How to Name Segments, Campaigns, and Broadcasts for SaaS Email Marketing

You’d think otherwise, but there’s still no go-to standard for naming conventions in SaaS email marketing automation. Marketing teams have to come up with their own system to stay organized and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Are there any common naming conventions for you to borrow?

We went around the communities and asked companies how they organize their campaigns, broadcasts, and segments. Then we wrote this post with the takeaways.

Disclaimer: We’ve received more than a dozen responses to our questions and we know that’s not enough to represent the whole SaaS or email marketing space. Our goal in making this post is to simply explore whether there were any common patterns.

Common patterns in SaaS email marketing naming conventions

Segments

Segments can get wild, and there’s always the risk of oversegmenting. Based on the answers we gathered, companies name their segments to include a few of the identifiers below:

• Demographic. Attributes like location (ex. US) or job position (ex. CTO).
• Customer behavior. The name can include a recent action by the user (i.e. “new subscriber”) or a behavior for a certain period of time (i.e. “high spend”).
• Engagement level. Some companies named their segments based on the level of engagement for a certain period of time. For example: “Engaged_Last30Days”
• Date

Examples:

• Trials: Expiring
• NewSubscribers_Jan2025

It’s helpful to distinguish temporary segments (created for a specific occasion) from evergreen segments that are foundational in your workflows.

Campaigns

Because campaigns contain a series of emails, it’s best to give it a name that serves as an executive summary. Our respondents named their campaigns that included at least three of the identifiers below:

• Goal/objective of the campaign
• Date/duration
• Segment/audience/lifecycle stage
• Version/variation of the campaign. Having the version/variation in the campaign name can help you keep track of legacy vs. new versions, or A/B testing variations.

Examples:

• YYYY-MM_UpgradeToPaid_VerA
• Reengagement-Inactive-Last6Months

Broadcasts

Similar to campaigns, naming broadcasts should also immediately give you the idea of what that broadcast does so it includes a few if not all the identifiers below:

• Date
• Purpose/key theme/topic
• Audience/segment

Examples:

• YYYY-MM-DD_NewFeatureBeta_EnterprisePlan
• PricingUpdate_YYYY-MM-DD

Tips on creating and following naming conventions in email marketing

Set the naming conventions early on

The earlier you establish your naming conventions, the better. Establishing a system even before you send out your first email will help you keep consistent and organized.

Maintain a documentation of your naming conventions

A simple reference guide not only prevents confusion, but it also makes it easier for team members to follow and practice your system.

Down the road, make sure to review it so it reflects your actual practice.

Keep it simple and clear

As your email list grows and the more campaigns/broadcasts you send, the more complex it might get. Make sure that you are able to easily tell what that segment/campaign/broadcast is for just by reading the name.

Be consistent

The point of creating and maintaining a system is to keep things organized and searchable. Keep following the format you’ve created because it helps everyone.

LEO owner and chief lifecycle marketing strategist Kevin Marioni says, harshly:

“If I get hit by a bus, my replacement knows what they’re looking at/for on day one.”

Stories from the community

Lifesum

Lifesum’s senior lifecycle marketing manager Kristijan Arsov shares that their naming system for campaigns usually includes [Type][Segment][Description]. The last identifier depends on whether it’s an automated or ad hoc campaign.

For automated emails they use the following formula:

For ad hoc broadcasts:

FleetPride

Brian Mauricio, marketing automation specialist at FleetPride, says that aside from the campaign type and the date, their internal numbering system tells them the type and subtype of emails.

“Segment/audience is all over the place. We stick to this formula for campaigns:

Where the first 01 is assigned to Onboarding emails and the second 01 is assigned to the type of Onboarding email. 01-01 could be Onboarding for customers while 01-02 could be Onboarding for guests.”

LEO

LEO’s owner and chief lifecycle marketing strategist Kevin Marioni set up their naming conventions using the [Date][Type][Campaign Message][Variation] formula:

“I tend to lead with the Date because in folders that are ordered alphabetically, you’ll find the latest or oldest quicker. For automated campaigns or journeys that may get overhauled or tested periodically, the date stamp helps us keep track of the latest versus the legacy versions. I actually keep the segment out of the naming convention because as I get more personalized/targeted, it’s just all over the place.

