Tagging is the practice of applying flexible, descriptive labels to individual contacts, marking an interest, a behavior, or a source, that a contact can accumulate multiple of over time, distinct from the more formal grouping process behind segmentation.
A simple answer to what is tagging in email marketing worth remembering: it’s the flexible, ongoing habit of labeling, not a one-time classification decision.
A Loose Label System, Not a Formal Group
Tagging vs segmentation is a distinction worth being precise about, since tags often feed directly into segments without being the same thing:
- A tag is a flexible, often single-word label applied to a contact, “interested-in-skincare,” “webinar-attendee,” “VIP.” A contact can carry many tags at once, added and removed freely as behavior changes.
- A segment, covered elsewhere in this glossary, is a formally defined group used for actual sending, often built using one or more tags as part of its criteria alongside other data.
Tags are the raw material. Segments are what gets built from that material when it’s time to actually target a campaign.
Tagging Examples
- Behavioral tags — “clicked-summer-sale,” “viewed-product-x,” applied automatically based on an action a contact took.
- Source tags — “signed-up-via-popup,” “referral-signup,” tracking where a contact originally came from.
- Preference tags — “prefers-email-only,” “interested-in-menswear,” capturing an explicit or inferred interest.
- Status tags — “VIP,” “wholesale,” “influencer,” marking a special relationship type outside the normal customer flow.
How to Use Tags in Email Marketing Without Creating Chaos
How to use tags in email marketing well means applying a consistent naming convention from the start, since an unmanaged tagging system tends to accumulate duplicate or inconsistent tags over time, “vip,” “VIP-customer,” and “high-value” all describing roughly the same thing but never getting combined into one usable segment. A small, deliberately maintained tag vocabulary is far more useful long-term than an unrestricted system where anyone can create a new tag on a whim.
Related terms:
Adflipr’s contact management tools support flexible tagging alongside formal segmentation, letting stores build a detailed picture of each contact before turning that data into an actual send.
