Lists Management

Owned by Pratik Upadhyay
Last updated: Aug 28, 2024 by Noam Rotem
6 min read

Table of Contents:

Lists Management

Intro 

(info) On this page you can add, update and delete, Sending and Suppression lists.


How to Add a New List

  • Go to Settings -> Lists Management: 
  • Click New List button and You will be directed to a new dialog screen.


  • Enter the list name and its description
  • Choose the list type:
    • Sending List – A sending list is a regular delivery list that you can use to send email messages to its members
      • You may choose to define the list as a default list - The default list is the list that will be used once you login the system. It is possible to change the list via the list picker located in the top bar
    • Suppression List - A suppression list is a list that will exclude all emails in it from getting sent. You have the option to define such a list for 1 of 3 levels: (1) Global - i.e., for the entire account, for all lists, and all campaigns suppress those emails (2) List Level (3) Campaign Level

How to Allocate and Restrict one or more SMTP Vendor Connections to a Specific Sending List

(info) This feature enables marketers to restrict/bind a certain SMTP vendor connection to a specific sending List. Often different Lists are used for managing different brands, in which case you might want that List to be able to have access to only a certain set of SMTP connections dedicated for that brand.

  • Click the 'Edit' List icon, under the "Actions" column


  • See "Allow only the following connection to be used in this list" setting



  • Start typing, and an autocomplete of the ESP/SMTP connection names, available from your 'Vendor Settings → My Connections page', will appear. Select the one(s) you want this List to be able to use. If none are selected, then the List has access to all connections on your 'My Connections' page.

How To Delete a List 

  • To remove a list, click the 'Delete' trashcan icon from the actions column, next to the list you would like to delete.

(warning)Warning Note: once you delete a list, you will no longer have access to the list or any statistics that resulted from campaigns on that list (warning)

How To Edit a List 

  • Click on the Edit icon menu-item, of the list you'd like to update.

Suppression Lists 

How to Create a Suppression List

  1. Go to: Settings → List Manager:
  2. Click 'New List' and select the 'Suppression List' option. The emails you add/upload to that suppression list will be suppressed and will not be sent to.
  3. You can define a suppression list on 3 levels:
    1. Global: for the the entire account, i.e., emails in this suppression list will be suppressed in all campaigns, across all lists in the account.
    2. List: for a specific List, i.e., emails in this suppression list will be suppressed in all campaigns for that given list only.
    3. Campaign Level,  i.e., emails in this suppression list will only be suppressed in the specific campaign that it is used in.

How to Add Email Addresses to a Suppression List

  1. To add email addresses to your suppression list, find the suppression list in the List Manager, and under the Actions columns click on the Manage Suppression Entries icon:


  2. You can add emails into a suppression list by either entering the email addresses directly into the text area input box, or by uploading a CSV file with just one column of email addresses. We recommend using the input box for no more than 100 email addresses. For more than that, use the import CSV option.

What is the Max Import File Size for a Suppression List

  • The max import file size, when uploading contacts into a Suppression list, is the same as for an Import into a regular Sending List.
  • The current default max size of an import file is 500 MB. That max size can be increased up to 1GB in coordination with your account manager. 


How to Suppress an Entire Domain

E.g., all emails of domain hotmail.com

  1. Go to Settings → Lists Management
  2. Click on the Manage Suppression Entries icon

     
  3. Add *@domain.ext for example: *@hotmail.com


How to suppress the local part of the email

(info) Note: in the above you can also suppress the local part of the email, e.g., info@* or info@b.*

How to Create an MD5/SHA-256/SHA-512 Suppression List

  1. Go to Settings → Lists Management:
  2. Click on 'New List' button and select the relevant option among MD5/SHA-256 or SHA-512 Suppression list.


    (info) Note: Ongage supports both Uppercase and Lowercase MD5 (the MD5 hash should be run on lowercase email addresses).

  3. Then from the Lists Manager dashboard, click on the Manage Suppression Entries action icon for the suppression list you have created. And add/import a list of MD5/SHA-256/SHA-512 encrypted email addresses to that suppression list.

How to Search and Export a Suppression List

  • You can search and/or export your suppression list from the following action icons:

How do I know when an email was added to the suppression list

  • To know the date and time when the email was added into the suppression list you can export the Suppression list and see the “Time” column in the exported csv. Which includes the date and time on which the contact was created.

Can I have multiple suppression lists

  1. Yes you can. You can have multiple global suppression lists, as well as multiple list level and campaign level suppression lists.
  2. If you have 2 global suppression lists, Ongage will check all emails in the targeted segments, of all your campaigns, and will not send to those emails, that appear in either of those two suppression lists.

Contact Deactivation Settings

Account level deactivation settings

(info) In Ongage, you can set Unsubscribes, Hard Bounces and Complaints to apply on a Per List basis or Globally across all lists. Since the typical usage of a list is for managing contacts per brand or web property, with it's own dedicated list level sending domain and tracking domain, it is typical for unsubscribes to be set to apply on a Per List basis (aka per brand/web property). 

(info) A deactivated contact will never be included in an Campaign or Event due to it's deactivation status.

  1. Go to Account Settings >> List Management >> Deactivation Settings and choose either Globally or Per List option for each type of deactivation (i.e., unsubscribes, hard bounces and/or complaints). 


  2. When you choose the “Globally” option for Hard Bounces for example, then once a Hard Bounce is received in any of the lists, then Ongage will automatically search for that contact (email address) across all other lists, and change its status to Hard Bounce, in all the other lists where that contact was found.
  3. Typically it is recommended to set up Unsubscribes to deactivate on the per list level, while Complaints and Hard Bounces on the global level, which is the default setting in Ongage.

Appendix

Testing Environment

Does Ongage have any type of testing environment for the purposes of testing changes without interfering with production lists, campaigns and events? 

  • For this purpose you can create a Test List whereby all contacts there will be for the testing purposes.

  • You can also use this list for your Ongage API testing.
  • Moreover can create one or more General Users with limited access to this Test List only.

See our Getting Started Guide → Import Contacts, Add Lists, Migrate into Ongage for more info about adding lists.

How to archive and un-archive a list

Why to archive a list

When a user has many lists and some of them are no longer relevant, but wants to keep them for historical data / archival purposes, they can archive them. Once archived they will no longer appear in the the top bar list drop-down, nor list manager. You can un-archive and restore a list at any time, see instructions below.

How do I archive a list

  • Next to the relevant list go to 'Actions' and click on the 'Archive' icon

              

How do I un-archive a list

  • Click  “Settings” icon
  • Click on Filter
  • In the Archive lists select an option “Only Archived Lists”
  • Click “Apply”
  • In the relevant archived list go to action and click on the un-archive icon
             

Can contacts be added to an archived list

Yes, using the Ongage API add contact methods, you can add new contacts to an archived list.