Manage Contacts

In “Manage Contacts”, you can manage your contact lists:

1. Add Contacts. Use this to add contacts one at a time.

2. Find/Edit Contacts. Use this to search for your contacts and then make changes to them.

3. Create/Edit Lists. Use this to create new lists.

4. Import Email Addresses. Use this to import contact lists from Outlook or from a spreadsheet.

5. Create Subscriber Form

6. Export Lists. Use this to export contact lists to your computer.

7. Merge Lists. Use this to combine your contact lists.

1. Add Contacts. 

Add contacts, one at a time, to your contact lists.

• Decide whether you want to send these contacts an opt-in message.

  • Doing so is recommended if the contacts are not customers or have not already provided their permission to you to send emails. (Other factors include: the age of your list, your industry, the source of your list, the type of business you are in and the Internet Service Providers of the contacts). This step confirms that the email address is valid, but it also ensures that your lists are made up of contacts who are truly interested in receiving email emails from you. If you decide to do so, the contacts won’t receive email emails from you until they have clicked on a link in the opt-in message. When a contact clicks on the link, their status is changed by Announcer Pro and they will now receive email emails from you.

  • If you decide to send an opt-in message, click on the checkmark (to add it) that is to the left of “Send an opt-in message to subscribers (recommended)”

• To add a contact, enter the email address (required) and the First and Last names (optional), select the lists you want to add the contact to by clicking on the checkbox to the left of the list(s)., and then click on the “add” button.

• If you want to enter additional information (address, phone, etc.) about your contact, after you’ve finished adding contacts, you’ll need to go to “Find & Edit Contacts”, find the contact and then enter the additional information.

2. Find & Edit Contacts. 

You can edit the contacts in your lists.

• “Search Contacts”. You can use the following to find your contacts:

  • “Search” You can select name, email, company, address, phone, city/town, state/province, country

  • “With Status”. Default is “all”. You can select “active” (contacts who receive your emails), “blocked” (contacts who have opted not to receive your emails), “pending” (contacts to whom you sent an opt in email who haven’t yet opted in) or “Confirmed by User”

  • “That”. Default is “contains”. You can also do an “exact” match.

  • Next, enter what you want to search on. (i.e., the email address).

  • “In”. Default is “all lists”. You can select a specific list.

• The results of your search will be displayed in “Search Results”.

• Find the contact you wish to edit. You can:

  • Delete the contact by clicking on the delete icon in the far right column, and then clicking on "Yes". (Before you click on “yes”, you can undo the deletion by clicking on the “no”).

  • Edit the contact by clicking on the contact. You will be taken to an “Edit Contact” screen where you can:

    • Change contact information. (Note: you can change anything but the email address. If the email address is incorrect, you need to delete the contact and then re-add the contact with the correct email address).

    • Change the lists the contact is assigned to.

      • To add the contact to a list, click on the box to the left of the list (checkmark will be displayed).

      • To remove the contact from a list, click on the checkmark in the box to the left of the list (box will then be empty).

    • Send an opt-in email to the contact by clicking on “Send Opt-in Email”.. (You may send up to 3 opt-in emails.)

When done making changes to the contact, click on “Apply” and you will be taken back to the “Search Contacts” page.

3. Create/Edit Lists. 

You can add a new list, edit the contacts within a list, or delete a list.

• To add a new list, enter the name of the list and then click on “Create”

  • To add contacts to the list, you need to use “Add Contacts” (one at a time), “Edit Contacts” (one at a time) or “Import Contacts.

• To edit the contacts within a list, click on the list. The list of contacts will be displayed below and you can change contact information, change the lists the contact is assigned to, or send an opt-in email.

• To delete a list, click on the “delete” icon (right-hand column). If there are contacts assigned to the list, you will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the list.

4. Import Email Addresses. 

You can import contacts from outlook or from a spreadsheet:

1. From a spreadsheet:

• An unlimited number of contacts is permitted, but Announcer Pro can only import 1500 contacts at a time. If you have more than 1500 contacts, multiple imports will be required

• Create your own spreadsheet of contacts (i.e. Microsoft Excel) and save it as .CSV file. Note: the spreadsheet must contain column headings and the minimum info required is the contact’s email address.

