Virtual profiles are a powerful tool on the Icomm platform that allows you to take your audience segmentation to the next level. In this article, we will explore in detail what virtual profiles are, how they work, what they are for, and how to create a virtual profile from the Icomm platform.

What are Virtual Profiles?

The virtual profiles are segmentations of our Regular Profiles. These profiles are created from the data found in our regular profile or from the behavior of our contacts with our email sends. The main advantage of virtual profiles is that they allow us to segment our database precisely and personalize our communications based on the needs and preferences of our clients.

An example of how virtual profiles work is as follows: Suppose we have a field in our regular profile that indicates the city in which our customers live. Using this field, we can create virtual profiles for each city in which we have clients. This way, we can send city-specific emails containing information relevant to customers who live there.

It is important to note that as the information in our regular profile is updated, the virtual profiles will be updated dynamically. This means that if a customer changes city, their virtual profile will also be automatically updated.

How to Create a Virtual Profile on the Icomm Platform

Step 1: Access Virtual Profile Settings

Go to Manage Contacts in your Icomm control panel.
Select Virtual Profile from the options menu.

The initial virtual profile setup screen will be displayed, and you are ready to get started.

Step 2: Create a New Virtual Profile

Click the New Profile button.
Choose a descriptive name for your new Virtual Profile.



Select the Regular Profile on which you want to apply the filter and create the new segment.

Virtual Profile Configuration

Now, we are going to configure the virtual profile filters to create the segment or audience of your interest.

Select the Rule: AND / OR Buttons

- Choose Y to select contacts that meet all the filter rules.
- Choose OR to select contacts that meet one or the other of the applied rules.



Select a piece of information

Select one of the available data to generate the segmentation from the drop-down menu.



Select the filter action

Choose what action the contacts must meet to be included in the segment (Relational Operator). The options are:

Equal to
Not equal to
Less than
Less than or equal to
Greater than
Greater than or equal to
Starts with
Does not start with
Contains
Does not contain
Ends with
Does not end with
Is empty
Is not empty



Complete the data you want to compare

Enter in the field the value that will be compared with the chosen data to create the filter. The platform will select the contacts that meet this condition.

Apply Function

You can use the Apply Feature function to segment the audience by special dates.

Select Apply Function within the filter actions.
Set the special date. The options are:

- Anniversary
- Anniversary month
- Exact date
- Next (N) Days
- Last (N) Days
- Within more than (N) Days
- More than (N) Days ago



For options containing "(N) Days", you can use this functionality as follows:

- N functionality: This option allows you to activate the appearance of the contact in a segment when the recorded date, plus N days, coincides with the current date. This is useful for cases like:

- Contacts who had a birthday N days ago.
- Contacts who bought a product N days ago.
- Contacts whose subscriptions expired N days ago to remind them to renew their subscription.

- Option "-N": Allows you to activate the appearance of the contact in a segment when the recorded date, minus N days, coincides with the current date. This is useful when the occurrence date related to the field is in the future and is expected to occur within N days, such as:

- Contacts whose birthdays are in N days.
- Contacts that have a renewal date in N days.



Complete the comparison value

Use this field to add or subtract days to the date stored in the database (Regular Profile). This will be required for Anniversary, Anniversary Month, and Exact Date options.

0 (zero): Consider the date value as stored in the database.
N (positive number): delays (N) amount of days from the reference date.
-N (negative number): adds (N) amount of days to the reference date.

How to combine rules or groups of rules

Combine filters to define precisely the audience segment that interests you.

Add Rule:

This option allows you to add a new filter, which will follow the same rule established for the first filter.

Select the Add Rule button.
Complete the configuration of the new filter field.



As shown on the screen, the filters follow the same rule.

Add group:

Allows you to add a new filter field with the possibility of modifying the rule established in the previous filters. Filters can follow different rules.

Select the Add Group button.
Complete the configuration of the new filter field.



As shown on the screen, the filters can follow different rules.

Example

Apply 2 filter conditions to the segment you want to impact. One of them is configured by the O rule.

First rule

Y rule
Select the Language field, the Equal to function, and the Spanish value.

Click on Add Group
Select the O Rule
Select the Country field, the Contains filter, and write the value Argentina.

Within the group, click on the Add Rule button.
Select the Country field, the Contains filter, and write the value Venezuela.

Within the group, click on the Add Rule button.
Select the Country field, the Contains filter, and write the value Colombia.

From the first rule, click on the Add Rule button.
Select the rule "AND"
Select the field "Province", the filter "Equal to" and write the value "Cordoba".

The virtual profile will be made up of the following structure:



Click on "Preview" to see the contacts that will be included in the profile.



You can add more than one rule or a group of rules to segment your audience in a more specific way.

Finish

Once the filter is configured, choose the following options:

Preview: to observe the audience segment generated with the created virtual profile configuration.

Save: to finish the segmentation.

Cancel: to cancel the creation of the filter.

Examples of Virtual Profile

These are some of the most used virtual profiles.

Recent Buyers Last X Days

In this case, the virtual profile is configured to include all contacts from the Omnichannel Master Data Database who have made a purchase in the last 7 days.



To do this, the Apply Function filter and the special date Last [N] Days were selected. Then the field was completed with the amount of [7] days prior to the reference date.

The positive number counts the days prior to the reference date.

Birthdays in the Next 7 Days

This virtual profile is used to select contacts who have birthdays within the next 7 days.



To create it, the Date of Birth field from the database was used. Then the Apply Function filter was applied with the special date Anniversary and the number -7 (negative) to select contacts who have their anniversary within 7 days.

The negative number counts the days after the reference date.

Birthdays Today

This filter is used to greet or offer promotions to contacts on their anniversary.



To create it, the Date of Birth field from the database was used. Then the Apply Function filter was applied with the special date Anniversary and the number 0. In this way, the profile will select contacts who have their birthday on the reference date.

Bought a Product

You can create a filter to select contacts who purchased a product from a specific category. For example: T-shirts.



To create it, the Categories_Total field from the database was used. Then the Contains filter and the data T-shirt were applied. In this way, the profile will select contacts whose purchases include the T-shirt garment.

Remember: This is one of the three ways to segment an audience on the Icomm platform.

Check other articles about audience segmentation: Virtual Profiles from Live Results.

Updated on: 11/09/2023