Mailtarget CDP
Mailtarget CDP tracks how each contact engages with the messages you send, lets you group contacts into audiences and segments, and lets you trigger automation based on contact state.
This is not a separate product. It runs on the same account, the same API key, and the same sending domain as the rest of Mailtarget.
What it covers
Five concerns make up Mailtarget CDP:
- Contacts. The data model for one person. Email address, custom fields, status, labels. See Contacts.
- Segments. Filter-defined groups of contacts. Used for targeted sends, automation triggers, and audience definitions. See Segmentation.
- Audiences. Visitor and push notification opt-in groups, distinct from email contacts. See Audiences.
- Journeys. The funnel state of each contact across five stages: Aware, Engaged, Customer, Loyal Customer, Promoter. See Journeys.
- Events. Event management surface that ties registrations, payments, and ticket emails to contact records. See Events.
The five-stage funnel
Every contact carries a funnel status. The five stages are:
| Stage | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Aware | Contact is starting to become aware of your product. |
| Engaged | Contact is starting to interact with your business. |
| Customer | Contact has made a transaction. |
| Loyal Customer | Contact has made repeat transactions. |
| Promoter | Contact actively refers others. |
The status is not auto-derived from email opens or clicks. You set it. The status changes by manual edit, by label rule (contacts with label X get status Y), or by inactivity (contacts marked inactive flip to a lost status). See Journeys for the change patterns.
How it relates to sending
Every send through the Transmission API can carry a metadata object. Set fields like funnel_stage, segment_id, or your own correlation IDs in metadata so webhook events arrive with that context attached. This is the cleanest way to join sends to your data warehouse without maintaining a separate join table.
What lives in the dashboard vs in the API
Mailtarget CDP has two surfaces:
- Dashboard. Funnel configuration, segment editor, audience manager, event setup, contact import and export. Designed for operators.
- API. Contact create and update, segment query, transmission with metadata. Designed for application integration.
Most teams configure the structure in the dashboard, then use the API for runtime operations (creating contacts on signup, sending targeted email, listening for journey state changes).
The exact API surface for contact and segment operations is in the API Reference. Tag any divergence between this concept page and the API surface as review_needed: true and confirm with the engineering team.
Next
If you are integrating Mailtarget CDP for the first time, the order most teams follow is:
- Contacts for the data model.
- Segmentation for how to query contacts.
- Audiences if you also send push notifications or banners.
- Journeys for funnel-stage logic.
- Events if you run registration-based events.