• Click on the "browse" button and find and select the CSV file on your computer that you wish to upload. Then, click the "import” button.

  • Select the lists you want to add the contacts to. (You can also create a new list and then add the contacts to this new list).

  • Decide whether you want to send these contacts an opt-in message

    • Doing so is recommended if the contacts are not customers or have not already provided their permission for you to send emails. (Other factors include: the age of your list, your industry, the source of your list, the type of business you are in and the Internet Service Providers of the contacts). This step confirms that the email address is valid, but it also ensures that your lists are made up of contacts who are truly interested in receiving email emails from you. If you decide to do so, the contacts won’t receive email emails from you until they have clicked on a link in the opt-in message. When a contact clicks on the link, their status is changed by Announcer Pro and they will now receive email emails from you.

    • If you decide to send an opt-in message, click on the checkmark (to add it) that is to the left of “Send Opt in Message to subscribers.”

• Click the “import” button.

How to import contacts using CSV file

Step 1 – Create a .csv spreadsheet

Create a spreadsheet with all your contacts. The spreadsheet can be made in Microsoft Excel or Open Office. Add in all desired contacts. For a list of contacts to be successfully uploaded, column heading are required as part of the spreadsheet.

NOTE: Below is a sample spreadsheet. At minimum, the column heading Email is required in a final version of your spreadsheet. All other fields and data are optional.

Step 2 – Save file

Once you have created the spreadsheet, the spreadsheet needs to be saved in .csv format.

For example, using "Microsoft Office Excel" choose File -> Save As

Step 3 - Upload File

Click on the Browse for file (or drag and drop this file to specified area) button from the Import Contacts from a Spreadsheet section, locate the contacts spreadsheet saved in .csv format, click Upload

2. From Cut and Paste Email List:

• You can type in manually or use the cut/copy and paste functions to provide a list of 1-1500 emails that will be added to a contact list.

• This method will only retain email information for the contact. Any further information will have to be added manually.

5. Create Subscriber Form.

Subscriber Form builder gives you the ability to customize the look and feel of your subscriber form so that it can match the colors of your site. You can easily choose which list the subscribers are placed into as well as control over the fields displayed on the subscriber form.

• Add Name of subscriber form

• Choose list of contacts to which subscribed customers will be added

• Click on the “Create” button and start editing the form

  • You can add the following fields to the subscriber form:

    • Email Address

    • Full Name

    • Company Name

    • Address

    • Address Line 2

    • City/Town

    • State/Prov

    • Zip/Postal Code

    • Country

    • Phone

    • Notes

    • Section Break

  • At Field Settings you can:

    • mark/unmark each field as required

    • add/remove field

    • change order of the fields

  • At Form Settings you can add:

    • Form Title

    • Description

    • Button text

    • Background color

    • Border color

    • Text color

    • Form Name

    • Choose Contact list

• To save the Subscriber Form you need to click on the “Save” button

• After saving the pop-up with information how to implement this form on your website will be displayed

6. Export Lists. 

You can export your contact lists to your computer as a CSV file (which you can use in a spreadsheet program like Excel) or an HTML file.

• Select the list(s) you wish to export by clicking on the box in the right-most column. (A checkmark will be displayed in selected lists. You can un-select by clicking on the checkmark).

  • You can select all lists by clicking on the box in the right-most column of the “Lists” heading line.

• Select the format of the exported file. Either click on the “Export to HTML” button or click on the “Export to CSV” button.

7. Merge Lists. 

You can merge one or more lists into another list.

• Step 1: “Select the list(s) to merge”. Click on the box to the left of each list you wish to select.

• Step 2: “Select the list to merge into or enter the name of a new list: Either click on the circle to the left of the list you would like to merge into or enter a list name in the “type here to create new list” box.

  • If a contact is in more than one of your lists, it will only be in the merged list once.

• After completing steps 1 and 2, click “Apply”. NOTE: Original lists remain after the merge is completed.