Email lists

Product Support
1

Am I totally missing it, is there no way to make an email list? I saw a video on youtube that had a leads option and then the list was under that, I assume it’s changed somehow?

Thanks
Garret

2

I have to say that this is a disappointing issue with Mautic.
I get how I could use some workarounds, maybe a custom field, that I could put list shortcut words in, so that I could use segments the way I would normally use multiple master lists… but if you’re coming from mailchimp or campaign monitor, segments are a way of conditionally segmenting lists; but marketers often start with a few basic lists they want to keep separate for logistical reasons.

3

In MailChimp you create lists which you can fill with signup forms. This is exactly the same with Mautic: you can create lists (= segments) without any filters. Additionally you can use as many tags you want to detail persons (and segment them later on).

@andjules, it always makes more sense to state the (business) need behind a (possible) requirement instead of writing anything about disappointment. There are people here with years of Mautic experience who are able to evaluate if Mautic is suited for business needs. Additionally one must understand the difference between email software and a marketing automation solution.

4

@PeterTL you’re right, “disappointment” isn’t helpful enough. And I fully acknowledge that anything I want to do with a ‘list’, I can carefully with a creatively defined segment. However, most marketing email platforms have realized that their clients like the extra concept of segregated lists. Here’s why:

If you’ve done enough email marketing, you know it’s easy to make careless mistakes, and you know you may have people on your team who — while capable — don’t always think in the structured ways that software engineers tend to. In my experience, Mailchimp/CampaignMonitor’s ‘lists’ help me keep groups of contacts easily quarantined from each other, and make it harder for us to accidentally send the wrong emails to the wrong groups. With a segment metaphor, when I go to send my email, I have to be more careful (the default software behavior is to send to everyone, if I want to segment I have to set up data-rules and test them). With a segregated-lists metaphor, when I create a campaign I have to actively choose which list it applies to, which is much easier. Not a huge conceptual difference but again, helps me keep contact groups quarantined. Imagine I have a medical clinic that has a list of people (a) interested in breast implants, another group that is (b) interested in marriage counselling, and a 3rd group of © other medical professionals who I am hoping will send me referrals. I never want to send the wrong email to the wrong list/segment.

As to understanding the difference between bulk email marketing vs marketing automation, in my experience, when a company starts using marketing automation-style emails (per-user email chains), they often want to continue sending bulk marketing emails ('send everyone in this group an email about a sale this weekend"). In terms of business needs, I want to engage in individual interest-tracking and lead-nurturing, as well as bulk promotional communications, and the great thing about solutions like Mautic, ActiveCampaign or Drip is that those functions are integrated: recipients of bulk communications can have their clicks tracked and based on their activity, graduated into per-user email automation chains.

5

I just posted here https://www.mautic.org/topic/sending-profiles/ as well about sending profiles. This would also be a nice business case for using “real” list in addition to segments.

6

@andjules I still don’t see a problem. Segments in Mautic can be used in two ways:

  1. Dynamic: use filters to specify criteria which are used to identify contacts where the criteria apply

  2. Static: manually or automatically (e.g. via form action) add contacts. No filter. No criteria. Nothing like that.

In case 2 you still can use campaign workflows to move contacts between lists.

This is Mautic standard functionality.

7

PS: for your mentioned case that could mean the following setup:

  • Use static segments to keep your contacts organized
  • Contact come into the static segments via signup forms or API
  • Use static segments as source for larger sendouts (e.g. newsletters)
  • Use tagging within drip campaigns to collect information on your leads
  • Use dynamic segments to more accurately segment your contacts
  • Use the dynamic segments to send our smaller batches of emails

All of this can be done with Mautic. I am doing it on a regular basis. :slight_smile: