On the second create page you can target your email to your entire list, or a specific subset of your list. You'll be able to see if another member of your team is viewing the page. You can refresh the page to see if they're still on.
First, choose the mobile message list you'd like to send to from the drop down menu at the top. Note that your mobile message will ONLY send to activists who are subscribed to your mobile message list AND who have a mobile number on their activist record.
Choosing a list targets your message to that entire list. You then have the option of cutting down your targeted universe further by including or excluding different sets of activists on your list below.
Standard Mode and Query Mode
In standard mode you have several sections, each with different filters to target your list further and each appears as either an include or an exclude, which will include or exclude that set of activists from this email respectively.
You can also target with query mode, activated with the query mode toggle on top of the page. When in query mode you can target using the same filters as standard mode, but you get to choose the logical ANDs and ORs that go between each filter, allowing you to do more complex targeting. This mode uses the same options as our query feature. You can read more about how that works here.
In query mode, you have the option to import existing saved queries to your current targeting. Select a query from the import query section and click "Import" to add that saved query's parameters at the end of your current query. You'll be able to add a note explaining what the query does, its parameters, and which you can reference later when viewing the targets in the Mobile Message Manage page.
You can switch between query mode and standard mode at any time, though switching between them will clear any targeting currently on your email. Once the email is saved, it will always load its targeting in that mode unless switched. You can choose which mode is the default for you when making new emails or reports by editing your profile, as explained here.
Includes and Excludes
In standard mode, on the left side are your options for includes. Between each filter is a logical AND operation and inside each filter is a logical OR. (ex: If you select New York and Vermont from the State filter and an action titled "Petition to Walmart" from the Action filter, this email would target users who live in New York OR Vermont, AND have taken action on "Petition to Walmart.")
On the right side are your options for excludes. Between and inside each section is a logical OR operation. (ex: If you select New York and Vermont from the State filter and an action titled "Petition to Walmart" from the Action filter, this email would target all users on your list except those living in New York OR Vermont OR have taken action on "Petition to Walmart.")
You can use both includes and excludes at the same time. To do ANDs between a section, for example, you would target two emails by duplicating the first -- one targeted to the first group and one to the second. The lists of states, actions, emails, and reports are scrollable, and you can select more than one option by command-clicking each item on Mac or control-clicking on Windows.
In query mode, you get to choose the ANDs and ORs you want to use.
Targeting Sections and Filters
You have many options for targeting your list further and each appears as either an include or an exclude, which will include or exclude that set of activists from this report respectively.
As you select filters to target your message, they will appear in the sidebar under the Include or Exclude heading. You can also use the Search bar to navigate to tags or custom fields.
Engagement
At the top of this section, you can target Email Engagement. This allows you to target anyone who subscribed, opened, or clicked an email, or took an action in the last X amount of days, since a certain date, or in a specific date range. You can also filter your audience by verified or unverified openers. Click here to read more about how opens are tracked. If you choose this option, people who meet any of the above criteria will be included in the targeting.
Below this, you have the option to target action activity, email opens, email click activity, and subscription date fields on an individual basis.
You can target by action activity in the last X number of days, since a certain date, or in a specific date range.
You can target by emails received, which targets people who have received X number of emails within a certain period of time.
You can target based on their email open activity. You can filter between verified/unverified openers. Click here to read more about how opens are tracked. You can also target based on click activity level -- for example whether they've clicked at least 2 emails in the last 7 days. (If you're in a network, you can optionally include opens or clicks from child groups in this calculation as well, just select them from the dropdown menu).
And you can target activists based on the date they subscribed or resubscribed to your email list -- for example subscribed 3 days ago or less.
Below this, you'll see the option to only target first time subscribers. This allows you to target people who are completely new to your list, excluding those who unsubscribed and have been resubscribed.
Same for mobile if it’s enabled, you can target based on mobile clickers and subscribers within a certain timeframe.
For all of these engagement filters you can choose to target based on days (the last X number of days) or by date (since a certain date, or in a specific date range).
You can target activists based on whether they have ever been in one or more than one specific ladder, or are currently waiting in one or more than one specific ladder.
Tags, Sources and Fields
You can target activists based on tags they have on their record.
You can target activists based on source codes they've used to take action by choosing one or more from the list of previously used source codes. You can target activists who were added to the list because of taking action with that source code as well, with the checkbox provided.
And you can target activists based on whether they've filled out a custom field with a certain name using a certain value. (ex: All activists who have the value of "yes" under the "unemployed" custom field.) You can also target based on core fields like email address or name, allowing you to target activists who have .edu in their email addresses for example.
% is the wildcard character for field targeting, so %.edu on the email field matches everyone who's email address ends in .edu. You can use multiple % characters, so %1% matches anyone who has a 1 in any part of the form field you're targeting.
