What is the difference between a temporary category and a permanent category?

You have the ability to create categories you keep long term and categories you keep short term. We refer to these as permanent and temporary categories. This article will explain the difference between the two options.

A permanent category is a group of email addresses that you would manage over time, for the long-term future. This means that you would continuously add new email addresses to the existing group, or category, in your account.
A temporary category is a group of email addresses that you would typically use once, or for the short-term. A temporary category will be kept for 30 days from the last time a campaign was sent to the category. For instance, if you choose to send to that temporary category on the 29th day, the expiration date will extend another 30 days. If it's not sent to for 30 days, it's deleted from the system.

How-To

Create a permanent category

1. Go to Contacts and click "Categories" from the left navigation.
2. Then, click "Create Category" button (top right). A pop-up will display.
3. Enter a name (required) and description (optional) and click "Ok".

Once a category has been created in this way it will be available in the import CSV process to populate contacts into it.

Create a temporary category

1. Prepare a CSV file and navigate to Contacts.
2. Click "Import Email Contacts" button (top right).
3. Walk through the import steps. On step 3 check the box to "Create New Category".
4. Enter a name in the text box.
5. Use the drop-down to select Yes for Category Expires.

Notes

Additional email addresses cannot be manually added or nor may email addresses be removed from temporary categories; there is no access to edit the category's contacts. If a mistake is made with the list imported to a temporary category, we suggest starting over with a new category.
Temporary categories cannot be used in forms.
Temporary categories cannot be converted to permanent categories. If this is necessary, we suggest creating a new permanent category.
Note that there is also a way to create a permanent category through the import process. To do this, choose "No" for the Category Expires setting if you need to keep the category long-term.