Organize contacts with tags

Open your tags

Tags live with the rest of your audience. Open Contacts, then choose the Tags tab in the row that runs Contacts, Contact Lists, Segments, Tags, Contact Fields. Typing tag into global search gets you there too.

Every tag you have is one row, newest first, twenty-five to a page:

• Tag Name is the tag in its own color. Click it to open the tag.
• Type is what the tag can be attached to, either Contact Tag or Contact List Tag. You pick this when you create it.
• Usage is how many things currently carry the tag, followed by the words in use. This is the number worth scanning: a tag nobody carries is a tag you can delete.
• Created At is when you made it.

Total beside the page title is your tag count. Search by Name filters the list as you type, and the Sort chip offers Most recent, Oldest first, Name A→Z and Name Z→A. Your sort choice is remembered, so the list comes back the way you left it. Once you hold more than one kind of tag, a Type chip appears next to Sort so you can show only contact tags or only list tags.

A small lightning bolt next to a tag name means that tag starts an automation. Step 3 covers what that implies.

Open your tags in Mailsoftly

Create a tag

Press Create Tag. The window asks for three things.

• Name. Keep it short and readable, because it shows up as a chip on every contact who carries it. Two tags of the same kind cannot share a name, so Mailsoftly will stop you from making a second Donor.
• Color. Pick a swatch. It is not decoration only: the color is how you spot the tag at a glance in a long contacts table.
• What will you use this tag for? Contact or Contact List.

You can rename a tag or change its color any time, from the tag’s own page. What you cannot do is convert it from one kind to the other.

Put tags on your contacts

There are four ways in, and they all end up in the same place.

• One person at a time. Open a contact and use the plus button on the Tags card in the left column. Pick a tag, or create one without leaving the window. The x on any chip takes the tag back off.
• In bulk. On the contacts screen, tick the people you want, then choose Assign tag in the action bar that appears. Pick one tag and save. This also works inside a contact list, and it works with select all results, so you can tag thousands of people in one go. Large batches finish in the background, so the counts on the tags screen catch up a moment later.
• At import time. The import wizard has an optional Tags field on its settings step. Type a name, press Add, and every contact in that file arrives already tagged. A name that does not exist yet is created for you as a contact tag.
• From an automation. Add Tag and Remove Tag are steps you can drop into any automation, so a tag can be applied when someone clicks, submits a form, or reaches a branch.

Open a tag to see who carries it

Click any tag name. The tag’s page shows its color, its kind, and Tagged Objects: the exact list of contacts wearing it, searchable by name or email, ten to a page. The x at the end of a row takes the tag off that one person.

Three things live here that are not on the list screen:

• Rename and recolor in place. Click the tag name to edit it, click the color code to open the picker. Both save immediately.
• Create Contact List. For a contact tag, this turns everyone carrying it into a new contact list in one step. The number in brackets is how many people that is. It is a snapshot taken now, not a live link, so contacts tagged later will not join that list on their own.
• Remove Tag from All Objects. This strips the tag off everything at once. It runs in the background and can take a moment on a big tag.

Tag, list or segment

This is the one thing to get straight, because Mailsoftly gives you all three and they are not interchangeable.

A tag describes a person: it is a sticker, and someone can wear several. A list holds people, and it is the thing a campaign is actually addressed to. A segment is a saved rule that works out its own membership and keeps it up to date on its own. Practically: you cannot send a campaign to a tag, because the recipient menu on a campaign only offers contact lists and segments. So tag first, then either press Create Contact List on the tag once, or write a segment whose rule reads that tag, which is the better answer when you want the group to stay current. Segment your audience covers the rule builder, and Import contacts and manage lists covers lists. There is a fourth thing that is easy to confuse with a tag: a contact field, which stores a value rather than a yes or no. Manage your contact fields draws the line.