Member groups: Best practices

Keep these considerations in mind when you are creating member groups.

When possible, use a profile variable instead of an equivalent survey question.

Profile variables can be updated from any survey using a Profile action, or through a CSV import, at any point in time. Therefore, profile variables represent the most complete and current profile data across all members. They also let you reference one thing when you create a member group, instead of multiple survey questions with data that might be incomplete or outdated.

Example
You want to ask married readers of a wedding website about their advice for engaged brides-to-be and publish the answers in an upcoming article. If you use old Marital Status survey questions to filter members: You will have to reference all Marital Status survey questions when you create your member group because each survey was distributed to a different group of members. You may be using outdated profile data because some participants' marital statuses may have changed in the meantime. The best option is to use the Marital Status profile variable, which will have the most up-to-date marital status for every member.

Example

You want to ask married readers of a wedding website about their advice for engaged brides-to-be and publish the answers in an upcoming article.

If you use old Marital Status survey questions to filter members:

You will have to reference all Marital Status survey questions when you create your member group because each survey was distributed to a different group of members.
You may be using outdated profile data because some participants' marital statuses may have changed in the meantime.

The best option is to use the Marital Status profile variable, which will have the most up-to-date marital status for every member.

Use member group names that make sense.

This will help you find member groups more easily. For example, you can name member groups based on demographic make-up ("Males 18-34") or the activities you plan to use them with ("Home Makeover Episode 22 Survey").