Understanding Audiences and Subscribers

Get the most from your list

If you're a list builder, you know the value of subscribers to your core mission. Part of that work is understanding how lists and subscribers are managed on tinyEmail. 

Here's a quick overview.

Email list keywords

Let's start with the basics. A subscriber is a person who submits their email address (and sometimes more info) and agrees to receive email messages from your brand. Subscribers can opt out whenever they want.

tinyEmail organizes subscribers into digital boxes called an Audience. Yes, some folks in the industry call that a list, but we prefer audience because it reminds us that we -- as digital marketers -- are communicating with real people. 

Key takeaway

A subscriber is not digitally tethered to a single audience. That means you have more flexibility in terms of audience management.

Audience management

Let's dig a little deeper into the nitty gritty world of audience management in a Q&A format.

Can the same subscriber be in two or more audiences?

Yes, that is very possible. In fact, I do it all the time, especially for testing purposes. Here's an example. I have three test audiences, and the same test subscriber is in each audience. 

Because the tinyEmail dashboard scans all audiences, it can identify duplicate subscribers. On my testing platform, the Manual upload figure shows all subscribers from all audiences (I have three audiences). The Unique Subscribers figure excludes duplicates.

Can the same subscriber be in the same audience?

Well, no but, but, but - this is where tinyEmail does something cool. If the same subscriber joins the same audience, tinyEmail does not reject the subscription. Instead, tinyEmail updates the old subscriber record with the new info. The screenshot below demonstrates my point.

The first line shows the original subscriber with no Country information. 

In this demo, the same subscriber joined the same audience. The only difference is that I updated the website form by adding a new field (Country). 

• Click here to learn more about tinyEmail forms. 

After the subscriber signs up again, tinyEmail updates the join date and adds new information (UK) to the record.

What happens to my subscribers if I delete an audience?

We save all your unique subscribers in a new location.

If you delete an audience (purposefully or not), your subscribers are not lost. tinyEmail saves all unique subscribers in a master folder called Unique Subscribers.

• FYI  A deleted audience is gone forever. There is no restore button. 

Here's proof. I created a demo audience with one subscriber (testdelete@yopmail.com) and deleted the audience. Then I opened the Unique Subscribers list and, tada, found the subscriber from the deleted audience.

How can I find subscribers who are not assigned to an audience? I don't want to lose active subscribers.

Understandable. If you have a big audience, it's impossible to eyeball the list and find the people who are not part of an audience.

So, set up a filter. 

Begin by clicking the Custom segment tab at the top of the page. Then click the Add new button and select Add segment on the drop-down menu.

In the pop-up window, enter a unique name for this segment and then click Continue. I call it Not Assigned.

On the next page, click the Audience field and select Not in. Click the next field and check the box next to all of your audiences. Now we have a filter to find the stragglers - all subscribers not assigned to an audience. I won't apply any conditions, so click the Preview button to see the results.

And the result (in the screenshot below) is what I expected for this test: one subscriber who was part of a deleted audience.

How do I add this segment to a campaign?

You attach the segment to a campaign. Click the Sources tab to select an audience and then the Segment tab to add subscribers who are not attached to an audience. Complete the campaign workflow as normal.

That's the (not so) quick overview of audiences and subscribers.