Recipient management recommendations

How you structure your recipient lists shapes the way subscribers experience your email marketing – from how they sign up to what happens when they unsubscribe. In Xperience by Kentico, you have two main options: create separate recipient lists for each email stream, or maintain a single recipient list and use contact groups to filter your audience for specific emails. You can also combine both approaches.

The right choice depends on how distinct your email streams are, how much flexibility you need for unsubscription, and how you plan to use contact data for targeting. This guide walks you through both approaches with real-world examples to help you decide.

Understand the building blocks

Before diving into the two approaches, here's a quick overview of the main components.

Recipient lists are email-specific collections of contacts who have opted in to receive your emails, typically by filling in a subscription form. Each recipient list has its own subscription and unsubscription process, including dedicated approval (thank you) and goodbye pages. When a contact unsubscribes, they remain in the list, but switch to the Unsubscribed status and are no longer included when sending further emails to the list. See Send regular emails to subscribers for details, or follow the Create a recipient list tutorial.

Contact groups are dynamic segments of contacts based on configurable conditions. Conditions can use contact activities, contact field values, and more. Contact groups are used across Xperience for personalization and segmentation – not just for emails. Learn more about Contact groups or follow the Segment your website audience guide.

When you send a regular email, you select a recipient list as the base audience. You can then narrow or exclude recipients using the Send only to recipients from contact groups and Exclude recipients from contact groups options. This is where the two building blocks work together.

Dedicated recipient lists for each email stream

In this approach, each newsletter or email topic has its own recipient list, its own subscription form, and its own unsubscription process. Subscribers manage each email stream independently.

When to choose this approach:

• Your email streams are clearly distinct (different topics, different audiences).
• Subscribers should be able to opt in and out of individual topics without affecting other subscriptions.
• You prefer a straightforward setup where each list maps directly to one type of email.

Advantages:

• Granular unsubscription – contacts unsubscribe from one email stream only, keeping their other subscriptions intact.
• Keeps your audiences clearly separated for different types of email content.
• Each list has its own confirmation and goodbye pages, so you can tailor the messaging.

Disadvantages:

• More setup work. Each recipient list needs its own subscription form, autoresponder email with a double opt-in link, thank you page, and goodbye page.
• Contacts subscribe to each list independently, so they may need to fill in multiple forms.

Example: Multi-newsletter organization

A media company runs three newsletters: Weekly Tech Digest, Product Spotlight, and Events & Webinars. Each newsletter serves a different audience and covers different content.

The setup looks like this:

• Three recipient lists – one for each newsletter.
• Three subscription forms – each placed on its own landing page (or section of a shared page). Each form is linked to the corresponding recipient list.
• Three autoresponder emails – each with a double opt-in confirmation link that adds the contact to the correct list.
• Dedicated thank you and goodbye pages for each list, with messaging tailored to the newsletter topic.

When a visitor subscribes to Weekly Tech Digest, they are added to that recipient list only. If they later decide to unsubscribe, they stop receiving Weekly Tech Digest but continue to receive Events & Webinars if they subscribed to that as well.

For details on setting up the subscription and unsubscription process, see the Create a recipient list guide and the Create confirmation and unsubscription emails guide.

Single recipient list with contact group filtering

In this approach, you maintain one recipient list for all opted-in contacts. When sending emails, you use contact groups to filter who receives each email. This is the more flexible approach, especially if you want to use existing contact data for targeting.

When to choose this approach:

• Your emails share a common subscriber base.
• You want to target specific segments using contact data (activities, contact attributes) without managing multiple lists.
• You prefer a single subscription process for all email communication.

Advantages:

• One subscription form and one opt-in process for all emails.
• Flexible, dynamic segmentation. Contact groups update automatically as contacts perform activities or when contact data changes.
• Uses existing contact data – no need for contacts to self-select into specific topics.
• Reu-use of existing segmentation tools – if your organization already has contact groups set up for segmenting your audience, the same groups may be suitable for email recipient filtering.

