Lists

What Is a List

A list is a compilation of subscribers that receive your communications.

A list is made up of subscribers. All of your subscribers belong to the master All Subscribers list in your account. You create as many lists as you need to segment your subscribers so that you can target your email communications. For example, you can create a list for your monthly newsletter, your weekly coupon offer, and a special announcements list. 

When you create a list, you decide whether to make it public. If you make a list public, then a subscriber sees the name of the list in the Subscription Center and has the option to opt-in or out of the list.

Note: If a subscriber uses the forward button in their email client instead of the Forward to a Friend feature to forward your email, the subscription center link will still point to the original subscriber's subscription center. For example, if Lee forwards your email to Ali, and Ali clicks the Subscription Center link in the footer of the email, Ali will see Lee's subscriptions. 

You must first create a list, then you can add subscribers to lists two ways:

• individually, or
• import a file containing subscriber data

You have to use lists to create groups.

You can perform the following procedures for a list:

• view statistics about a list
• rename and relocate a list
• assign a triggered email to be a list's web collect response
• define a list's opt-in status for web collect
• export a list
• copy and move subscribers between lists

Becoming an effective email marketer requires constant list cleansing and hygiene. Most lists shrink by 30% each year due to subscribers' changing email addresses (according to Return Path). In addition, ISPs sometimes use old email addresses as spam traps aimed at catching commercial emailers with old lists.

Subscribers showing no activity (opens or clicks) for six months or more are very unlikely to respond and are more likely to complain, causing the potential for ISP blocking.

Maintaining your lists is an important part of sending emails. See Email Deliverability for tips and best practice recommendations.

Why Use Lists

Use lists to compile subscribers in order to send targeted communications. Once you create a list, you can send emails using your list or you can create a group from a list to target a more specific subset of subscribers.

The size of your list is not nearly as important as the quality of the list, how it was captured, how often it is cleaned, and how well the subscribers respond to messaging. For optimization of email marketing, it is imperative that lists consist only of opt-in subscribers - those who are anticipating and are interested in your email correspondence.

You can use lists as suppression lists for an email send. For example, you could have the email sent to everyone on list A except for those also on list B.

Increasing the size of your list is best achieved by attracting potential subscribers through offering highly relevant information or promotions.

Some common ways to grow lists include customer registration cards, trade shows, sweepstakes, co-registration with a legitimate opt-in vendor, and the Forward to a Friend feature.

Contact ExactTarget for more information.

Scenario

Northern Trail Outfitters has a spreadsheet of subscribers who have requested the monthly newsletter. They want to import the information in the spreadsheet into their account, so they open the click Create in the my lists folder.

For step-by-step instructions on how to create a list, see How To Create a List.

Northern Trail Outfitters enters a name and a description for the list and select the Public checkbox so that subscribers can manage their membership in the list using the subscription center.

They work their way through the list creation process, and the list opens in the workspace area.

Northern Trail Outfitters has the option of importing a list or creating a list manually. They already have a .csv file of subscribers so they click Import. The Import Subscriber Wizard appears. The wizard prompts them to upload their .csv file, and after the wizard is complete the subscribers appear in the list.

Northern Trail Outfitters can now use this list in an email send or to use as part of a group if they want.

How to Create a List

Before you create a list, decide:

• whether you're going to require subscribers to confirm their email address after they subscribe. If so, you will need to create the email message prior to creating the list, or create a text-only message when you create the list (see step 8 of this procedure).
• whether you're going to attach a welcome email to this list. A welcome email is what subscribers receive when they subscribe to your list. You can assign a welcome email to this list during list creation, which requires you to create an email before creating the list, or you can assign the welcome email later by using Manage Welcome Email.

Note:  Lists that you create in your Enterprise administrator account are accessible to your On Your Behalf channel members.

Additionally, if you're an On Your Behalf channel member, you cannot create lists; you see only the lists created by your Enterprise administrator. However, you can add subscribers to these lists.

