Smart filters

Smart Filters are pre built targeting filters that help you send to the right contacts without building complicated segmentation rules. They are powered by Tarvent’s engagement system, so you can target contacts by engagement behavior, lifecycle stage, risk, and send recommendations.

What you’ll learn

  • What Smart Filters are and where you can use them
  • How Smart Filters relate to engagement score, lifecycle stage, and send recommendations
  • When to use each Smart Filter (and when to avoid it)
  • Common Smart Filter combos for newsletters, promotions, launches, and re engagement

Where you can use Smart Filters

  • Segments: use a Smart Filter as a stand alone segment, or combine it with rules in a custom segment.
  • Campaign targeting: use Smart Filters to include or exclude contacts when sending campaigns.
  • Journeys: use Smart Filters to control who enters a journey and who qualifies for specific steps.
  • Journey step filtering: narrow a step to a Smart Filter group (example: only send a promotion step to Priority Sends).
Pro tip: Smart Filters work great as building blocks. Start with one Smart Filter, then add your own rules (groups, tags, fields, purchase data, etc.) to make it fit your exact use case.

How Smart Filters work

Smart Filters are based on Tarvent’s engagement system, which tracks positive engagement actions and turns them into easy targeting signals:

  • Engagement Score (0 to 100): overall engagement strength
  • Engagement Level: Hot, Warm, Cold, or Inactive
  • Lifecycle Stage: New, Active, At Risk, Dormant, Lost, Reactivated, or Never Engaged
  • Send Recommendation: whether to prioritize, send normally, use caution, or avoid sending

Engagement scoring includes behavior from both campaign emails and journey emails. Also, delivered is not considered engagement. Delivered only means the email was accepted by the receiving server.

Note: Engagement is based on positive actions such as opens, clicks, replies, shares, and forwards. If a contact never takes a positive action, their targeting signals will stay low (and may move into Never Engaged after onboarding).

Smart Filter catalog

Below is a guide to each Smart Filter in Tarvent, what it means, and when it’s most useful.

BASICS

All Active Subscribers

  • What it is: All contacts with an Active status.
  • Use it when: You need a broad starting point and you plan to add engagement based rules or exclusions.
  • Avoid when: You are sending a regular newsletter or promotion without engagement protections. Sending to everyone can increase fatigue and deliverability risk over time.

Engaged Last 7 Days

  • What it is: Contacts with recent positive engagement activity in the last 7 days.
  • Use it when: You want a smaller, high intent audience for time sensitive content, quick promos, event reminders, or follow ups.
  • Avoid when: Your audience sends infrequently (example: monthly). In that case, lifecycle stages and send recommendations are usually better than a strict 7 day window.

LIFECYCLE STAGES

Lifecycle stages describe where a contact is in their relationship with your email program. These stages are based on time since last positive engagement and your typical sending cadence.

New Subscribers

  • What it is: Contacts in the onboarding window, still building engagement history.
  • Use it when: You are running a welcome series, setting expectations, and sending your best introductory content.
  • Avoid when: You want to measure true long term engagement. New contacts can look better than they really are early on because they are in a grace period.

Active Lifecycle

  • What it is: Contacts engaging consistently relative to your cadence.
  • Use it when: You want reliable recipients for newsletters, product updates, surveys, and promotions.
  • Avoid when: You need only your top fans. Use VIP Engaged or Priority Sends for that.

At Risk Lifecycle

  • What it is: Contacts who were engaging, but are now slowing down.
  • Use it when: You want to run re engagement before contacts become dormant or lost.
  • Avoid when: You are doing a major promotion to the whole list. At Risk is usually better for targeted re engagement, not your main blast.

Dormant Contacts

  • What it is: Contacts quiet for a longer stretch and close to being lost.
  • Use it when: You are running a focused winback attempt (last chance offer, preference update, or confirm interest message).
  • Avoid when: You are sending frequent content. Dormant contacts are more likely to ignore you, which can hurt deliverability.

Lost Contacts

  • What it is: Contacts who engaged in the past, then stopped engaging for a long time.
  • Use it when: You want to identify people who should be suppressed from regular sending, or removed after a final winback attempt.
  • Avoid when: You are trying to grow performance metrics fast. Lost contacts typically lower opens and clicks.

Reactivated Contacts

  • What it is: Contacts who were Dormant, Lost, or Never Engaged and have started engaging again.
  • Use it when: You want to nurture a second chance audience and keep momentum going with great content.
  • Avoid when: You plan to crank frequency immediately. Reactivated contacts are a win, but they can fatigue quickly if you overdo it.

Never Engaged Contacts

  • What it is: Contacts who have received emails but have never taken a positive engagement action (no opens, clicks, replies, shares, or forwards) after the onboarding period.
  • Use it when: You want a cleanup or confirmation list: send one short confirm interest message, then suppress anyone who still does not respond.
  • Avoid when: Regular newsletters and promotions. Never Engaged contacts should typically be excluded from ongoing sends.
Note: Never Engaged is different from Lost. Lost contacts engaged at some point, then went quiet. Never Engaged contacts have never engaged at all.

SEND RECOMMENDATIONS

Send recommendations help you decide how aggressively to email a contact based on engagement and risk signals. These filters are especially useful as exclusions to protect deliverability.

Priority Sends

  • What it is: Hot engaged contacts who are the best audience for most sends.
  • Use it when: Product launches, promotions, flash sales, event announcements, and anything time sensitive.
  • Avoid when: You are trying to re engage cold audiences. Priority Sends are already with you, they do not need winback messaging.

Standard Sends

  • What it is: Warm contacts who are generally safe and responsive.
  • Use it when: Newsletters, education campaigns, and most routine sending.
  • Avoid when: You want only your highest intent group. Use Priority Sends or VIP Engaged instead.