For automated campaigns, we use:

The Variation helps track A/B testing variations or personalized variations of a message. UTMs typically align with the naming convention too: utm_campaign = Campaign, utm_content = message, utm_term = variation. Aligning everything makes it easier to find stuff and report on it.

For ad hoc campaigns, it’s more or less the same but the date stamp may include the Day too:

My logic is Type may help discern promos versus editorial if your strategy wants to keep that top of mind. Message# helps if it’s part of a series or multi-touch campaign just like an automation. And of course, Variation because testing & personalization are always a thing.

For segments, I try to keep the naming convention aligned with the campaign it’s attached to. If it’s an evergreen segment that will get used in multiple places, I try to make it self-explanatory in the description.

I’ll go one step further and use this naming convention on Asana or Trello cards to track the campaign project and other related requests (creative, data, etc). Folders in your ESP can be named by Type and this naming convention helps you find stuff. My thought is if I get hit by a bus, my replacement knows what they’re looking at/for on day one.”

Wordsmyth

Wordsmyth’s founder and CEO Danielle Smyth shares that including dates in naming campaigns and segment naming have helped them keep organized:

“We always include a date or version number (sometimes both) in our campaign naming conventions to keep things organized.

Same with segments. In fact, I’ve found that dates are especially important with segments. Since client-provided email lists often contain redundancies, we often find ourselves needing to clean up lists or to determine when a user was first added to a particular segment so our data is accurate.

A big challenge I’ve encountered with email marketing is trying to make sense of segments or campaigns that were named without conventions by past service providers. It can be hard to provide accurate data to clients if we don’t really know what we’re working with as far as their historical data goes.”

Growth Spurt

Spencer Romenco, chief growth strategist at Growth Spurt says their Campaign Lifecycle Naming label system immediately tells team members about customer progress stages and the duration of the campaign:

“Our automated campaigns adopt the ‘Campaign Lifecycle Naming’ label system for organizing campaigns with information about their progress stages. The name of a campaign aiming at raising starting awareness should be Awareness_IntroductoryVideos_April2025. The naming pattern lets every participant rapidly recognize the campaign goal coupled with its intended running duration.

Different individuals choosing their own naming systems meant our team had to solve challenges.

The inconsistent naming conventions create obstacles when evaluating campaign performance in a quick manner. We developed a standardized naming procedure that the team follows in all its operations.

From my observations, irregular naming of campaigns leads to misunderstandings and prevents accurate performance assessments. Our lifecycle label system provides consistency which helps us keep organized and deliver better targeted video solutions to our clients. A small yet vital functionality enhances teamwork productivity as well as partner achievement results.”

NOMADIC SOFT

NOMADIC SOFT CEO Gregory Shein shares that the naming convention for their campaigns and broadcasts use three details. The [Purpose][Audience][Trigger] formula is for campaigns while [Date][Audience][Intent] is for broadcasts:

“With automated campaigns, I use a standardized naming convention based on purpose, audience, and trigger, such as:

A challenge is inconsistency among team members, which we address with clear documentation and periodic audits.

Broadcasts are named by:

This ensures easy tracking and analysis.

Meanwhile, segments are defined by demographic or behavior (e.g. HighSpend_Loyal_6M).

My tips for naming conventions are: maintain documentation, enforce naming standards, and integrate tags for better searchability and reporting efficiency.”

Testlify

Testlify founder Abhishek Shah says that they use the [Purpose][Audience][Trigger] formula for their automated campaigns, while broadcasts follow the [Date][Campaign Type][Theme] format:

“When naming automated campaigns, I focus on clarity and consistency. I use a structure that includes:

The biggest challenge is keeping names short yet descriptive enough for easy reference. To overcome this, I create a naming convention document that ensures everyone on the team follows the same structure.

For broadcasts, I use:

This makes it easy to track past emails and analyze performance over time. The challenge is avoiding vague names that don’t give enough context, so I always include a clear purpose in the naming structure.

Segments are organized based on user behavior, demographics, and engagement levels. I use a combination of audience type and engagement status, like Engaged_Last30Days or VIP_Customers_US. The challenge is keeping segments updated as behaviors change, so I regularly review and clean them to maintain accuracy.

A key tip is to document everything. Having a simple reference guide for naming conventions saves time and avoids confusion, especially in larger teams. Also, keeping names clear and structured helps when analyzing data and optimizing future campaigns.”

