Groups: Lists You Manage Yourself
A group is a list of contacts you put together by hand, for example "Providers", "Board members", or "Spring event guests". Use groups to send a newsletter to exactly the people you chose.
Groups and segments work together:
- A group holds the people you add to it. Nobody joins or leaves unless you, an import, or a sign-up form puts them there.
- A segment picks people by rules, such as "email ends with @example.org". Its members change as your contacts change.
A contact can be in any number of groups. When a campaign goes to several groups, each person still gets the email once.
Create a group
- Inside a project, select Groups in the sidebar.
- Under New group, enter a Name and, if you like, a Description.
- Select Create group.
Group names:
- are 1 to 80 characters long;
- must be unique in the project, ignoring capital letters ("Board" and "board" are the same group);
- can't contain
|(it separates group names in CSV files); - can't start with
=,+,-, or@(so they survive a CSV export and import unchanged).
A project can have up to 500 groups.
The Groups page lists every group with its description and number of members. Select a group's name to open it.
Put people in a group
There are several ways, so pick the one that fits:
| From | How |
|---|---|
| A contact's page | Under Groups, choose a group in Add to a group (or New group… and type a name), then select Add to group. |
| The Contacts list | Tick the people you want, choose a group in the bar that appears, and select Add to group. See Managing Contacts. |
| A CSV import | Add a groups column, or choose groups for everyone in the file. See Managing Contacts. |
| A sign-up form | Choose groups that new subscribers join. See Sign-up Forms. |
Adding someone who is already in the group changes nothing; Postak tells you how many were already in it.
A group's page
A group's page shows:
- Details: change the name or description and select Save.
- Members: everyone in the group, newest first, 25 at a time, with their status and the date they were added. Use the search box to find someone by email, name, or external ID. Remove takes a person out of the group (they stay in your contact list).
Member counts include everyone in the group, whatever their status. Campaigns only go to the active members.
Send a campaign to a group
In the campaign editor, tick one or more groups under Send to contacts in any of these. You can mix groups and segments, and leave people out under Leave some people out. See Choosing recipients.
Use a group in a segment
Segments can check group membership: Group · is in · "Providers", or Group · is not in · "Unengaged". This lets you combine a hand-picked list with rules, for example "in Providers and joined in the last 30 days". See Segments.
Delete a group
Open the group and select Delete. The people in it stay in your contact list; only the group goes. Sign-up forms stop adding people to it.
Postak won't delete a group that's still in use:
- A draft or scheduled campaign sends to it or leaves it out. Change that campaign's recipients, or delete the campaign, first. Campaigns that have already been sent don't block deleting, and their reports keep the group's name.
- A segment rule checks it. Edit those segments first; the message names them.