List Rules

Use the List Rules tab when you want to apply a set of rules to a contact list. There are two types of list rules:

• Upload rules - used to split a contact list into smaller lists at the time the list is being uploaded
• Selection rules - used to select only a subset of a list based on filtering criteria

Each rule has a name, type, version, modified date, and a set of actions.

Upload Rules

Use an upload rule when you need to split a list into smaller lists as you upload it (via user interface or API).

To create a new upload rule, click New Rule on the List Rules page.

An upload rule has a name, and optionally also has an input specification file associated with it. If you need to use an input specification, you can either make it part of an upload rule, or you can choose the input specification separately at the time you load the list. Either way, when you upload a file, the upload specification is applied before the splitting rule is applied, since splitting occurs based on Engage fields, not the fields of the original file.

In addition, an upload rule contains Splitting Criteria, which determine how a list will be split into smaller lists. There are three types of splitting criteria, plus an option to customize the split based on previously defined selection rules:

• Split by quantity – This allows you to specify how many contacts from the uploaded file will appear in each new list. If the original list size is not a multiple of the quantity specified, then the final list will contain the remainder of the contacts.
• Split by percent – This allows you to specify the percent of contact from the uploaded file that will appear in each new list. If the percentage specified is not a factor of 100, then the final list will contain the remainder.
• Split by field – This allows you to split the file by unique contacts in the specified field. For example, “create a separate new list for each unique value contained in the other3 field.” Fields other1 through other9 are available for this type of split.
• Custom – This allows you to split the file using previously defined selection rules.

Each new list is named based on the name of the original file, with “_part_#” appended, where # represents the number of the new list created. Optionally, you can also choose a version of the file name that includes the current date as part of the list name.

Selection Rules

Use a selection rule to choose a subset of a list based on filtering criteria in that rule using any populated field in the Contact List.

To create a new selection rule, click New Rule on the List Rules page and choose Selection Rule.

You have four options to use when defining your selection rule:

• Field – Select the Field to be used for filtering from the available list.
• Type – Select the Type available with the selected Field.
• Operator – Select the Operator available with the selected Field.
• Value – Enter a defining Value to search for in that field.

You may add additional conditions to the rule by clicking the plus next to the rule (Add Condition) and create additional condition sets. Rules within a rule set are ANDed together when evaluating the rule. Each rule set is ORed with any other rule sets.

Editing and Deleting a List Rule

From the List Rules page, you can edit or delete a rule:

• Edit - Click the name of the rule or click the pencil icon for the rule.
• Delete - Click the trash can icon, or check the box to the left of the rule name.