Creating a Primary List

  • Updated

If you are using Marketing Lists in Act-On, it is a best practice to create a single Primary List to house all your contacts. You can then create various segments and append records into one list rather than multiple lists. This list will need to be manually updated to append new records.

All Contacts is now the central place to manage & organize your contacts and segments in Act-On. This article is only for (legacy) Marketing Lists users.

Instructions

Requirements

  • Set up the Standard Field Names in your Act-On account.
  • Identify all the fields that you'll need to use & develop a consistent list schema and list values across all your lists.
  • Create or identify a field in your Primary List that will allow you to determine the original list where the records originated. Ensure that all records from the appended lists contain the same value for this field, so you can create segments based on their originating lists.

Create Your Primary List

  1. Go to Lists > Marketing Lists.
  2. Click + New List (top right).
  3. Enter a Name for the new list and select a Folder.
  4. Under Set Up New List Contents, select Define the column names for a new empty list.
  5. Select any of the Standard Field Names in your Act-On account.
  6. Click Continue.
  7. Add other fields using these options:
    • Add Blank Field: Allows you to create your own custom field.
    • Add Standard Fields: Allows you to choose other Standard Field Names in your Act-On account.
  8. Click Create.

Add Records to Your Primary List

  1. Go to Lists > Marketing Lists and locate your new Primary List.
  2. To the right of your Primary List, click the drop-down arrow.
  3. Click Import/ExportAppend to This List.
  4. Click Add to List Contents drop-down, then select one of the following:
    • If the lists are not present in your Act-On account, select Upload an Excel file or a text (CSV) file and upload your desired records file.
    • If the lists are already present in your Act-On account, select Add the contents of an existing list or segment and select your desired list under Import From:
  5. Under Add How?, select Add all records to the end of the list.
  6. Click Next.
  7. If you don't want to import any fields, uncheck the Import Field checkbox (top left of the table).
  8. Click Finish.

Repeat these steps any time you need to append additional lists or segments to your Primary List.

Remove Duplicate Records from Your Primary List

  1. Go to Lists > Marketing Lists and locate your Primary List.
  2. To the right of your Primary List, click the drop-down arrow.
  3. Click MaintenanceDelete Duplicates.
  4. Select any duplicate records that you'd like to remove from your list
    • If your Primary List doesn't contain any duplicates, you'll see the following:
      No duplicates in [Primary List Name]

Tip! If you need to keep some lists active in addition to your new Primary List, create a List Maintenance Program in your new Primary List to copy records from the current list(s) to your new Primary List.

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