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.