Can I organize contacts into groups?

Having the ability to organize your contacts into groups is an important feature of any SMS marketing service. With Mobile Text Alerts, you can add, edit, and remove groups and contacts via the online dashboard, which makes it easy to keep your contact lists updated.

(For instructions on how to manage groups via the mobile app, click here.)

Table of contents:

I. Adding Groups

II. Adding Contacts to Groups

III. Removing Contacts from Groups

IV. Editing and Deleting Groups

V. Other Things to Know

I. Adding Groups

Step 1: Go to the "Manage Groups" page

To add a group, first log in to your account here. Then click on "Manage Groups" on the left side of your screen:

You will then see this page:

Step 2: Click "Add Group"

To add a group, click the orange "Add Group" button towards the top of your screen.

Step 3: Enter group info

Input the group name and an optional description for the group. Also, select whether or not you'd like your group to be an "Adaptive Group" and, if so, configure the group conditions.

Click "Add Group" when you're finished configuring your group.

II. Adding Subscribers to Groups

NOTE: If your group is "adaptive," subscribers will be automatically added to the group based on the conditions you designated.

Below are some ways you can add subscribers to "standard" groups.

OPTION 1: Add subscribers manually

You can add subscribers to your group manually from your online dashboard.

• Step 1: Go to the "Subscribers→Manage" page.

• Step 2: Select the row of a subscriber, or of multiple subscribers, that you want to add to your group.

• Step 3: Click "Manage Groups" towards the top of your screen and then click "Add To" on the row of the group to which you'd like to add the selected subscriber(s).

 

OPTION 2: Add people to groups via spreadsheet

• Make sure you have a GroupName column in your spreadsheet and upload a spreadsheet per the instructions here.

 

OPTION 3: Have contacts sign up for groups on your sign-up page

Your contacts will have the option to sign up for your various groups from your sign-up page.

Your contacts can simply check which groups they want to be added to, click "Sign Up Now," and they will be automatically added to those groups. (More information about the sign-up page can be found here.)

OPTION 4: Have contacts text in to be subscribed to a group

If you have groups set up, you are able to set up opt-in keywords and assign a group to those new keywords on the "Keywords" page. People can text the keyword in to the number shown on the Keywords page to be subscribed to your account and automatically added to the assigned group.

III. Removing Subscribers from Groups

OPTION 1: Remove contacts from groups on the "Subscribers→Manage" page

• Step 1: Go to the "Subscribers→Manage" page.

• Step 2: Click on the row of a subscriber (or hold shift and click on the rows of multiple subscribers) that you want to remove from your group.

• Step 3: Click "Manage Groups" towards the top of your screen and then click "Remove From" on the row of the group from which you'd like to remove the selected subscriber(s).

 

OPTION 2: Remove contacts from groups on the "Manage Groups" page

• Step 1: Go to the "Manage Groups" page.

• Step 2: Click "View Members" on the row of the group from which you'd like to remove subscribers. Another box will appear on your screen showing you a list of all the members in that group.

• Step 3: Click the trash bin ("Delete") button on the row of the contact that you want to remove from that group. (Note that this will only remove the subscriber from the group; it will not delete the subscriber from your account.)

OPTION 3: Have people remove themselves from a group by replying "Leave GroupName" to any of your messages

• If your contact wants to remove themselves from a group they can reply to any of your messages with the word Leave and then the name of the group.
• For example, if the group name was "Staff," your contact could reply "Leave Staff" to your message and they will be removed from the Staff group.
• This function allows contacts to remove themselves from a group without unsubscribing them from your account totally.

IV. Editing and Deleting Groups

Go to the "Manage Groups" page to edit or remove your groups.

 

Editing

To edit information about the group, click the "Details" button on the group's row.

Deleting

To delete a group from your account, select the group(s) that you would like to remove and click "Delete Selected" button that appears at the top. (Note: this will not delete any of the contacts in that group.)

V. Other Things to Know

There are a few other features on the "Manage Groups" page that you may find helpful.

Search

Type a query into the search box to quickly find a specific group on your account. This is especially useful if you have a large number of groups on your account.

Import

Click “Import” to input a list of contacts to add to a group.

View Members

You can see a list of all the subscribers that belong to a specific group by clicking "View Members" on that group’s row. This will cause a screen to come up showing a report of the members' information.

Details

You can click "Details" on the row of any group to view and edit several pieces of information regarding that group:

• View and edit the group name and description
• If the group is an "adaptive group," view and edit the conditions under which subscribers are added to the group
• View and export a list of the subscribers that are in the group
• View account users affiliated with the group (if any)
• View opt-in keywords affiliated with the group (if any)
• View drip campaigns affiliated with the group (if any)
• View the web sign-up page affiliated with the group (if any)