NOTE: This feature is available in Message Designer 2 (MD2) only. It is automatically enabled in all accounts.

You can create Message Categories that are unique to your account and then choose which messages and which Contacts to assign to them. You can use Message Categories to:

• group messages that have something in common and
• more easily manage Contacts' preferences (i.e., opting Contacts in and out of a Message Category's messages).

NOTE: This article provides information on how to manage (add, edit, archive, activate) your Message Categories in the Admin interface; how to assign and manage messages and Contacts; and how to add and remove opt outs.

Prior to working with Message Categories, we recommend that you review the materials in Message Categories Overview in order to get a basic understanding of how Message Categories work in and impact your account.

Access your Message Categories

To access your Message Categories:

1. Access the Admin interface.
2. Navigate to Messages > Message Categories.

The Message Categories list page opens on the Active list of your Message Categories.

TIP: On list pages, click a column header to sort on that column; click again to reverse the sort order. Click the columns count below the list to add and remove columns in the current view.

• Active message statuses are Sent, Scheduled, and Triggered.
• Draft message statuses are In-Progress and Review.

You can click the down arrow to the right of the page title and select Archive to access your archived Message Categories.

• An archived Message Category can have Active messages.

The various Message Categories management options (create, edit, manage messages and opt outs) are described in this article.

Create a Message Category

To create a Message Category:

1. Click the plus sign to the right of the page title.

2. On the dialog, specify a unique name for the Message Category and, optionally, provide a description.

TIP: You can click-&-drag the title bar to reposition the dialog on the page.

3. Click Create.

The page refreshes and the new Message Category displays in the list; it is set as Active by default.

NOTE: The Message Category name and description can be changed as described in Edit a Message Category, below.

Manage your Message Categories

To manage your Message Categories:

1. Click a Message Category to select it.

This enables the buttons in the upper right and opens the Preview Panel. (The Preview Panel is described in Edit a Message Category, below.)

• Click Messages to open a dialog that lists the Message Category's messages. Refer to View a Message Category's messages, below.
• Click Manage Opt-Outs to open a dialog that lists the Contacts who are not being sent messages in this Message Category. Refer to View & Manage a Message Category's opt outs, below.
• On the Active list, click Archive to immediately archive the Message Category; it now displays on the Archive list.
• On the Archive list, click Activate to immediately activate the Message Category; it now displays on the Active list.

Edit a Message Category

You can edit only two aspects of a Message Category: its name and its description.

To edit a Message Category:

1. Select a Message Category; the Preview Panel flies in from the right.
2. In the Preview Panel, click the name and/or the description.
3. Make your changes and click off the field.

Your edits are automatically saved and a popup message confirms the change.

NOTE: The lower part of the Preview Panel is described in the sections that follow.

View a Message Category's messages

You can access the messages in a Message Category by selecting a Message Category and clicking either:

• the Messages button in the upper right of the list page or
• the message count next to Active Messages or Draft Messages in the Preview Panel.

TIP: In the Preview Panel, you can click Active Messages and Draft Messages to display quick-view counts of the messages by status. This expanded view remains as you click through the Message Categories in the list.

The Messages dialog opens.

TIP: On lists, click a column header to sort on that column; click again to reverse the sort order. Click the columns count below the list to add and remove columns in the current view.

1. Click Active above the list to access the Draft messages.
2. Click the magnifying glass icon to expand the search field to find specific messages.

• The list automatically updates with each typed character and displays all records (visible and hidden) that contain a match.
• Click the X to clear the search field and restore the original list.

3. Click the filter icon to open the Filter dialog and select a status; click Apply.

• If there is an active filter, the filter icon will be solid orange. Click the icon and click Clear Filter > Apply to restore the original list.

4. Click Close or the X to return to the list page.

View & manage a Message Category's opt outs

NOTE: Contacts who are opt-outs of a Message Category are not sent any messages that are assigned to that category.

This section describes how to manage the opt-outs for a Message Category. You can:

• Exclude Contacts who are currently assigned to a Message Category; they will no longer be sent messages that are assigned to the Message Category. Refer to Add opt outs to a Message Category, below.
• Include Contacts who are not currently assigned to a Message Category; they will be eligible to receive messages that are assigned to the Message Category. Refer to Remove opt outs from a Message Category, below.

NOTE: The information in this section applies to the Active and Archive list pages.

