How to Create and Manage Contact Lists

Overview

Lists let you group your contacts — for example, past clients, a sphere of influence, or this month's open-house visitors — so you can find, update, and email the right people together. A contact can be on more than one list, and lists only hold memberships: removing a contact from a list or deleting a list never deletes the contact.

Who this applies to: All users with access to Contacts

Plan requirement: Pro, Enterprise

Contacts isn't included on the Essentials plan.

Finding Your Lists

Click Contacts in the left navigation. Your lists appear under Lists in the sidebar on the left, with the number of contacts on each. Click a list to see only its contacts. For what each item in the sidebar holds, see Understanding Contacts in the New BombBomb.

Each list has two menus with the actions in this article:

• The list's menu in the sidebar — point to the list and click the ⋯ that appears next to its name: Rename, Duplicate, Export, View History, and Delete.
• The menu above the contacts table — open the list and click ⋯ in the top-right corner of the table. It has the same actions plus Suppress All and Remove Suppressed, and Delete is called Delete List.

Your lists belong to you. Your teammates — including account admins — don't see them on their Contacts page.

🗣️ Note: Auto Lists have fewer actions. An Auto List's sidebar menu has Duplicate, Export, and View History, and the menu above its contacts table adds Suppress All. You can't rename or delete an Auto List. The rest of this article covers the lists you create.

Creating a List

1. In the sidebar, click + next to Lists.
2. In Create new List, enter a List name.
3. Click Create List.

The new list appears in the sidebar with 0 contacts.

List names don't have to be unique — for example, My List and my list can both exist, and you can rename a list to a name you already use — so choose names you can tell apart.

You can also create a list while you work with contacts: click New List in Manage lists, or type a new name in the list search when you add a contact, paste email addresses, upload a CSV file, or edit a contact's lists, then click Create list "<name>". A list you create this way is saved right away, even if you cancel what you were doing.

Adding and Removing Contacts

Add or remove contacts from the contacts table

Use Manage lists to put one or more contacts on lists, or take them off, from any view — All Contacts or a list.

1. Choose the contacts:
   • For one contact, click ⋯ at the end of their row, then click Manage lists.
   • For several, select the checkboxes next to them, then click Manage lists in the selection bar.
2. Check each list the contacts should be on, and uncheck each list they should come off.
   • To add them to a list that doesn't exist yet, click New List.
3. Click Save.

Unchecking a list only removes the contacts from that list. They stay in All Contacts and on any other lists.

Add or remove lists from a contact's details

1. Click the contact's email address to open their details.
2. Click the Lists tab.
3. Search for a list and select it to add the contact, or click the X next to a list to remove them.
4. Click Save.

Remove contacts from the list you're viewing

1. Open the list in the sidebar.
2. Click ⋯ at the end of the contact's row and click Remove from list, or select several contacts and click Remove from list in the selection bar.
3. Click Remove to confirm.

The contacts are removed from this list only. They aren't deleted or removed from any other lists.

Managing a List

Open the list's menu in the sidebar or above the contacts table, then choose an action.

• Rename — enter a new Name in Rename List and click Save. The contacts on the list don't change.
• Duplicate — creates a new list with the same contacts, leaving out any suppressed contacts. In Duplicate List, the New List Name starts as the current name followed by Updated — for example, Past Clients Updated. Change it if you like and click Save. The original list stays as it is.
• Export — downloads the list's contacts as a CSV file named after the list (for example, Past Clients.csv). There's no dialog — the export starts as soon as you click. The file includes each contact's details, the date they were added, whether their address is invalid, their relationship score and level, and any custom fields. For a list you created, it also includes opt-in and opt-out dates. If the list has more than 50,000 contacts, you'll get an email with a link to the file instead.
• View History — shows the CSV imports into this list, with the date of each one. If you've never imported contacts into the list, you'll see No import history for this list. This is import history only — not emails sent to the list or contact activity.
• Delete (Delete List above the table) — permanently removes the list after you click Delete to confirm. The contacts on it aren't deleted — they stay in All Contacts and on your other lists. If you were viewing the list, you're taken back to All Contacts.

A duplicate is a separate list from the moment you create it. Contacts you add to or remove from the original later don't change the copy. Each contact record is shared, though — if you edit a contact's details, the change shows on every list they're on.

Want a list of all your contacts? Open All Contacts, click ⋯ above the table, and choose Duplicate. This saves everyone you have right now, except suppressed contacts, as a new list. For a large number of contacts, it may take a moment to finish.

Suppressing Contacts on a List

Suppressed contacts appear in All Suppressed and won't receive your emails. Two actions in the menu above the contacts table work on a whole list at once:

• Suppress All — suppresses every contact on the list. Click Suppress All again to confirm. The contacts stay on the list, marked Manually Suppressed.
• Remove Suppressed — takes every suppressed contact off the list. Click Remove to confirm. The contacts aren't deleted and stay suppressed; they're only removed from this list.

Suppression applies to the contact, not the list: a suppressed contact won't receive your emails, whichever list you send to.

To undo Suppress All, unsuppress the contacts one at a time: open All Suppressed, click ⋯ at the end of a contact's row, and click Unsuppress. There's no way to unsuppress a whole list at once.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does deleting a list delete its contacts? No. Only the list is removed. Its contacts stay in All Contacts and on any other lists they're on.

Can I undo deleting a list? No. The list is permanently removed. Your contacts are still there, so you can create a new list and add them again.

Can a contact be on more than one list? Yes. In Manage lists, check every list the contact should be on.

If I duplicate a list, does the copy stay in sync with the original? No. The copy starts with the same contacts (minus any suppressed ones), but adding or removing contacts on the original later doesn't change the copy.

What's the difference between Remove from list and deleting a contact? Remove from list only takes the contact off the list you're viewing. Deleting a contact removes it from your BombBomb account entirely, including its email tracking data.

Can my teammates see my lists? No — not even account admins. Lists and contacts belong to the user who creates them.

Next Steps

• How to Add Contacts
• How to Import Contacts from a CSV File
• Understanding Contacts in the New BombBomb