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.