To view a Message Category's opt outs:

1. Navigate to Messages > Message Categories.
2. Select a Message Category on the Active or Archive list page.
3. Click either:

• the now-enabled Manage Opt-Outs button in the upper right or
• the Opt-Outs count in the Preview Panel.
  

A dialog opens and displays a list of the Contacts who are opted out of this Message Category.

• The Remote ID column displays but is only applicable to "integrated" accounts.

TIP: On lists, click a column header to sort on that column; click again to reverse the sort order. Click the columns count below the list to add and remove columns in the current view.

1. Click the magnifying glass icon to expand the search field to find specific opt-outs.

• The list automatically updates with each typed character and displays all records (visible and hidden) that contain a match.
• Click the X to clear the search field and restore the original list.

2. Click the down arrow icon to export and save the list of opt-outs as a .CSV file.

Now you can manage (opt in and opt out) Contacts as described in the sections below.

Remove opt outs from a Message Category

To remove the "opt out" status from Contacts:

1. Select one or more Contacts on the Manage Opt-Outs dialog.
2. Click the Remove button in the upper right.
3. At the confirmation prompt, click Remove.

A popup message confirms the action.

These Contacts will now be eligible to receive messages that are assigned to this Message Category.

Add opt outs to a Message Category

To opt out Contacts:

1. Click the plus sign icon at the top of the dialog.
2. On the Add Opt-Outs dialog, choose either File Upload or Manual Entry.

NOTE: Both of the methods perform a validation check on the email addresses. Only existing account records are processed; invalid and non-account email addresses are ignored.

File Upload

1. Click Choose File and navigate to the .CSV or text file of multiple email addresses (one per line) that you want to upload.
2. Click Add.

An information message indicates that the file is being processed and that you (as the logged-in Admin) will receive an email message upon completion.

Below is an example of the email message when the process completes.

Manual Entry

1. Manually specify (type or paste) one or more email addresses (one per line) in the field.
2. Click Add.

An information message indicates the number of opt-outs that will be added.

Assign a message to a Message Category

You can assign a message to a Message Category in two places:

• Messages list (In-Progress list only) - select a message and then click More > Assign Category and choose a Message Category from the dropdown on the dialog.

• MD2 - select a Message Category from the dropdown on the Properties tab, Name subtab, Message Category field.

Assign a Contact to a Message Category

When a Contact record is created in your account, the Contact:

• is automatically assigned to all Message Categories and
• will be eligible to receive all messages.

Typically, Contacts will manage their own preferences via the messages they receive and the landing pages they interact with. However, as an account Admin, you can opt Contacts out of one or more Message Categories.

This section describes how you can manage an individual Contact's Message Category assignments on the Contacts > List page and the Contacts > Search page.

TIP: You can also manage multiple Contacts' assignments as described in View & Manage a Message Category's opt outs, above.

Contacts List page

This section describes editing a Contact to manage the Message Category assignments. The process is the same when creating a Contact.

1. Navigate to Contacts > List.
2. Select a Contact and click Edit.
3. Click the Message Categories tab.

On the Message Categories tab, all of the Message Categories are selected by default.

4. Uncheck a box to opt out the Contact from that Message Category and its messages.
5. Click Save.

Search page

This section describes managing Message Category assignments on the Contacts > Search page.

1. Navigate to Contacts > Search.
2. Locate the Contact in the Subscribers list.
3. Hover on the Contact's actions menu (left column) and select Modify.
4. On the Edit tab, click the Message Categories bar to expand the section.

5. Click a Message Category to move it from one field to the other. (The fields auto-alphabetize the Message Categories.)

• Available Categories - messages that are assigned to these Message Categories can be sent to this Contact.
• Opt-Out Categories - messages that are assigned to these Message Categories will not be sent to this Contact.

Export the Message Categories list

NOTE: The information in this section applies to the Active and Archive list pages.

You can export and save the list of Message Categories to a .CSV file to share with colleagues. The export file contains:

• the full list of Message Categories, not just those displaying on the current page and
• data for all of the columns, regardless of whether a column is hidden or displayed.

To export the list of Message Categories:

1. Click the down arrow icon in the upper right.
2. Navigate to where you want to store the export file and save it.

TIP: Navigate to the saved file and review it before leaving the page.

NOTE: Each unique export file has the same name, Export.csv. Consider adding Active or Archive and/or the date to the file names to distinguish them if necessary.

Customize the exported data

The export file contains the same data as that which displays on the page in the Admin interface, but you can customize the data to suit your needs. For example, you can:

• move columns and rows
• delete columns and rows
• rename column headers