Help Documentation 〉Contacts 〉

Organize Contacts Into Groups and Smart Groups

There are two ways to organize the contacts in your list: Groups and Smart Groups.

Groups

A Group is a collection of contacts in a list. A contact may belong to zero, one, or many groups. Contacts are added to a group (or removed from a group) manually. Groups are the way to manually curate the contacts in your list in any way you see fit. When you import contacts, Direct Mail automatically adds those contacts to a new group to help you remember where those contacts came from.

Create a Group

  1. Select a list
  2. Click + in the toolbar
  3. Choose New Group

A new group is added to your list.

Add Contacts to a Group

There are several ways to add contacts to a Group:

  • Drag and drop contacts onto the group name/icon
  • Select one or more contacts, locate the Groups row in the inspector, click the + button and choose the group
  • Select one or more contacts, click the Group Membership button in the toolbar, and choose the group
  • Select one or more contacts, choose Contacts > Group Membership from the menu bar at the top of your screen, and choose the group

Remove Contacts from a Group

There are several ways to remove contacts from a Group:

  • Select one or more contacts, locate the Groups row in the inspector, select the group(s), press the delete key on your keyboard
  • Select one or more contacts, click the Group Membership button in the toolbar, and uncheck the group
  • Select one or more contacts, choose Contacts > Group Membership from the menu bar at the top of your screen, and uncheck the group

Delete a Group

When you delete a group, the contacts in that group are not deleted. They remain in the list.

  1. Select the group
  2. Press delete on your keyboard or choose Edit > Delete from the menu bar at the top of your screen

Smart Groups

A Smart Group is also a collection of contacts in a list. A contact may belong to zero, one, or many smart Groups. However, unlike groups, contacts are automatically added to (or removed from) smart groups based on rules that you define. Smart groups are a way to automatically organize contacts within your list. For example, you could create a smart group that contains contacts that all have a certain company name, contacts that live nearby, contacts that opened your last email campaign, or contacts that have not clicked a link in your newsletter in a long time.

Create a Smart Group

  1. Select a list
  2. Click + in the toolbar
  3. Choose New Smart Group. A window appears showing the smart group name and rules.
  4. Give the smart group a name and define the rules that a contact must match in order to be included in the smart group.

Delete a Smart Group

When you delete a smart group, the contacts in that smart group are not deleted. They remain in the list.

  1. Select the group
  2. Press delete on your keyboard or choose Edit > Delete from the menu bar at the top of your screen

Smart Group Rules

You can define rules based on the following attributes of a contact:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Company Name
  • Email Address
  • Custom Text. This is the value of a custom field interpreted as text.
  • Custom Number. This is the value of a custom field interpreted as a number. The number is parsed using the project's locale (choose File > Project Settings from the menu bar).
  • Custom Date. This is the value of a custom field interpreted as a date. To be interpreted correctly, the value of the custom field must be YYYY-MM-DD or MM-DD.
  • Custom Location. This is the value of a custom field interpreted as a location. To be interpreted correctly, the value of the custom field must be one of:
    • A two-letter country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)
    • A five-digit US zip code
  • Custom Multi-Value: This is the value of a custom field interpreted as a multi-value.
  • Unsubscribed
  • Excluded
  • Date Created
  • Subscribe Date. This value is only populated if the contact joined your list via an email sign-up form.
  • Unsubscribe Date
  • Location. This is the last known geographic location of the contact.
  • Number of Emails Sent
  • Number of Emails Opened
  • Number of Emails Clicked
  • Last Sent
  • Last Opened
  • Last Clicked
  • Engagement Level
  • Open Rate
  • Click Rate
  • Email Client. This is the last known email client that the contact used to open or click an email campaign.
  • Member of Group

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