Search For Contacts In Your Account

About this task

You can use the search box on the Search Contacts page to quickly locate specific contacts.

Tip: The most efficient way to find specific types of contacts, such as contacts with a certain click rate, contacts with a certain field value, or contacts updated in the last X number of days, is to create a segment. Segments are automatically kept up to date, meaning contacts automatically move on and off of segments based on whether or not they match the criteria used in the segment. This allows you to return to a segment at any time to view the specific type of contact described by the segment. For example, if you create a segment for contacts whose email address contains "gmail", you can calculate the segment to find the contacts whose email address currently contains "gmail". Provided you save the segment, you can return to that segment in the future and see an updated listing of contacts whose email address contains "gmail".

For more information on creating segments, see Segment Builder.

To search all the contacts in your account:

Procedure

  1. Go to Contacts > Search.
  2. Using the All Contacts pull-down menu, select the type of contacts you want to search for. You can select:
    • All Contacts
    • Active Contacts
    • Inactive Contacts
    Tip:

    Active contacts are "live" contacts that can receive marketing emails from you. Inactive contacts cannot receive marketing emails from you. Contacts are designated as active or inactive based on their status.

    For more information on the different types of contact status, see Contact Status.

  3. Using the Email pull-down menu, select how you want to search for contacts.
    You can search by email address, mobile number, email domain, or any field you have created in your account.
  4. Only if you select to search by Email or Mobile Number: Use the Exactly pull-down menu to select how to optimize your search. Select either:
    • Exactly: This is the best option if you need to quickly find a contact and already know what their email address is.
    • Starts with: This is the best option if you know what a contact's email address starts with, but aren't sure of the ending or the domain used. You can also use this option to perform grouped searches (for example, I want all contacts whose email address starts with j ).
    • Contains: This is the best option if you only know part of the email address or need to do a group search. For example, you could search for all email addresses that contain gmail.com.
  5. Using the Sort by: pull-down menu, select the column that will be sorted by default.
  6. Click Search.
    The contacts that match your search criteria are displayed.
  7. Click on a contact's email address to view more detailed information about an individual contact.