Textdrip

Phil Portman, CEO and founder of Textdrip shares that they use [Trigger/Type][Target/Theme][Date/Version] for their automated campaigns, while broadcasts follow the [Purpose][Event/Theme][Date] format:

“For automated campaigns, I use a structured naming format such as:

Sometimes, overlapping triggers or similar flows (like multiple series for ‘new subscribers’ based on different behaviors) can create naming confusion. To overcome that, I maintain an internal reference guide that documents each automation’s name, trigger, and purpose. Regular audits of the naming system ensure that each campaign remains distinct and easy to troubleshoot.

For one-off or broadcast emails, I adopt a naming convention like:

This naming system streamlines internal tracking and simplifies performance analysis.

When naming segments, clarity is essential. I use straightforward descriptors such as:

• Segment-NewSubscribers
• Segment-HighEngagement
• Segment-RecentPurchasers

This method immediately communicates the target audience without needing to dig into segmentation details.

Over time, segments can become overly granular, leading to confusing names. I periodically review and consolidate segments to ensure that each label remains intuitive and aligned with our current marketing goals.”

Thrive Agency

Aaron Whittaker, vice president of demand generation and marketing at Thrive Agency shares that they use a 3-3-3 naming convention for their email marketing:

“I swear by our 3-3-3 naming convention for email management. We prefix everything with three key identifiers: [Date]—[Funnel]—[Purpose], which instantly tells us when, where, and why an email exists.

Our automation sequences follow:

This solved our biggest challenge of forgetting which emails belonged to which sequences when making updates.

For broadcasts, we use a format that lets us instantly see our email history chronologically:

The real impact came with our segment naming. We abandoned vague names like Engaged Users for specific, data-based names like 3Mo-Active-2+Purchases. When our marketing team expanded last year, new team members could immediately understand our audience segments without explanation.

What surprised me most was how this naming system improved our A/B testing analysis. With consistent naming, we could easily compare performance across similar campaigns from different time periods.

Remember: your future self (or replacement) will thank you for clear naming patterns that explain what, when, and why.”

Deep Cognition

Deep Cognition’s vice president for sales and marketing John Pennypacker says that instead of using the typical identifiers, they switched to purpose-driven naming conventions for their campaigns:

“We created a naming system that connects campaigns to business goals rather than just dates or technical details. We switched from generic names like ‘March Newsletter’ to purpose-driven names like AI-Implementation-ROI-Q2 which instantly communicates the content focus and intended outcome.

This approach solved our biggest challenge: having multiple team members understand campaign purposes at a glance. When our marketing coordinator was onboarding new team members, the descriptive naming system helped them immediately understand our email strategy without extensive explanation.

For segments, we combine audience type with behavior. CTO-ProductDemo-30Days tells us exactly who they are and what they’ve engaged with. Our broadcasts follow a similar pattern with the addition of content type. FinServ-CaseStudy-Q2 instantly communicates industry, content, and timeframe.

The unexpected benefit? Our naming convention actually improved our content creation process – when you have to name a campaign based on its purpose rather than its date, it forces clarity about what you’re trying to accomplish with each email.”

Agility Writer

Agility Writer founder Adam Yong uses a [Date/Version number][Objective/Theme] formula for his automated campaigns, while he uses [Date][Purpose] for his broadcasts:

“Each campaign name includes:

This helps with easy identification and tracking.

Challenges come when campaigns are frequently updated, and the versioning gets messy. To overcome this, I set clear naming conventions early on, like adding suffixes for different iterations, ensuring there’s no confusion between campaign versions.

For broadcasts, I keep the names direct and concise. I typically incorporate:

This makes it easy to spot in a long list.

However, the challenge arises when multiple broadcasts overlap or target similar segments. My solution here is organizing broadcasts into folders based on their target audience or timing, making it more intuitive to retrieve specific campaigns.

Segment naming is where it gets interesting. I segment based on behavior or demographic, and include key attributes in the name. For example, Engaged-Users_Feb2025 or New-Signups_March2025. The challenge is ensuring segments are neither too broad nor too narrow, which can lead to inefficiency. To handle this, I consistently review and adjust segments based on evolving data and goals.

I recommend putting in the effort early to establish clear naming conventions and structure for your email campaigns, broadcasts, and segments. This ensures they can scale as your list expands. This will save you a lot of time later on.”

