Contacts, lists, and segments

CopyLoop uses related but different audience concepts. Keeping them separate prevents a common mistake: treating useful generation context as permission to send.

Know the difference

• Contact: a person record with an email address, traits, activity, and eligibility state.
• List: an explicit group used for membership and broadcast inclusion.
• Segment: a rule-based group calculated from contact data or activity.
• Brand audience: a persona/context used during planning and generation; it is not a recipient group.
• Suppression: a rule or state that prevents delivery.
• Sendable count: the final number after list/segment logic, validation, and suppression.

Add contacts

From Contacts, you can:

• add an individual contact
• import a CSV
• receive contacts from forms or application webhooks
• sync supported Salesforce records
• review source, status, list membership, and activity

Before a large import, normalize email fields, decide which custom fields are actually needed, and separate contact creation from marketing permission.

Create a list

1. Open Contacts → Lists.
2. Choose New List.
3. Use a name that explains source or purpose.
4. Add contacts manually, through import, or through a connected flow.
5. Review membership before using the list in a broadcast or automation.

Lists are useful for explicit membership. Do not use a list name as the only record of consent.

Create a segment

1. Open Contacts → Segments.
2. Choose New Segment.
3. Define rules from fields or supported activity.
4. Preview the matching count and sample records.
5. Save or publish the segment according to the displayed workflow.
6. Review the segment after source-field or CRM mapping changes.

Record who owns important fields. A segment based on a stale lifecycle value will be consistently wrong even when the rule itself is correct.

Review the final audience

Before sending, answer:

• Why should this group receive this message?
• Which list establishes the starting population?
• Which segment narrows it?
• Which groups are excluded?
• How fresh are the source fields?
• What suppressions apply?
• Does the final sendable count match expectations?

Common exclusions include unsubscribed contacts, hard bounces, complaints, manual suppressions, invalid addresses, regional or consent restrictions, lifecycle rules, and conflicting campaigns.

Diagnose a count mismatch

If the final count is lower than expected, check:

1. list membership
2. segment status and latest revision
3. include/exclude overlap
4. global and list-level unsubscribe state
5. bounce, complaint, and manual suppression state
6. missing or invalid email addresses
7. frequency or delivery eligibility controls

If it is higher than expected, stop and inspect the source before sending.

See Contact hygiene and Connect an application for safe ingestion.