How to manage your contact groups
Groups are a static list of Contacts that allow you to separate out your data.
Groups will remain unchanged unless you manually add or remove Contacts, or if you have connected your account to an online signup page or via API.
Groups are generally good for one-off email sends, email campaigns that you run infrequently, and for lists of contacts that don't change often e.g. staff lists, proof lists, trade show lists, attendees and no-show lists. But often you can improve efficiency by using Segments.
The Groups area of Contacts
The Groups area is where you have the ability to create and manage your account’s Groups. In the ‘My Groups’ heading of this area you will see a total number of Groups in brackets. This top half of the screen also includes tools to Add Contact(s), add a Group, and apply Search Filters.
On the left, you will see a list of all the Groups that you have stored in your account. Clicking on a Group shows you the Contacts within it in the table on the right. From this screen you can also click to view All Contacts, and to view Contacts who are not in a Group.
Once you have a list of Contacts listed on screen, there are tools to assist you in moving these to other existing or Groups.
How to create a Group
- On the Groups screen click the green ‘Add Group’ button
- Step 1: Type – Choose either Public (visible to your Contacts if they click to update their Preferences) or Private (only seen by Account Administrators and not by your Contacts).
- Step 2: Name - Give your new Group a short distinctive name
- Step 3: Description - Give your Group a description (optional)
- Step 3 - Click the ‘Create’ button
- From this point you can choose to simply open your new (empty) Group or to continue by adding Contacts to your new Group
How to view a Group
- Select a Group on the left hand side.
Groups are automatically shown in an A-Z order by name, but can be re-ordered using the 'Sort by' drop-down. Each Group can be edited by clicking the 3 dots next to the group name and selecting Edit.
- Click on a Group.
- The table in the middle of the screen will load details of the Contacts in the Group. .
- At the bottom of the screen you can set how many rows you would like the screen to show before having to move to the next page.
How to edit a Group’s name and description
- Select a Group on the left hand side.
- Click the 3 dots next to its name and select Edit.
- On the Group Card that opens, you can rename your Group and change or add to its description.
- You can also view the Group’s ID (useful if connecting a signup form on a website to your account) and how many Contacts are in the Group.
- When you're done click Save Changes at the bottom.
How to remove a Group
- Select a Group on the left hand side.
- Click the 3 dots next to the groups and select Delete.
- You will be prompted to confirm that you want to delete this group.
Note… Removing a Group does not remove the Contacts within the Group. They will remain in your account, associated with other Groups if applicable.
How to add Contacts to a Group
You can add Contacts to a Group in a number of ways.
During the process of adding Contacts to your account
There are two main methods of adding Contacts to your account.
- If adding one Contact with the manual entry method - after inputting their details you will have the option to add the new Contact to an existing Group or Groups, or to add to a new Group. If choosing the latter you will be guided with steps on making the new Group.
- If adding multiple Contacts by uploading a file - on Step 4 of the process you will have the option to add the new Contacts to an existing Group or Groups, or adding to a new Group. If choosing the latter you will be guided with steps on making the new Group.
By using the ‘Copy to Another Group'
You are able to copy contacts into another group if some contacts would be applicable to multiple groups.
- Select the contacts you'd like to copy by clicking the tick boxes next to their records.
- Select the Actions menu at the top and select Copy to Another Group.
- If copying to an existing Group(s), the next screen shows you a view of all Groups in your account. Click to select the Group(s) you wish to copy your selected Contacts to. You can click as many as you like and you can click to de-select to remove a Contact from a Group.
- Click the ‘Confirm’ button.
- If copying to a new Group, you will be taken though 3 steps to create the new Group.
With tools available when editing a current Contact
- Find the Contact whose Group associations you want to edit, open their Contact card and click on the Groups tab.
- This tab shows you which Groups a Contact is currently in. Click on the Manage Groups toggle if you want to change the groups
- Click to select the Group(s) you wish to add your Contact to. You can click as many as you like and you can click again to remove from a Group.