Disadvantages and risks:

• More complex email sendout – marketers need to choose the correct combination of recipient list and included or excluded contact groups whenever they send a regular email.
• Unsubscription affects all emails – when a contact unsubscribes from a shared recipient list, they stop receiving all emails sent through that list, not only the specific email type they don't want to receive anymore. This may or may not be acceptable for your use case. If granular unsubscription is important, consider using dedicated recipient lists instead.
• Email fatigue – the system does not limit how many emails a contact receives within a given time period (no frequency capping). If the same contact belongs to multiple contact groups and you send separate emails to each group, that contact may receive multiple emails in quick succession. Coordinate your sends carefully and consider using the Schedule for later option to manage delivery timing.

How it works in practice:

1. You create a single recipient list and set up your subscription form and process as usual.
2. You create contact groups with conditions that define your target segments (e.g., contacts who performed a specific activity, contacts with a particular field value). For more on setting up conditions, see Create a new contact group.
3. When sending a regular email, you select your single recipient list and use Send only to recipients from contact groups or Exclude recipients from contact groups to target the right audience.

Example: Banking with custom activity segmentation

A bank maintains a single global recipient list for all opted-in contacts. Their developers implement a custom activity called Mortgage product usage that fires when a contact interacts with mortgage-related features on the bank's website.

A contact group called Mortgage Holders is created with the condition: "Contact has performed the Mortgage product usage activity."

When the marketing team sends a targeted email about mortgage refinancing options:

1. They select the global recipient list as the base audience.
2. They set Send only to recipients from contact groups to Mortgage Holders.
3. Only contacts who have interacted with mortgage features receive the email.

Other general banking emails – monthly service updates, security tips, new feature announcements – go out to the full recipient list without any contact group filter.

Combine both approaches for targeted campaigns

You don't need to choose just one approach. A hybrid strategy uses multiple recipient lists for clearly distinct email streams while applying contact group filtering within a given list for more granular targeting.

When to choose this approach:

• You have one main subscriber base, but need to send differentiated content to sub-segments.
• Some content should go to everyone, while other content targets specific groups – and you want to avoid sending both versions to the same person.

Example: Tiered sports club subscribers

A sports club has one main recipient list for all email subscribers. Everyone on the list receives general updates like match schedules and club news.

However, the club also has a "Fans" tier – dedicated supporters who get exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes access and early ticket sales.

Here's how they set it up:

1. Developers add a custom contact field called FanClubMember (a boolean field). See the Add a custom field to the Contact profile guide for details.
2. A contact group called Fans is created with the condition: "Contact field FanClubMember is equal to 1"
3. For general club emails (match schedules, news): send to the recipient list with the Fans group set under Exclude recipients from contact groups. This way, fans don't receive the general version – they receive the targeted version instead.
4. For fans-only emails (exclusive content, early ticket access): send to the same recipient list with Send only to recipients from contact groups set to Fans.

Best practices and common pitfalls

Keep these recommendations in mind regardless of which approach you choose:

Plan for no frequency capping

Xperience does not limit how many emails a contact receives. If you target overlapping contact groups with separate emails, contacts in multiple groups may receive duplicate or near-duplicate emails. Coordinate your sends and use exclusion groups to prevent this.

Schedule simultaneous sends

When sending different email variants to different contact groups (e.g., general vs. fans-only), always use Schedule for later and set the same delivery time. This ensures consistent delivery and avoids contacts receiving both versions.

Recalculate contact groups before sending

If you change a contact group's conditions, recalculate the group to make sure the contact list is up to date before you send. Avoid recalculating during peak traffic to reduce load on the system. See Contact groups for details.

Review bounces and delivery statistics regularly

Bounced contacts are automatically excluded from future sends, which helps maintain list health. Monitor your email statistics to catch delivery issues early.

Test with smaller segments first

Before sending to your full recipient list, consider sending a test to a smaller contact group. This lets you validate content, formatting, and delivery before reaching your entire audience.

Use automation for one-time sequences, not recurring newsletters

Automation flows work best for short, triggered sequences (welcome emails, form follow-ups). For ongoing newsletter-style communication, use regular emails with recipient lists. See Create email automation to learn more.

Handle bulk imports carefully

When you import contacts in bulk, the standard subscription flow (double opt-in, event handlers) is bypassed. Make sure your team has verified consent for imported contacts before adding them to recipient lists. After importing, recalculate your contact groups to ensure the imported contacts are correctly segmented.

Choose the right approach for your project

Here's a quick summary to help you decide:

You can always start with one approach and evolve as your email marketing matures. If your needs span both scenarios, the hybrid approach gives you the best of both worlds.