Creating Mailing Lists

Many clients want to separate their contact list in VoterVoice into separate mailing lists. That's a simple task, and it only takes 3 quick steps:

1. Create a Custom Field
2. Update Your Contact List
3. Save a Search

Before beginning, you will need a spreadsheet with the contacts you want to identify as being in the new subset. 

Create a Custom Field

You can find more information on custom fields here. Note, though, that this step will not be necessary if necessary is already in the system (for instance, which state someone lives in).

VoterVoice works like most any other mail sender in the respect that your contacts are actually in a single database (we call that the Default List), but you can add something to identify different subsets of contacts. Other companies call those things like groups, flags, tags, or circles. We call them custom fields.

Navigate to People > Contacts > Custom Fields, and click on the "New Custom Field" button to add a designation for your new subset. 

Give it an easily recognizable name, and choose a data type that matches the field in your csv file that identifies the designation you want to add. If it's in it's own field, a yes/no data type is probably most appropriate; but multiple choice with either single or multiple answers would be best for a field that contains any of a number of values - such as one for identifying member types. 

Update Your Contact List

You can find more information on updating your contact list here.

Once the custom field is added, move to the List Uploads tab and update your contact list with your csv file as normal. 

On the Field Mappings page of the Upload Tool, you will see any previously mapped fields already saved to their correct places and any unmapped fields ready to be added to the mapping. Make sure you map at least the new custom field, plus any other information you need to include. 

Save a Search

You can find more information on performing advanced searches here.

Now that the raw data is in the VoterVoice contact list, move to the Search Contacts tool and choose to perform a new search. 

Enter search terms for the new field you added. If you created a yes/no custom field, your search will look like this:

Click the search button, and then click the save search button. Give the saved search a recognizable name and opt to share it with other administrators. 

Please do note that saving a search in VoterVoice does not save the results of that search - just the criteria. That means that every time you click on it, you will always get the most up-to-date results. 

Any time you go to send a broadcast, you can opt to pare the list of recipients down with an advanced search. Now that you have a search saved for the contacts in this mailing list, that saved search will appear as an easy option to choose.