Mautic segments: how to group, score and qualify leads

Mautic segments decide who receives each message. Without them you send the wrong email to the wrong person and drag down deliverability. A Mautic contact base converts when segmentation is crossed with lead scoring, because that combination puts the right message in front of each lead at the moment they are ready for it. This guide covers both layers: how to structure the base (contacts, tags, stages and segments) and how to qualify and prioritize the people in it.

One naming note first. What older Mautic versions called "Lists" is now called "Segments". The concept is the same, and "Segments" is the name you will find in the interface. The old "lead lists" naming still shows up in the API and cron commands for compatibility. If you are still getting to know the platform, start with what Mautic is.

Contacts, segments, tags and stages

Four objects organize a Mautic base, and mixing them up is where most messy bases come from. Here are the first three; stages follow below the table.

When the grouping follows a rule ("everyone with more than 50 points"), use a segment. When it is a label you apply case by case ("attended event X"), use a tag. The two work well together: a campaign applies a tag based on what the contact did, and a dynamic segment filters on that tag to receive the next action.

Stages live under the Stages menu and map the lead lifecycle: an anonymous visitor becomes a new lead by filling in a form, then an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) after reaching the marketing qualification score, then an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) once sales judges them ready, then an opportunity in the CRM and finally a customer. You move contacts between stages by hand, through campaign actions or with point triggers. A contact sits in one stage at a time, while segments can overlap. For B2B, Mautic also has Companies, which group several contacts under one organization.

Dynamic and static Mautic segments

Mautic segments come in two kinds. A dynamic segment is defined by filters: when a contact starts (or stops) matching the criteria, Mautic adds or removes them. A static (manual) segment is a fixed list where you add and remove contacts by hand.

To create one, go to Contacts > Segments > New. On the Filters tab, chain criteria with the logical connectors and and or. After you save, the segments cron fills the segment, so it will not look full the instant you create it. If that cron is not set up yet, see Mautic cron jobs.

Segmentation strategies

Demographic segmentation

Profile fields group contacts by traits that change slowly:

• Job title or role (decision maker, influencer, end user).
• Company size (micro, small, mid-sized, large).
• Industry (technology, healthcare, education, retail).
• Location (city, state, country).
• Product of interest (a custom field).

Behavioral segmentation

Behavior is the strongest signal of intent. Once the tracking script is installed, Mautic records pages visited, emails opened, clicks and form submissions, and you can filter on that history:

• Visited the pricing page in the last 7 days.
• Opened at least 3 emails in the last 30 days.
• Downloaded a specific content offer.
• Has not opened an email in more than 60 days (inactive).
• Submitted the sales contact form.

Score-based segmentation

Combine the score with other criteria to build qualification segments:

• Score above 50 (potential MQLs).
• Score above 80 and a decision maker title (priority SQLs).
• Score below 20 and created more than 90 days ago (cold leads).

Here is how a few of these look as Mautic segments with their filters:

Lead scoring and point triggers

Lead scoring turns behavior into priority. Mautic does it with Points: you define actions that add (or subtract) points, such as opening an email, clicking, visiting a specific page, submitting a form or downloading a file. The more a contact interacts, the higher the score and the more likely they are ready to buy. The setup of point actions is covered in Mautic lead scoring.

Point triggers do the qualification work. A trigger fires an action as soon as a contact crosses a points threshold: it can add a tag, move the contact to a segment, change the stage or notify a user. Score bands help turn the number into a decision:

These bands are examples. Each business sets its own cutoffs from its conversion history.

A lead qualification flow with Mautic segments

With segmentation and scoring in place, a qualification flow runs like this:

1. The lead comes in through a form and lands in the "New leads" segment.
2. A welcome campaign starts, and every open, click and visit adds points.
3. At the MQL threshold (say 50 points), a point trigger adds the MQL tag and stage and starts advanced nurturing.
4. At a higher threshold (say 80 points), the trigger notifies the assigned sales rep, while a campaign creates the opportunity in the CRM through a webhook.
5. When the deal closes, the CRM sends the customer tag back through the API. Exclusion segments then pull the contact out of acquisition campaigns, and onboarding begins.

Exclusion segments

Exclusion segments are Mautic segments you use to take contacts out of a campaign. Set them up on every campaign: leave active customers out of acquisition campaigns, unsubscribed contacts out of every send, and leads in active negotiation out of demand generation. That spares you the embarrassing message (offering a trial to someone who has been a customer for two years) and protects deliverability.

Assigning leads to sales reps

Every contact in Mautic can have an owner, the sales rep responsible for that lead. With owners set, you can filter the base by rep, and the notification goes only to the right person when one of their leads reaches the qualification band.

Mautic does not distribute leads round robin out of the box. If you need to rotate leads evenly across several reps, an external integration (a CRM or an automation workflow) has to pick the owner and update it through the Mautic API.

Importing contacts and keeping the base clean

To bring in an existing base, go to Contacts > Import:

1. Prepare a CSV file with a required email column and upload it.
2. Map each column to a Mautic field, custom fields included.
3. Choose whether the contacts should join a segment, get tags, or both.
4. Start the import. Mautic processes it in the background and tells you when it is done.

Only import people who opted in. Importing emails without explicit consent breaks privacy laws such as GDPR or LGPD, hurts the reputation of your sending domain and can get you blocked by your SMTP provider. A small, engaged base is worth more than a huge cold list.

After the import, hygiene is what keeps your Mautic segments meaningful:

• Hard bounces: invalid addresses have to leave your sends. Mautic marks them as Do Not Contact automatically once you configure bounce processing, either through a Monitored Inbox (IMAP) or through your sending provider's bounce webhook.
• Unsubscribes: anyone who clicks unsubscribe goes on the Do Not Contact list automatically, and Mautic stops sending to them. Never force a resend.
• Inactive contacts: people who have not opened an email in months hurt your reputation. Run a re-engagement campaign on an inactive segment, then stop sending to those who ignore it.
• Duplicates: on import or form submission, Mautic matches the record by the unique identifier field (email by default) and updates the existing contact instead of creating another. For duplicates already in the base, open one contact, use Merge in the actions menu and choose which record to keep. Mautic combines both histories into one contact.

Mautic segments FAQ

What is the difference between dynamic and static Mautic segments?

A dynamic segment is defined by filters, and Mautic recalculates it on every run of the mautic:segments:update cron: contacts who start matching the criteria join, and contacts who stop matching leave. A static (manual) segment is a fixed list where you add and remove contacts by hand, useful for one-off selections that follow no rule. Nearly all serious segmentation runs on dynamic segments.

Do segments and scores update in real time?

Not entirely. Dynamic segments are recalculated by the mautic:segments:update cron (recommended every 15 to 30 minutes), so there can be a lag between a lead matching the criteria and joining the segment. Point triggers and campaigns are processed when the mautic:campaigns:trigger cron runs (recommended every 5 minutes). Without the crons configured, none of this happens.

How do I find the leads closest to buying?

Combine lead scoring with behavioral segmentation. Create a dynamic priority segment with criteria such as a score above 60, a pricing page visit in the last 7 days and no customer stage. Sort the view by score, highest first, and the top of the list is where sales should start.

Where to start

Map the lifecycle stages of your own business first, then build the segments and campaigns that move leads from one stage to the next. Mautic is open source, so there is no license to pay; the effort goes into planning the segments and the scoring model. For the details of each feature, the official Mautic segments documentation and the contacts documentation are the reference.