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🎯Choosing Your Audience

Target your campaigns with saved segments or an inline custom filter, preview exactly who will receive them, and understand why the recipient count is smaller than your full list.

When you send a campaign, you decide who receives it on the recipient step. There are two ways to do that, and a live recipient count updates as you go so you always know how many patrons you're about to reach.

You'll find email tools in the Emails section of your Dashboard sidebar.


Two ways to target

  • Saved Segment β€” a reusable audience you've defined and named, so you can target the same group again and again

  • Custom Filter β€” an audience you build inline, right on the recipient step, for a one-off send


Saved segments

A segment is a saved audience. Create one in the Segments area of the Emails section: give it a name and an optional description, then define who belongs using the same filter fields available on the recipient step. Reuse it whenever you send.

editing a saved segment β€” here, all patrons whose type is customer
Editing a saved segment

To use one, pick Saved Segment on the recipient step and choose it from the list. A Manage saved segments link takes you to the Segments area from there too.


Custom filters

For a one-off audience, choose Custom Filter on the recipient step and add one or more filters. Combine them with:

  • Match ALL filters β€” a patron must meet every filter to be included (for example, "Level 1 AND a specific event")

  • Match ANY filter β€” a patron is included if they meet at least one filter

The recipient count updates live as you add or change filters.

a custom filter on the recipient step with two filters combined with Match ALL
A custom filter using Match ALL

No filters = every patron

If you choose Custom Filter and add no filters at all, the campaign targets every patron β€” customers and students β€” in your theatre (still narrowed by the eligibility rules below).


Filter fields

Filters are built on data CrowdWork already keeps about your patrons:

Field
Targets patrons by…

Patron type

Whether they're a customer (ticket buyer) or student (class registrant)

Tag

A tag applied to the patron

Event (show or class)

A specific show or class they're associated with

Event date

The date of an event they're associated with

Event type

Whether the event is a show or a class

Last purchase

When they last bought

Patron signup date

When they joined your audience

Membership tier

Which membership tier they hold

Membership status

Where their membership is in its lifecycle β€” active, paused, canceled, or archived β€” or whether they’ve ever had a membership at all

Total spend

How much they've spent with your theatre

Donations

Their donation history

Gift cards

Whether they’ve purchased β€” or received β€” a gift card

Engagement (clicked but didn't buy)

Patrons who clicked a past campaign without purchasing

Membership, donation, and gift card filters look at customer records. Those histories live on the patron's customer record, so a patron who is only a student won't match them. Total spend counts both customers and students.

the filter field dropdown listing all available fields for targeting patrons
The filter field dropdown

Preview exactly who you're emailing

Counts are useful; names are better. Choose Preview Recipients β€” available on the recipient step and in the segment builder β€” to open the actual list of matching patrons, 25 per page, searchable by email or name. In the Segments area, each patron also carries an Opted in or Not opted in badge showing their newsletter status.


Why your recipient count is smaller than your full patron list

The recipient count is resolved when you send, and it's usually smaller than your total number of patrons. That's expected. These rules narrow it down:

  1. Newsletter consent β€” marketing campaigns only reach patrons who opted in to your newsletter. Patrons who didn't opt in are not included.

  2. Suppression list β€” anyone on your Suppressions list (bounced, complained, unsubscribed, or manually added) is excluded from both campaign types.

  3. Missing email addresses β€” patron records without an email address can't be emailed and are skipped.

  4. Point of Sale placeholders β€” patrons rung up at your box office without an email address get an internal placeholder address; those are skipped too.

  5. De-duplication β€” a patron who matches more than once is counted and emailed only once.

Marketing vs. transactional reach. The newsletter-consent narrowing applies to marketing campaigns. Transactional service messages reach every targeted patron regardless of newsletter opt-in, because they're operational rather than promotional. The other rules β€” suppressions, missing addresses, de-duplication β€” apply to both.

Want a bigger audience? Collect more newsletter opt-ins at checkout via Theatre Details β†’ Checkout Options β†’ Collect Newsletter Opt-Ins. See Customizing Your Theatre Settings.


Task
Guide

Build and send a campaign

Understand the two campaign types

See what a campaign earned

Manage the do-not-email list

Collect newsletter opt-ins at checkout


Need Help?

If you run into a situation this guide doesn't cover, contact our support team from your Dashboard. We're here to help!

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