Question: How should past and future timeframes be handled in creating segments?

When creating a segment, a timeframe can be set for when certain events must have taken place. This defines the contacts that are added to the segment.

There are four options for the timeframe that can combined by adding many conditions for the event criteria:

1) Within - History
2) Without - History
3) Within - Future
4) Without - Future

1) Within - History option limits the segment so that only the data from a certain timeframe in the past is taken into account in the segment. The event has, therefore, happened after a certain time in the past but not before it.
For example, a customer has made a purchase from an online store within the last 30 days.

2) Without - History option limits the segment so that only the data before a certain timeframe in the past is taken into account in the segment. The event has, therefore, happened before a certain time in the past.
For example, a customer hasn't bought anything from an online store within the last 30 days.

3) Within - Future limits the segment so that only the data before a certain timeframe in the future is taken into account in the segment. The date of the event is, therefore, before a defined time in the future.
For example, a customer's contract is expiring in the next 30 days.

4) Without - Future limits the segment so that only the data after a certain timeframe in the future is taken into account in the segment. The date of the event is, therefore, after a defined time in the future.
For example, a customer's contract is valid for at least the next 30 days.

Please note that these comparisons can only be made to date form data fields. If your customer data comes from a back-end system in some other form, they can be changed into date form in LianaCEM. You can do this on the Settings page in Data types - Properties. Choose the event and change the type from the Type dropdown menu to Date or Datetime. The difference between these is that Datetime can also include a time of day.