Creating Dynamic Mailing Groups

A mailing group is a collection of names and email addresses that can be selected as the recipient of an email message. A mailing group can include email addresses for a person, vendor, administrative office, or other entity that has an email address entered in the system.

If the system stores more than one email address for a person or entity, the default email address is used for the mailing group. If no default is specified, all recorded email addresses for the person or entity are included.

You create a mailing group by setting up one or more filters on the Dynamic Mailing Groups component. To go to the Dynamic Mailing Groups component, select My Outbox from the Actions menu on the Menu Bar. On the Outbox Overview component, click the Dynamic Mailing Groups Quick link.

The Dynamic Mailing Groups component lists the mailing groups already set up in the system. Each row includes an Actions button and the mailing group Name. When you expand a mailing group row, you can view the filter criteria that define the mailing group.

Filter criteria are statements that include a field, an operator, and an expected value. For example, filter criteria can narrow the possible recipients to only those whose email addresses contain DOT. Each mailing group can include multiple filter criteria statements to further narrow the recipient list.

To create a new mailing group, following these steps:

1. Click the New button.
   
   A new mailing group row is added to the bottom of the list of mailing groups.

2. Enter a descriptive name for the mailing group in the Name field.

3. In the Filter section, click the arrow in the first filter box.

4. On the drop-down menu, select a field that will be used to filter the recipients included in the mailing group.
   
   The field name you selected is displayed in the first filter box, and additional boxes are shown in the Filter section.

5. Click the arrow in the next filter box.

6. On the drop-down menu, select an operator for the filter, such as Contains, Begins With, or Equal To.
   
   The operators available on this menu vary according to which field you selected in the first filter box.

7. To view a preview of the usernames and email addresses that will be included in the mailing group as a result of the filter criteria statement, click the Test Filter Results button.
   
   usernames and email addresses that match your criteria are listed at the bottom of the mailing group row. If filter criteria statement you entered does not produce any results, change the criteria as needed.

8. You can continue adding additional filter criteria statements to further narrow the list of recipients. You can delete a criteria statement from the mailing group by clicking the Delete button to the right of the statement.

9. When you are finished specifying filter criteria, click Save. When you create an email message, you can select a mailing group as the recipient. All of the users and email addresses that match the filter criteria in the mailing group are included as recipients of the message.

To maintain a mailing group, click in a field and add, delete, or change information as needed.

To delete a newly added mailing group, click the Delete button on the mailing group row. The system deletes the row immediately.

To delete a saved mailing group, select Delete from the Actions menu on the mailing group row. The system shades the row gray and marks it for deletion. To reverse the delete action, click the Undo button.

Click the Save button to apply your changes. The system displays a message to confirm that your changes were saved.

Related topics:

Working with Email Messages

Creating an Email Message