Hey there, as a user of the tool this is my understanding. Segments are the building blocks for your audience that you want to receive your emails. There are types of Segments that include:
- dynamic (looks for contacts that match criteria you set and adds them to journeys - similar to advanced find function - this will keep adding people as they fit the criteria, hence "dynamic")
- static (generally a list of contacts you predefine that doesn't change or add anyone or remove anyone as it goes)
Marketing lists are more about storing a list of contacts in one place that you can reference. For instance a newsletter subscription list, or a list of specific clients in a specific category you want to reference quickly. You can also use them to manage your opt out or unsubscribe process by offering people options for managing their communication preferences for information they want to receive rather than having them opt out completely. You would do this by having different subscription lists for different content - e.g. news vs product offers.
You can use marketing lists in conjunction with the segments. So for instance, you can just send emails to a marketing list like a subscription to a newsletter.
But you can also use a marketing list with a segment - for instance create a segment that looks for all contacts of a certain age in your marketing list.
You can also use it to make sure people are subscribed to something - so in a segment say you want to email all your contacts who are over 18, but ONLY if they are in a specific marketing list.
So they are just two tools that you can use together to get different results.
I hope this helps.
