Create an email marketing list in ActiveCampaign

An email list is a collection of contacts who opted in to receive your marketing emails. These emails can include newsletters, updates, promotional materials, and more.

Lists also serve as a consent and communication management tool and should be organized according to communication types.

Once you create a list in ActiveCampaign, you can add contacts.

Take note

• Campaigns are sent to lists and segments. Segment your lists based on who you want to target for your email campaign. This allows for targeted campaigns without creating new lists
• You are required to have at least one list in your account before you can create or import an automation
• It is not recommended to create an email list for one-off emails
• Use a preference center to let subscribers select the communications they want to receive. This ensures that your direct campaigns reach only those who are interested in hearing from you
• Do not create more lists than you intend to send emails to
• Learn best practices for creating and maintaining email marketing lists

Create a list

1. Click "Contacts" on the left menu.
2. Click "Lists" on the secondary menu. If this menu is collapsed, hover your mouse over the ActiveCampaign logo at the top left and click the arrows that appear to the right to expand. 
3. Click "Add a list."
4. A modal window will appear. Complete the following fields:
   • List name
     Make the list name short yet descriptive. Note that contacts will be able to see your list name. 
   • List URL
     Add your company's website to this field. This is required for compliance purposes. 
   • List description
     Use this to remind contacts why they are on your list and why you are emailing them. This is helpful because it's likely that your contacts subscribed to a lot of different newsletters, and may not remember signing up for yours. A gentle reminder can help increase engagement with your campaigns. These reminders are not automatically added to your campaigns. Learn how to use a personalization tag to include this reminder.
5. Click the "Add" button. 

Add contacts to your list

There are many different ways to add contacts to your list. Click the links below to learn more about each option:

• How to import contacts from a CSV file
• How to manually add one-off contacts to a list
• Create a subscription form
• How to use the email opt-in method
• How to use the subscribe by SMS method