This article explains how to create audience groups and how to add, remove, and manage the contacts in your groups.

All of the contacts in your Emma account are collectively referred to as your audience. One of the ways to divide and organize your audience is to put contacts into groups. You can create as many groups as you like, and each of your contacts can be in multiple groups, just one, or none. Audience groups are used to organize contacts by anything from unique business markers, like being a donor or a volunteer, to a broader scope of things, like geography, customer type, or subscription preferences.

In this article Video tutorial Regular groups versus test groups How to create a group How to add contacts to groups How to archive, rename, or export a group How to restore or delete a group How to remove contacts from groups Important information about audience groups Additional resources

Watch a quick video tutorial on adding groups

Regular groups versus test groups

You can create two different types of audience groups: regular groups and test groups. Test groups are made up of a few people who know they will be receiving a test of your campaign prior to the final send. For example, your test group might include colleagues who can proofread the email for typos, or stakeholders who want to see the content before it's sent.

When you send a test, you will have the option to select a test group as its audience. Test groups can only hold 10 contacts at most and they cannot be added to legacy signup forms the way that regular groups can. We also recommend including the word "test" in the group name to make it easier to tell the difference between regular groups and test groups.

Ⓘ	When you send a campaign to a test group, Emma will automatically add [TEST] to the subject line, even if you are not sending a test campaign.

How to create a group

Here's how to create a new audience group:

1. Head to your Audience tab.
2. Click on the Groups section in the panel on the left.
3. Click on the Create a group button on the right.
4. Enter a name for the group. If this will be a test group, check the box that says: This is a test group; in which case, we also suggest adding the word "test" to the group name.
5. Click on the Create button.

The new group will appear in your Groups page under the Regular tab. If it's a test group, it will be under the Test tab instead.

How to add contacts to groups

You can add contacts to your groups when you import a file or when you manually enter contacts one-by-one. You can also choose to connect a signup form to a group so that anyone who fills out that form gets put in the corresponding group.

How to archive, rename, or export a group

Archiving a group will not archive or delete the contacts within it, and it will not affect the contact's status either. However, if the group you want to archive contains contacts who are not members of any other group, they will become "in limbo" and you may need to create a segment to find contacts who are in limbo at some point in the future.

To archive, rename, or export a group, following these steps:

1. Head to your Audience tab.
2. Click on the Groups section in the panel on the left.
3. Click on the dropdown arrow that corresponds to the desired group.
   • To archive the group, choose the Archive option from the dropdown menu.
   • To rename the group, choose the Rename option from the dropdown menu.
   • To export the group, choose the Export option from the dropdown menu.

To archive more than one group, check the box that corresponds to each group that you'd like to archive. Then, click on the Archive that appears at the top of the page.

How to restore or delete a group

Once you've archived a group, you can choose to restore it or permanently delete it by following these steps:

1. Head to your archive.
   • Tiered accounts: Open to the appropriate subaccount, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of your screen, and choose Archived items from the dropdown menu.
   • Standalone accounts: Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of your screen and choose Archived items from the dropdown menu.
2. Click on the Groups tab.
3. Select one or more groups by checking the box next to each name.
4. Click on the Actions button above and select Restore to return the selected groups to your audience or Delete to permanently delete them. You can also restore or delete a single group by clicking on the corresponding dropdown arrow and selecting the appropriate option from the menu.
5. Read the pop-up message carefully and then confirm your selection.

How to remove contacts from groups

You can remove contacts from a group by following these steps:

1. Head to your Audience tab.
2. Click on the Groups section in the panel on the left.
3. Click on the name of the desired group to open it.
4. Check the boxes that correspond to each contact that you would like to remove.
5. Click on the Actions button at the top of the page and select Remove from group from the dropdown menu.

You can also remove a single contact from a group by following these steps:

1. Head to your Audience tab.
2. Click on the Contacts section in the panel on the left. The Contacts section is the first option in the panel, so you may not need to click on it.
3. On the right side of the record, there is a section labeled Tags. Uncheck the box next to each group that you would like to remove this contact from. You can also check the box next to each group that you would like to add this contact to, if desired.

Important information about audience groups

You can create as many groups as you like but it's important to archive groups that are no longer in use. Contacts are copied to groups, not moved. That means that a single contact can be in multiple groups, if desired. They can also be in both test groups and regular groups. You can remove contacts from a group at any time without affecting the group. If you add additional email addresses to a group before any mailings using that group is scheduled to send, those addresses will be included in the scheduled send. This does not apply to scheduled split test campaigns. Additionally, if you add contacts to a group shortly before a scheduled campaign is sent, they may not receive the campaign due to the nature of the queueing process for mailings. We recommend that all contacts be in at least one group. Contacts who are not a member of any group are considered "in limbo" and you may need to create a segment to find them. If a contact is a member of multiple groups, and you send a mailing to two or more of those groups, Emma will deduplicate to ensure the contact is only sent one email. Archiving a group does not archive the contacts within the group, just the group itself.

Additional resources

• Audience Tab: Overview
• Audience Tab: Segments
• Audience Tab: Exporting Contacts
• Audience Tab: Managing Contacts
• Working with subscriptions
• How to import contacts from a file

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*In April 2022, Emma's legacy editor was replaced with a new drag and drop editor. Accounts that existed prior to this change still have access to the legacy editor through their previously saved templates and campaigns, however new, from-scratch campaigns can only be created in the new drag and drop editor. Accounts that were created after this change only have access to the new drag and drop editor. Please refer to our new editor FAQ article for more information.