> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://dugble.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Audiences > Understand how contacts, topics, subscriptions, segments, and suppressions work together. Audiences are the people your team can communicate with and the rules that determine who should receive a message. Dugble separates audience data into a few simple concepts so identity, preferences, targeting, and delivery restrictions remain independent. ## How the pieces fit together * **Contacts** represent individual recipients and their profile data. * **Topics** represent categories of communication such as product updates or account notices. * **Subscriptions** record whether a contact is opted in or opted out of a topic. * **Segments** group contacts into explicit audiences for targeting. * **Suppressions** prevent email delivery to addresses that should not receive mail. A contact can belong to multiple segments and have different subscription preferences for different topics. Suppressions are evaluated separately and can make an otherwise eligible recipient ineligible for email delivery. ## Preferences and targeting are different Topics and subscriptions answer **what a contact wants to receive**. Segments answer **which contacts you want to target**. Keeping these concepts separate makes it possible to select a broad audience while still respecting individual preferences and delivery restrictions. ## Audience eligibility When a bulk message is prepared, the selected audience is only the starting point. Eligibility can also depend on topic preferences, unsubscribe state, suppressions, and other channel-specific rules. Learn how recipient identity and profile data are represented. Organize communication into preference categories. Understand topic defaults and contact-level preferences. Build explicit groups of contacts for targeting.