Refining a Mailing Target - Suppression Criteria

When targeting a mailing or creating a simple send template, the minimum requirement is to select a list using the list targeting options. However, you may not wish to send your mailing to every recipient on a list.

To refine a target audience, you can:

Add suppression criteria to exclude recipients based on lists, policies, etc.
Use attribute targeting to refine based on recipient characteristics in your database, e.g. location.
Use behavioral targeting to refine based on a recipient's previous activity, e.g. clicked a link in a mailing.
Apply a mailing size limit to refine based on sending a fixed volume of mailings.

Note: audience refinement is not available when using the simplified workflow in the simple send mailing.

At any time, you can check the effect of your refinements by estimating the size of the target audience based on your selected criteria:

Scroll to the bottom of the targeting tab.
Press the apply changes and estimate button.

Note: depending on the size of your audience, it may take a little time to generate a count.

Once you have defined your target audience, you can add content to your mailing.

Suppression criteria

Add suppression criteria to exclude recipients from your targeting using any combination of the following:

Lists - prevent members of a recipient list or suppression list from receiving this mailing.
Mailings - exclude recipients who have already received selected mailings.
Domains - do not send to recipients with a blocked domain.
Files - apply a pre-programmed suppression file.
Policies - apply a suppression policy to remove anyone that matches the policy from the targeting.

List suppression

Select a list from the recipient lists field and/or the suppression lists field to remove anyone on that list from your targeting.

Tip: hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple lists.

Example: Recipient A appears on both the list you selected for list targeting and the recipient list selected for suppression so will not receive the mailing.
When you are happy with the suppression criteria, press the apply changes button to save your targeting criteria.
Use the next button to proceed to the content tab or continue adding other targeting criteria, e.g. add a mailing size limit.

Note: if you are using an UnsubCentral suppression list, you must enter the URL for that list in the text box at the bottom of the suppression criteria, not in the suppression lists field.

Mailing suppression

Press the edit button under the previous mailings section.
In the popup window, use the dropdown menu to browse and select a campaign.
Select a mailing from the available mailings list.

Tip: hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple mailings.
Press the add all button to move your selected mailings to the selected mailings column.

Tip: if you accidentally select the wrong mailing, select it in the selected mailings column and press the remove all button to move it back to the available mailings column.
Press the OK button when you have selected all the mailings you wish to use for suppression.
When you are happy with the suppression criteria, press the apply changes button to save your targeting criteria.
Use the next button to proceed to the content tab or continue adding other targeting criteria, e.g. add a mailing size limit.

Domain suppression

In the blocked domains text box, type a domain, e.g. hotmail.com, to prevent any mailings to recipients with that domain.
When you are happy with the suppression criteria, press the apply changes button to save your targeting criteria.
Use the next button to proceed to the content tab or continue adding other targeting criteria, e.g. add a mailing size limit.

File suppression

Select a file from the suppression files field to apply the pre-programmed suppresion rules in that file to your targeting.
When you are happy with the suppression criteria, press the apply changes button to save your targeting criteria.
Use the next button to proceed to the content tab or continue adding other targeting criteria, e.g. add a mailing size limit.

Policy suppression

Select a policy from the dropdown menu to apply the suppression policy to your targeting.

Example: Policy A prevents sending of more than 3 mailings to a recipient in a single week. Recipient A has already received 3 mailings this week so will not receive the mailing.
When you are happy with the suppression criteria, press the apply changes button to save your targeting criteria.
Use the next button to proceed to the content tab or continue adding other targeting criteria, e.g. add a mailing size limit.