Lists overview

Lists in Messages and Messages XR are the recipient management feature where you create, organize, and manage the groups of people you communicate with. Lists can be populated by constituent searches, Group Manager groups, contacts, or bulk uploads, and support both email and SMS subscriptions.

In this article

• What is the Lists feature? 
• Lists vs Groups
• Benefits of using lists
• Manage your lists
• Teach your community how to manage their subscriptions

What is the Lists feature? 

Lists is a feature within Messages and Messages XR that allows you to segment people in strategic ways, resulting in more effective and targeted communication.

• Add and remove subscribers using one of the many methods that works best for you.
• Allow users to Subscribe and Unsubscribe themselves to lists of their choice.  

To get started locate the Lists feature in the Messages left-navigation. 

Lists vs Groups

There are different ways to segment the people who will receive your messaging. It's easy to confuse Lists with Groups (created in Group Manager) as both are used often here at Finalsite. This article will focus on how Lists work but we will refer to Groups as they are often used to populate Lists. 

See also: 

• Add Groups to Lists in Messages and Messages XR

Benefits of using lists

• segment your recipients in useful and efficient ways
• create and send more targeted communication
• increase parent satisfaction by allowing your community to manage their communication preferences (login required)
• allow ways for recipients to easily opt-in/subscribe and opt-out of/unsubscribe from mailings (no login needed to unsubscribe)
• send notifications to mobile app
• add subscribers the way that works best for you
  • Dynamically from groups created in Group Manager
  • Static, uploaded data
• send out informative and relevant communication (not for Urgent communication!)

Manage your lists

The Lists feature helps you to get organized and target your communication in a strategic way. Create topic-based lists that are housed inside of folders. Create naming conventions to help you know what is being sent, how, and to whom!

Other tasks you can learn to do in Lists are:

• get organized
• name your lists
• create groups that can populate your lists
• add members and recipients to a list (multiple different ways to do this!)
• configure list settings
• delete a list

Teach your community how to manage their subscriptions

The effectiveness of the Lists feature has a lot to do with how much you are teaching your families to do their part! 

• Step 1: Follow the steps in the guide, "Help your community users manage their account preferences" to make sure you understand all that is possible for them!
• Step 2: Share this great resource with your community: "Manage your account preferences" which shows them how to adjust their notifications, preferences, and subscriptions.