Organizing Contacts with Lists
Contact Lists are collections of contacts that you create for specific purposes. They are incredibly useful for segmenting your contacts in a variety of different ways.
Our platform supports two different types of Contact Lists:
- User Generated - These are the standard lists in the platform that our users are able to create and edit for any purpose.
- System Generated - These lists are automatically curated by our system to assist in some specific functions, like auto-curated opt-in lists for each phone line.
Contact List Tips
Lists can be used for so many purposes that it is important to keep a few things in mind while building them.
- Use unique and descriptive names. You will not always be able to evaluate the contacts when selecting a list so it is useful to name them with indicators of their purpose to make it clear at-a-glance.
- Keep lists up to date. Using our import/export tools or the in-app editor of contact lists, you can quickly keep them up to date with the right contacts.
- Disable or repurpose old lists. You can rename and overhaul any existing list for a new purpose. Sometimes this may be easier than starting from scratch.
Creating & Editing Contact Lists
Contact Lists are collections of contacts that you create for specific purposes. They are incredibly useful for segmenting your contacts in a variety of different ways.
Our platform supports two different types of Contact Lists:
User Generated - These are the standard lists in the platform that our users are able to create and edit for any purpose.
System Generated - These lists are automatically curated by our system to assist in some specific functions, like auto-curated opt-in lists for each phone line.
Creating & Editing Contact Lists
To create a Contact List you will first need to click on the Contacts tab at the top of your platform, and choose Contact Lists.
Then you will Click on “New List” in the upper left hand corner and a modal will open as shown below.
There are two ways to add contacts to a list.
You can choose contacts individually using the searchable list of your contacts on the left side, and you would select the desired contacts and use the single green arrow to move them onto the list and then click the Add button. The double green arrow will move all existing contacts in your database onto this list. NOTE: This feature is designed for creating smaller lists that are easily handpicked from your general contacts pool, for larger lists you must use the Import steps shown below
Once you create and name the new empty list, (we recommend matching the list name to the campaign name), click the Add button. Then it is very important to REFRESH your browser window so the new list will appear in the next step. Then you will click the Import Button and choose Contacts Import.
When the Import modal opens you can either browse for your CSV file on your desktop, or click and drag from your browser export folder and then click Upload and map the data from your file to the corresponding data fields in the Textel Platform. The drop down boxes on the right will show you all the headers from your file.
Note: The only field that is required is the mobile phone number. If you plan to use our embedded dynamic parameters tool to personalize your campaigns, be sure to map the fields you will be using. The most popular is “First Name”.
Once you are done mapping the data from your file, you will open the Contact List picker above the import button and choose the proper list for this contact file then click Import.
Once your import is queued, all contacts from your file with unique, properly formatted mobile phone numbers will be imported onto your list. Then you will REFRESH your browser window again and your new Contact List will update with the number of contacts.
Keep in mind that the number of contacts that are imported may be less than the original list. Our system will only import a mobile phone number to a list once, so any duplicate will fail as well as any mobile number not properly formatted. For example, if the mobile number is missing a digit, or contacts in a family sharing one mobile number.
Deleting/Disabling a Contact List
If needed, a Contact List can be deleted or disabled in the system. To do this, simply go to the Contact Lists page under the Contacts drop down menu, search for the Contact List that you would like to delete, and click the trash icon located under the Actions column on the right hand side. Please note that this will permanently delete the list from your account. If you would like to temporarily remove a list from view, simply toggle the “Enabled” setting off.