tagging

Tagging marks one fan. Fan segmentation cuts the base into lists. The two get used interchangeably and they are not the same job: a tag is applied by one person inside one thread, at the moment something becomes true, while a segment is a query run over the whole base by whoever is about to press send. Tags are the input. Segments are the output. An account with no tagging habit can still segment on purchase history, because the platform records that for you, and will never be able to segment on anything a fan said.

What is worth a tag?

Facts that change a future message, and nothing else. Five earn their place on most accounts:

• What he bought, by category rather than by file. “Videos, not photo sets” is actionable six weeks later.
• What he refused, and how firmly. A refusal nobody recorded gets re-offered by the next shift.
• His price ceiling, observed rather than stated: the highest number he has actually paid.
• Do-not-offer, one line, no reasons given. The most valuable tag in any inbox.
• Status, if your tool does not carry it: new, buyer, whale, expired.

Everything else is a note. “Seemed keen”, “funny guy”, “into fitness maybe”. None of those change what gets sent, and they make the tag list unreadable for the person who needs it at speed.

How does tagging differ from segmentation and from fan types?

By scope and by who does it.

	Tagging	Segmentation	Fan types
Applies to	one fan	a group	one fan
Done by	whoever is writing	whoever is sending	written once, applied by everyone
Question answered	what is true about him	who receives this send	what do I send next
Changes	at any moment	when the list is rebuilt	rarely

Fan types sit between the two: a short closed list of behaviours with a rule attached. Tags are wider and messier by design, which is exactly why they need a limit.

How many tags before the system collapses?

Ten or so. Past that the failure is always the same one: free-text tags multiply into synonyms (“no customs”, “won’t buy customs”, “refused custom”), and a segment built on any one of them silently misses everyone filed under the others. Three rules hold a tag list together:

1. A closed list. New tags get added deliberately, by one person, not typed on the fly.
2. Delete on sight. A tag nobody has filtered on in a month is overhead.
3. Date the volatile ones. A price ceiling is a fact about a month, not about a fan.

What should a tag never be used for?

Firing a personal detail at the wrong moment. This is where tagging quietly costs money: a tag that records something the fan mentioned about his life invites whoever reads it to use it in the message that carries the price, and our data is unusually clear here. A personal callback placed at the moment of the sale costs conversion, even though it feels like the warmest available move. Use those details earlier in the thread, never on the offer itself.

A handover note covers the same ground and does not replace tagging: the note describes one live thread and is stale by the next shift, while a tag has to still be true in three months. Whether a personal detail has been spent belongs in the note; what he will never be offered belongs on the fan. Managing the conversation decides when either comes out.