You can create public and private lists by following these steps:

1. Click the Subscribers tab.
2. Click the my lists folder.
3. Click the Create List button.
4. Complete the List Identification section that appears, as follows:

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter a name for the list. This name identifies the list in the Email Send Wizard. If you make this list public, this name appears in the Subscription Center. Your list name cannot contain the # symbol.
   Description	Enter a brief description of the list. This description appears in the list workspace. Additionally, if you make this list public, this description appears in the Subscription Center.
   List Attributes
   Public	Selecting the "Public" option will result in this list being displayed in the Subscription Center. A subscriber can opt-in or opt-out of any public list.
   Salesforce.com	This option may not be enabled in your account. For more information, contact your ExactTarget representative. Selecting the "Salesforce.com" option will result in this list being integrated with Salesforce. Tracking information for all leads and contacts on this list will be posted to the appropriate record in Salesforce.

5. Select the list location in the List Location section. By default "my lists" is selected.
6. Select whether to associate a Send Classification to your list. This option may not be enabled in your account.
7. Click Next.
8. Complete the Opt-in Behavior section.
   • If you'd like subscribers to provide confirmation of their email address once they subscribe to your list, select the Require subscribers to provide confirmation of valid email address (double opt-in) checkbox. Then you must select the confirmation email by clicking Select.
9. Complete the Opt-in Landing Page section. You can select whether to use a default landing page or to define your own landing page.
10. Click Next.
11. Specify whether or not you will send a welcome email. If you choose to send a welcome email, specify the email by clicking Select.
12. Click Save.

Your new list is now ready for you to add subscribers. You can add subscribers manually or you can import subscribers.

How to Define a Double Opt-in Status for a List

Creating a double opt-in campaign requires your subscribers to confirm their email address by clicking a link in an email they receive after subscribing. Requiring your subscribers to double opt-in ensures that the subscribers on your list want to be there, minimizes the number of invalid email addresses on your list, and adds a level of security you didn't have before. 

Before you can define a double opt-in status for a list, you must create the email that you send when someone subscribes. You must include the confirmation link in the email (see step 7 of the procedure below). 

Subscribers who receive the confirmation email but haven't yet clicked the confirmation link are added to your list, but with a status of Unsubscribed. Once they click the confirmation link, their status changes to Active and will receive any emails you send. 

To require double opt-in for a new list, see step 8 of the How to Create a List procedure. 

To define double opt-in behavior for a list you've already created, follow this procedure:

1. Click the Subscribers tab. 
2. Click my lists. 
3. Select the checkbox next to the list for which you wish to define a double opt-in status. 
4. Click Properties
5. Select the Require subscribers to provide confirmation of valid email address (double opt-in) checkbox.
6. Click Select... next to the email field and choose the email you wish to send as the double opt-in send.
7. Copy the link Opt-in Behavior section and paste it into your double opt-in email. The link should be similar to this:

http://cl.exct.net/sub_confirm.asp?lst=%%List_%%&eml=%%EmailAddr_%%&mid=%%MemberID%%

8. Click Save. 

How to View List Statistics and Rename or Relocate a List

The List Properties dialog box is where you can view statistics about the list and change the basic properties - name, description, folder location - of the list.

If you have the optional list opt-in status feature enabled in your account, you can also set up opt-in confirmation emails through this dialog box. If you opt-in, you'll receive an email detailing what occurred when you rename, relocate, or update a list.

To access this dialog box, follow these steps:

1. Click the Subscribers tab.
2. Click my lists.
3. Select a list in the list workspace.
4. Click Properties.

The List Properties area displays the following fields on the Edit Properties tab:

The List Properties area contains the following information on the Tracking Data tab:

How to Assign a Triggered Email to Be a List's Web Collect Response

You can use a triggered email to send confirmation messages to subscribers who join a list via Web Collect. Using a triggered email allows you to send an HTML confirmation message in which you can control the content and presentation using the email creation tools.

Before you assign a triggered email to be a list's Web Collect response, you must create the triggered email content and the triggered email interaction.

Please note that there are two types of triggered emails you can attach to a list:

• a confirmation email - an email that requires subscribers to confirm their email address once they subscribe to a list
• a welcome email - an email that is sent to subscribers when they opt-in to a list

If you choose to have both a confirmation and welcome email, the subscriber will first receive a confirmation email. Once they confirm their email address, they will receive the welcome email.

See How To View List Statistics and Rename or Relocate a List to learn how to assign the confirmation or welcome emails.

Note: The send classification for the triggered send must be Transactional to use as an automated response for Web Collect.

