Managing Contacts in a Mailing List

About Managing Contacts in a Mailing List

Once your contacts have been uploaded to a mailing list, you are welcome to edit their information, remove them from the list, opt them in and out, and much more.

Contact Information Menu

When you select a contact, a menu opens to the right containing information about them.

The information in the menu is almost exactly the same as the contact information menu in the Directory Contacts tab, except where otherwise noted below.

Attributes

The Attributes section contains editable contact information. The Opted In status refers to whether the contact is opted into the mailing list, not the entire directory.

Changes made to the contact information will be reflected in the directory, too.

This section also contains embedded data saved to the contact. Here the values can be edited by highlighting or clicking into them.

Any private data for your contact will also be displayed here. This is only visible to users with access to the list the private data belongs to.

Lists

This section only contains information for mailing lists other than the one you are viewing. For example, if you are looking at Mailing List 1 but the contact is also in Mailing List 2, then only Mailing List 2 will appear in this section. If the contact is only in Mailing List 1, this section will be blank.

Statistics

The Contact Stats section contains information on the number of times the contact has been sent invites, and when. This information only applies to invitations sent to this mailing list. If the contact belongs to another mailing list, those statistics will be excluded here.

Timeline

The touchpoint timeline along the bottom only displays data for the contact for this specific mailing list. For example, if Dorothy’s in three different contact lists, and has been sent a different survey invite for each mailing list, only the selected mailing list’s invite and survey response will be shown.

Otherwise, this timeline works exactly as it does in the Directory Contacts tab, including the fact that it is inaccessible when you select multiple contacts at a time.

Contact Actions

Contact actions can be accessed by clicking the gear next to a contact’s name in the menu. You can also edit multiple contacts in the list by selecting contacts with the checkboxes along the left and then using the 3 dot button on the far-right.

Actions for a single selected user

• Edit: Edit the contact details, such as name, email address, and embedded data. This works the same as it does in the directory.
• Add to list: Allows you to add the selected contacts to or remove them from another list.
  Qtip: Looking to combine the contents of two lists into one? This is the best method for merging mailing lists.
• Remove from List: Remove selected contact from the mailing list. This contact will still exist in the directory.
• Opt-out of directory: Opt the contact out of the entire directory.
• Delete contact: Delete the contact from the entire directory.
  Warning: Deleting a contact will permanently remove it and its data from the directory. Any survey responses this contact has provided will not be deleted, but the response will no longer be associated with the contact. This cannot be undone.
  

Actions for multiple selected users

• Export contacts: Allows you to export the selected contacts.
• Add to another list: Allows you to add the selected contacts to or remove them from another list.
  Qtip: Looking to combine the contents of two lists into one? This is the best method for merging mailing lists.
• Remove from another list: Remove selected contacts from the mailing list. These contacts will still exist in the directory.
• Edit embedded data: Edit embedded data.
  Qtip: Are you looking to add data collected from your surveys as embedded data to your contacts? Try using the XM Directory task.
• Opt-out of list / Opt-in to list: Opt the selected contacts in or out of the list. Contacts can be opted-out on multiple levels. See Opt Out Behavior for how these levels interact with each other.
  Qtip: When a recipient marks your email as spam, they can be opted out of the list, although they will not be opted out of the directory. See Avoid Being Marked As Spam for more details.

Importing Updates to an Existing List

Sometimes you may want to update contact information for many contacts all at once. You can update contact information in bulk by following the steps below:

1. First, understand what the deduplication rules are in your directory. If you are a directory admin, make sure that deduplication rules are configured in the directory settings.
2. In your contact list, click List Options.
   
3. Select Export list contacts and export your contacts to CSV or TSV.
4. Open the file on your computer.
5. In the file, remove extraneous columns such as ContactID, CreationDate, and any embedded data you don’t necessarily want to update. Make sure you keep fields used to identify the contact – this may vary by organization, but are often Email or ExternalDataReference (often a unique ID or username of some sort).
   
6. Edit / add the information you want to update and save your changes.

   Attention: When uploading a file with blank values, it may remove values from your contacts. Blank values behave differently depending on your contacts infrastructure:

   • If you are on the new contacts platform, COP, and upload a file with blank values, then the behavior depends on the type of field. Contact metadata fields (first name, email, etc) will be removed, while contact embedded data fields (extra information uploaded with the contact) will be kept.
   • If you are on the old contacts platform, TA, and upload a file with blank values, then this will update that field to have no value.

   Reach out to your XM Success Manager if you have questions about which contacts infrastructure your brand has.

7. In your contact list, click Add contacts to list.
   
8. Upload a file as you would normally. The directory’s deduplication settings will make sure contacts get updated instead of being re-added.
   

Editing Contacts in a List, Segment, or Sample

If you need to, you can edit a contact’s basic contact information, embedded data, and global demographics. You can change just one contact at a time, or multiple contacts at once.

One Contact

Editing a single contact in a list, sample, or segment works the same way it does in the directory. Select a single contact, then on the right, find the field you want to change. A new window will open where you can edit the contact’s information.

See Contact Attributes and Editing a Contact for more details.

Multiple or All Contacts

You can edit the information of multiple contacts at once in a list, sample, or segment. This works the same way it does in the directory. Select your contacts, click the 3 dots button, then click the field you want to change. A new window will open where you can edit the contacts’ information.

See Managing Multiple Directory Contacts for more details.

Choosing Which Contact Info Columns to Display

You can change the default columns of contact information that are included in all mailing lists and in the directory.

For detailed steps, see this support page.

Projects That Can Use Mailing Lists

You can use XM Directory to build mailing lists and send invitations for several types of Qualtrics projects. However, not every Qualtrics project type is compatible with XM Directory.

XM Directory can be used to send the following:

• Survey projects
• Conjoint / MaxDiff
• Certain non-EX XM Solutions

In contrast, XM Directory cannot be used to distribute any Employee Experience (EX) projects. That means that no EX projects can be used with XM Directory, including Engagement, Pulse, 360, and more.

XM Directory contact data is completely separate from the employee / participant information saved in the Employee Directory. That means that data edited in one directory will never affect the other.

FAQs