Mailmodo

Mailmodo’s product marketing manager Jyothiikka Moorthy shares that campaigns and automations are named based on the campaign type and the intent behind it. For example, newsletters will have an edition number attached to it while a lead magnet campaign can be named [Lead Magnet][Audience]:

“We have different ways of naming our campaigns & automations based on what kind of campaigns they are and their intent.

If they are a recurring series of emails like a newsletter, we use:

So, if we want to refer back to a specific edition, we know how to search for it.

Commonly, we use the intention of the email to name the campaign. For example, if we have a new lead magnet called State of Email 2025 and we need to send a campaign to our affiliates notifying them about it, then we write SOE 2025 affiliate email. This way, we can easily find State of Email 2025 campaigns and not confuse them with 2024 campaigns.

So a formula you can use to name campaigns is:

Email lists are also mostly named similarly. We typically name lists based on who they are to us, e.g., Newsletter list final, Signup list final, Low intent leads, etc.

Segments, however, are named a bit more specifically based on the criteria used to create that segment. For example, I am creating a segment with active people in my newsletter list and active here means they’ve opened any email in the last 270 days. I would then name that segment Active newsletter 270 days.

The only challenge that usually arises is when a lot of people use a single platform to send emails, and they all have different ways of naming and organizing things. In this case, you need to create a guideline or standard for naming things and bring everyone working on it up to speed with the new nomenclature.”

Nextiva

Yaniv Masjedi, Nextiva’s chief marketing officer says that they use simple tags for automated campaigns, a clear outline for their broadcasts, and a hierarchy and logical statements for their segmentation:

“When it comes to automated campaigns, we like to categorize different forms with simple tags to bring them all together in one place. From there, the process becomes mostly automated and hassle-free. If you’re wondering what the main challenge is, it would have to be the fact that any minor mistakes can throw a wrench in the entire process, throwing off the entire automated flow that we have going. Of course, the easy solution to that would be to always double-check your tags and labels.

For broadcasts, we try to keep a clear outline of our audience, purpose, and timing. For segments, we keep a hierarchy and use logical statements to divide the work into different segments. My main tip would be to keep a welcome message for all your emails to make them feel more inviting.”

Prose Media

Prose Media founder and CEO Justin Belmont shares that they like to keep theirs “stupid simple”, using three identifiers for their naming convention. They use [Trigger][Goal][Version] for their automated campaigns, while broadcasts use the [Date][Theme][Segment] formula:

“Naming conventions can make or break an email strategy–if you can’t find the right automation, good luck optimizing it.

For automated campaigns, I go with:

This keeps things clear and scalable. The biggest challenge is version control. Nothing’s worse than a graveyard of Final_Final_2 emails. The solution: use dates or A/B labels to track iterations.

For broadcasts, I tag them by:

Segments get tagged by behavior, like Engaged - 90 Days or Cold Leads - No Opens 6 Months.

Biggest tip: keep it stupid simple. If you can’t tell what an email does at a glance, the name needs work.”

Synup

Synup CEO Ashwin Ramesh shares that they use the [Purpose][Segment][Period] formula for their campaigns, and [Message Type][Audience][Date] for their broadcasts. He says that they also have a centralized calendar and other project management tools to keep them on track:

“In our naming protocol, we make sure to include the purpose of the campaign, the segment, and the campaign duration. When we work on email campaigns, it’s important to easily identify and access each campaign, and that they don’t get confused with each other. This is especially important when working with several campaigns simultaneously. We use a centralized calendar and project management tools to track these campaigns.

For broadcasts, we use the same approach of naming based on the type of message, audience, and date. This helps us maintain a schedule and avoid overwhelming subscribers with too many messages at once.

For segmentation, we use several criteria to define them. This helps us organize these segments based on customer behavior, demographics, or history. It allows us to tailor messages to specific groups and improve engagement.”

Systems keep you clear and organized

Without a system in place, things can get messy which costs you time and money. Your future self will thank you for a clear naming convention, especially when things get complex.

Check out other guides to help you figure out the next steps:

• Atomic Emails: Our Proven Method for Writing Email Campaigns
• SaaS Email Marketing Strategy: Everything You Need to Know
• Email Marketing for B2C SaaS