Caution Sends

  • What it is: Lower engagement contacts that may still be recoverable but should be treated carefully.
  • Use it when: Selective, high value messages or targeted re engagement campaigns.
  • Avoid when: Frequent sending. Repeated blasts to caution contacts can accelerate fatigue and increase complaints.

Do Not Send

  • What it is: High risk contacts that should be excluded to protect sender reputation.
  • Use it when: As a standard exclusion on most campaigns and journey steps.
  • Avoid when: Regular campaigns. If you email this group often, deliverability usually suffers.

RISK INDICATORS

Risk filters highlight contacts likely to unsubscribe, complain, or drag down deliverability. These are powerful as exclusions.

At Risk Of Churn

  • What it is: Contacts with a high probability of becoming permanently inactive.
  • Use it when: You want a proactive re engagement audience before they fall into Dormant or Lost.
  • Avoid when: Major promotions where your goal is pure performance. This group is less likely to convert without a re engagement approach.

Unsubscribe Risk

  • What it is: Contacts likely to unsubscribe soon.
  • Use it when: You want to reduce list churn by lowering frequency, improving relevance, or offering preference options.
  • Avoid when: You are sending aggressive, high frequency sales sequences.

High Fatigue Risk

  • What it is: Contacts showing signs of email fatigue.
  • Use it when: You want to protect deliverability by slowing cadence for this group, or excluding them from non essential sends.
  • Avoid when: You are trying to test a new cadence. If you do test, keep it limited and monitor results closely.
Note: High fatigue does not always mean the contact dislikes you. It often means they are receiving too much email for their personal tolerance right now.

BEHAVIORAL SEGMENTS

Behavioral segments help you target based on patterns like consistency, trending engagement, and recent campaign behavior.

VIP Engaged

  • What it is: Your most valuable engaged contacts (Hot with strong recent opens).
  • Use it when: Early access, premium offers, loyalty rewards, and first wave sends.
  • Avoid when: You are trying to learn about your wider audience. VIP is intentionally narrow.

Reliable Reads

  • What it is: Warm contacts with steady, moderate opens.
  • Use it when: Newsletters, educational series, surveys, and content where consistency matters.
  • Avoid when: You need click heavy buyers only. Pair this with clicks, purchase data, or Priority Sends if needed.

Sporadic Engagers

  • What it is: Intermittent engagement (some opens, not consistent).
  • Use it when: Testing subject lines, send timing, or content types. This group can improve with the right messaging.
  • Avoid when: You want predictable results for a time sensitive campaign. Use Hot Prospects or Priority Sends instead.

Zero Engagement Last 5

  • What it is: No opens in the last 5 sends (with at least 5 delivered sends counted).
  • Use it when: You want an objective "recently not responding" audience for re engagement or suppression.
  • Avoid when: You need "never engaged." This filter is about the last 5 sends, not lifetime behavior.

Consistent Engagers

  • What it is: Engagement is stable and generally Warm or better.
  • Use it when: You want a safe "core audience" for ongoing programs and reliable delivery performance.
  • Avoid when: You only want top performers. Use VIP Engaged or Priority Sends for that.

Improving Engagers

  • What it is: Engagement is trending upward.
  • Use it when: You want to nurture momentum with follow ups, second offers, or more frequent valuable content.
  • Avoid when: You assume they are ready for aggressive selling. Improving does not always mean "ready to buy," it means "more interested than before."

Declining Engagers

  • What it is: Engagement is trending downward.
  • Use it when: You want an early warning segment. Reduce frequency, adjust content, or run a gentle re engagement message.
  • Avoid when: You plan to increase sending. More email is often the wrong move for a declining segment.

High Re engagement Priority

  • What it is: A focused re engagement target group (high priority signals combined with At Risk or Dormant lifecycle stage).
  • Use it when: You want the best chance of winning people back without risking the whole inactive list.
  • Avoid when: You want a broad "wake up the list" campaign. This filter is intentionally selective.

CAMPAIGN ACTIVITY

Not Sent Last 30 Days

  • What it is: Contacts who have not received a campaign recently.
  • Use it when: You want to re warm an audience that has not heard from you in a while, or identify gaps in your sending program.
  • Avoid when: You assume lack of sending equals low engagement. Pair this with engagement level or lifecycle stage to avoid guessing.

Common playbooks using Smart Filters

Weekly newsletter

  • Include: Standard Sends + Priority Sends
  • Exclude: Do Not Send + Never Engaged + High Fatigue Risk

Product launch

  • Wave 1: VIP Engaged (or Priority Sends)
  • Wave 2: Standard Sends + Priority Sends
  • Exclude: Do Not Send + Never Engaged

Re engagement campaign

  • Start with: At Risk Lifecycle + High Re engagement Priority
  • Then: Dormant Contacts (selective)
  • Be careful with: Never Engaged Contacts (usually one confirm interest message only)
Pro tip: If you are ever unsure, make "Do Not Send" your default exclusion. It is one of the simplest ways to protect deliverability while you refine targeting.

FAQ

Can I customize a Smart Filter?

Yes. Smart Filters can be used as stand alone segments, or as rules inside a custom segment where you can adjust and add your own conditions.

Should I email Never Engaged contacts?

Not in regular sends. If you try anything, use a single confirm interest style message, then suppress anyone who still does not respond.

What is the difference between Never Engaged and Zero Engagement Last 5?

Never Engaged means the contact has never taken a positive engagement action after onboarding. Zero Engagement Last 5 means they did not open the last 5 sends (it is a "recent behavior" filter, not lifetime behavior).

Do Smart Filters work for journeys too?

Yes. You can use Smart Filters in journeys for entry rules and for filtering specific steps so the right contacts get the right messages.

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