name, gender, or date of birth) are filled in if they are empty in the main profile.
• All fields of which more than one is allowed (such as events, terms, email addresses, or telephone numbers) are added to the main profile.

Exporting customer profiles

Prepr offers two types of customer exports: export of a single customer profile (for GDPR purposes) and a bulk export via CSV.

GDPR export

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), gives individuals the right to request a copy of any of their personal data which are being 'processed' (i.e. used in any way). You can easily export GDPR-data from the customer list as well as the customer profile page. A Json file for this customer will be directly downloaded to your local device.

CSV export

You can export the Prepr customer list to a CSV file. Go to the customer list, click ' Export' and select the fields you want to export. We'll process your request and send you an email when it's ready to download. It is also possible to export a selection from your customer list. Filter the list, for example, based on registration date, age, or gender.

The customer export is only available for roles with bulk export permissions.

Anonymizing customer profiles

In Prepr you can anonymize customer profiles, with which you can more easily comply with the GDPR regulations. Anonymizing customers results in unknown customers: customers without any personal details. Past metrics are unaffected: all engagement with your content will be saved and can be seen in the Engagement section.

Manually anonymizing profiles

Selecting the 'Anonymize' option on a customer profile will make this profile anonymous. All personal data will be deleted, including the email address and name. The profile becomes anonymous and can no longer be traced back to a person.

Automatically anonymizing profiles

Privacy regulations provide guidelines on how to deal with personal data. It's a good practice to delete this data when a customer hasn't interacted with your systems for some time. In Prepr, you can easily anonymize profiles automatically. Learn more about customer data retention settings.

Deleting customer profiles

There are several ways to remove customers from Prepr. You can delete a single customer, delete several at once, or delete all customers from our database.

Delete one customer profile

If you want to remove a customer from the system, go to the Segments tab. Select the profile you want to delete and click on the three dots to the right of the row. Select Delete to delete the customer.

You can also select this profile by choosing Select rows in the table header and choosing the profile. Then click on the trash can to remove this person from the Prepr database.

A customer can also be removed on his profile page in Prepr. Find the profile and click to the detail page. If you are sure you want to delete this customer, click Delete in the right sidebar.

Delete multiple customer profiles

Removing a few customers from the Prepr database is just as easy. Select the profiles you want to delete and click the trash icon to delete.

Delete all customer profiles

If you want to remove all customers from your Prepr environment, select the ' Select rows' option. Select the checkmark, now all 50 customers on this page are selected. The table will display the option to select all customers.

Select all customers and choose ' Delete'. After confirmation, all customer profiles are deleted from the Prepr database. All event data of those profiles are also removed. The bulk delete is only available for roles with the customer bulk update permission.

What’s next?

Follow our Personalization guide to immediately start delivering a personalized customer experience for your website app visitors.