You can also interpret custom fields as numbers or dates and target with greater than or less than operations using << or >>. For example, <<1 will target every activist with a custom field value number less than 1. >>2017/12/01 will target everyone with a custom field value date after December 1st, 2017. The format for dates is yyyy/mm/dd.
You can also use regular expressions, so [0-9] will target any activist with any of the characters 0-9 in that form field. The wildcard character can be combined with regular expressions. (For more detail on our regular expression parser and syntax, see here.)
Actions and Fundraising
You can target activists based on action history. Choosing each action will target activists who've taken that action (including actions made by child groups if this group is part of a network, explained more here). You can also select specific uploads from here as well. If you choose the action that's labeled [new to email] you will target only activists who subscribed to your email list because of taking that action. Same with the [new to mobile] option, which will target only activists who subscribed to your mobile list because of taking that action. Only activists who are subscribed to the mobile list and have a mobile number will be targeted.
You can target activists based on donation history -- all donors, active recurring donors, donors with failing recurring donations, donors with canceled recurring donations, donors eligible for one-click donations (have saved their card information with us), and and donors who have donated more than a certain amount in the last X amount of days, after a certain date, or in a specific date range. You can target donors who have given a certain amount of times over X amount of times or within a certain data range. You can also target donors who have made a single donation above or below a certain amount.
Emails
You can target activists by email history -- if they are targeted by one or multiple emails you've made in the past, or if they've opened or clicked emails you've sent in the past, including emails made by child groups if this group is part of a network, explained more here.
You can also target by email campaign in this section, more on email campaigns here.
Mobile Messages
You can target activists by mobile message history -- if they have received one or multiple messages you've made in the past, or if they've clicked on a message you've sent in the past, including messages made by child groups if this group is part of a network.
You can target activists by their mobile carrier. This will allow you to see which carrier activists on your list are using. Carrier Lookup will need to be enabled in the Settings tab to see this targeting field. More here.
Geographic and Users
You can target activists based on geography -- whether they live in one or many US states or Canadian provinces, one or many US counties, one or many legislative districts (congress or state level), one or many countries, whether they live in a city or within a certain number of miles/kilometers of a city, within a certain number of miles/kilometers or ZIP/postal code (or ZIP/postal codes, enter multiple separated by commas), or if you're sending to a group's list, whether they live within a certain number of miles of events that are part of a specific event campaign. (Event campaigns are explained more here.)
You can target activists who live in places with targets on a certain letter campaign. For example, if you've set up a letter campaign targeting Representatives John and Jane Doe, you can choose that letter campaign as a target and only send your email to activists on your list who live in those Representatives' districts, ensuring that when your activists go to write a letter they won't see a "No targets found for your address" message. (Note: This only works for built in targets. Selecting a letter campaign using custom targets will target your entire list.)
You can also target activists based on their preferred language.
Queries and Reports
And you can target activists based on queries you've previously set up. On the next page, you'll be able to preview the query parameters and edit it.
You can target activists based on whether they are targeted with a report you've previously made.
You can target your mobile message by ID target selecting one or more uploads form the drop down menu.
You can target activists based on the email list of child groups they are on if the group is part of a network. For example, you can email activists on your group's list who are not on a child group's list. (Networks are explained more here.
You can target activists based on the mobile list of child groups they are on if the group is part of a network. For example, you can email activists on your group's list who are not on a child group's list. (Networks are explained more here.)
Random Limits and Ordering by Timezone
Below these sections you'll see the option to add a Random Limit. Random limits are useful in A/B testing your content. Click here to learn more.
Below this, there is an option to click 'Enable order by timezone?'. Instead of sending in random order you can send in order by an activist's timezone, east to west. If you want a mobile message out before 5pm, for example, we would prioritize sending to activists on the east coast first, then send to folks in other time zones after. If you select this option, it will take longer to calculate your audience size as we work to prioritize people in the right order.
NOTE: This feature is separate from sending by timezone (which can be done in the Save, Preview, and Send page). This feature sends to your entire list all at once, but prioritizes activists based on their time zone going east to west. Sending by timezone sends emails out over a 24 hour period as a certain local time is reached in each zone around the world. Click here to learn more about this.
Saving and Re-Targeting
When you're ready, click "Save and Preview & Send Your Email" to trigger the targeting process to calculate the number of people the email will be sent to, and to move on to the next step.
Your targeting will be calculated and saved. It will not update when the underlying data updates.
To do that, after you've saved your targeting once, if you come back to the targeting page you can update your targeting. Click the save and re-calculate button to re-run targeting and update it (including saving any changes in filter options you make). Otherwise, you can choose not to re-calculate, which can often save you time if your targeting or the underlying data has not really changed since the last time you saved. Alternatively, you can refresh targeting by clicking the "Refresh Targeting" button on the email's Preview & Send or Manage page.