How to Export a List

You can export selected subscriber data from a list to a comma-separated CSV file, tab-delimited TXT file, or XML file. (You can also export a single subscriber's data, from the Search Subscribers feature.)

Follow these steps to export a list:

1. Click the Subscribers tab.
2. Click the my lists folder or another folder that contains the list you want to export.
3. Select the checkbox next to the list in the list workspace.
4. Click Export in the list workspace toolbar, which opens the Export to a File wizard.
5. Click Next in the wizard's introductory dialog box.
6. Complete the File and Delivery dialog box that appears next, as follows:

5. Click the Next button in the File and Delivery dialog box.

In the Attributes Selection dialog box that appears next, you choose the subscriber data that the export file contains. This dialog box is divided into three sections:

• profile attributes
• preference attributes
• other data (such as data subscribed and date unsubscribed).

Note: You can choose up to a limit of approximately 150 data fields per export file.

6. Choose the data for the export file by moving the desired attributes from the box on the left to the box on the right.

Click the right double-arrow button if you want to move all of the attributes into the box on the right. Or click a single attribute on the left and then click the right single-arrow button to move it into the box on the right. The other two arrow buttons allow you to deselect attributes (move attributes from the box on the right into the box on the left).

7. When done selecting the desired attributes, click the Export button in the Attributes Selection dialog box.

The application begins the process of exporting the data into a file. How long the export takes depends on the amount of data to be exported.

8. The final dialog box of the wizard appears.

How to Copy and Move Subscribers Between Lists

You can add one or more subscribers from one list to another list while retaining them on the original list. You can also move subscribers from one list to another.

You can also change an individual subscriber's list membership from the subscriber's Subscriber Properties dialog box.

Note: All subscribers are always included in All Subscribers. You can copy subscribers from All Subscribers to another list, but you cannot move them from All Subscribers.

1. Select a list in the list workspace.
2. Open the list by double-clicking it or by clicking the Open List button.
3. Select the subscriber who is added to another list (either copied or moved).

To select multiple subscribers, click one subscriber and then Ctrl+click each subsequent subscriber.

If you want to select the entire list, you don't need to Ctrl+click each subscriber; click one subscriber and then use the "move/copy all" check box that you'll see later in this process.

4. Click the Move/Copy button in the list workspace toolbar.

If you're in the All Subscribers workspace, the button is labeled Copy because you cannot move subscribers from this list.

The Move/Copy Subscribers dialog box appears, showing your complete list folder structure.

5. Select the list to which you want to add these subscribers.
6. Check the appropriate boxes.
   • Maintain subscriber (list) status from the originating list when you move/copy the subscriber to the destination list.  If you do not check this list, the moved/copied subscribers are added to the destination list with a status of opt-in.
   • If you want to add all of the subscribers on the list from which you opened this dialog box, select the Move/copy each subscriber on the source list check box.
7. Click the appropriate button:
   • Move: Choose Move if you want to remove the subscribers from the current list and add them to the selected list.
   • Copy: Choose Copy if you want the subscribers to exist on both the current list and on the selected list.
8. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box that appears after the move or copy is complete.

Your subscribers now exist on the list you selected.

How to Delete a List  

You have the following options regarding the deletion of a list:

• You can remove the list and all subscribers who belong to the list.
• You can remove just the list and retain the subscribers.

Note: Deleting a list does not remove the email's tracking details that have been delivered to that list. The application continues to track email activities for the subscribers who belonged to the list that received the email, even after the list has been deleted, if you choose to retain the subscribers when you delete the list.

See How To Delete a Folder for information about deleting a folder that contains subscriber lists.

Follow these steps to delete a list:

1. Click the Subscribers tab.
2. Click my lists.
3. Select the list you wish to delete.
4. Click Delete in the list workspace toolbar.
   A confirmation dialog box appears.
5. If you want to delete the subscribers that belong to the list, click the Delete subscribers on this list from all lists check box. If you want to retain the subscribers in your All Subscribers list and any other lists to which they may belong, do not select this check box.
6. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box.
   The list is removed.

If you did not choose to delete the subscribers, the subscribers who belonged to this list are still in your All Subscribers list, along with any other lists to which they belong.

If you chose to delete them, they are now removed from all lists.