Group Actions Overview
Why This Matters
Group Actions lets you perform tasks on multiple contacts at once instead of working with them one by one. Anything you can do with a single contact—send an email, assign a task, apply a tag, start a workflow—you can do with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of contacts simultaneously.
The system uses a temporary collection called your workgroup to hold the contacts you want to work with. You build this workgroup by adding contacts based on categories, tags, sources, or filters from your contact list. Once your workgroup is ready, you choose an action, and the system applies it to everyone in the group.
What Group Actions Does
Save Hours of Repetitive Work: Imagine manually sending the same email to 200 clients or individually assigning the same task to 50 team members. Group Actions eliminates this repetitive work by letting you execute once and apply to many.
Reach Your Audience When It Matters: Time-sensitive announcements, event invitations, or promotional campaigns need to reach everyone simultaneously. Group Actions ensures your entire target audience receives your message at the same time, maintaining consistency and impact.
Maintain Targeted, Relevant Communication: Group Actions isn't about blasting everyone in your database. It's about selecting the right people—clients in a specific category, contacts with certain tags, or leads from particular sources—and communicating with precision.
Keep Detailed Records Automatically: When you perform group actions like sending emails or adding notes, you can record these activities on each contact's record automatically. This keeps your communication history complete without extra manual documentation.
Watch & Learn
🎥 Video: Group Actions
How Group Actions Works
Understanding the Workgroup: Your workgroup is the collection of contacts you're currently working with in Group Actions. Think of it as a temporary basket where you gather the specific contacts you want to act on. The system automatically prevents duplicates, so if the same contact is added through multiple methods, they appear only once—avoiding duplicate emails or tasks.
Two Ways to Build Your Workgroup:
Method 1: Start from Your Contact List. Use filters or Advanced Search to find the exact contacts you want. Once the list shows your results, click Send Results to Group Actions to add them all at once. Perfect for complex targeting like "All clients in California added in the last 30 days" or "Leads from Facebook Ads who haven't been contacted yet."
Method 2: Add Directly in Group Actions. Go to Contacts → Group Actions → ADD CONTACTS. Add contacts by Category, Tag, Source, or Category 2 using the displayed buttons with counts (e.g., Clients (135)). Click multiple buttons across criteria to build complex groups. The system adds contacts cumulatively, and you can even filter by Team Database at the top of the screen.
Refining Your Workgroup: Use ADD CONTACTS to keep building your group. Use REMOVE CONTACTS to exclude specific categories, tags, or sources (for example, remove "Do Not Email"). Use MANAGE to review and fine-tune your final list, removing individuals one at a time if needed. Click Clear Workgroup to start over or Add Everyone to include every contact in your database.
Taking Action on Your Workgroup: Once your workgroup is ready, click the ACTIONS tab to choose from a wide range of tasks.
Online Actions include Email Blast, Email Opt-In Wizard, Autoresponder Campaigns, and Validate Email Addresses.
Offline Actions include Letters, Mailing Labels, Envelopes, and Printable Contact List.
Notes & To-Dos include Batch Add Note, Assign a To-Do or To-Do Plan, and Delete Open To-Dos.
Utilities include Group Edit, Download Address List / Export Data, and Delete Contacts.
Viewing Your Workgroup Details: At the bottom of the page, the About This Workgroup section shows detailed information about opted-in contacts, contacts needing email validation, contacts with bounced or unknown email status, and contacts missing postal or email addresses. You can click List Contacts to view names or Remove from Workgroup to exclude them before taking action.
Common Use Cases
Monthly Newsletter Campaign: Add all opted-in clients and use Email Blast to send your monthly update. Add a note to each record to log the communication.
New Lead Welcome Sequence: Filter new leads added in the last 24 hours, send them to Group Actions, and enroll them in a welcome autoresponder campaign.
Event Invitation by Segment: Add all contacts with the VIP tag and send an event invitation. Follow up later by adding unresponsive VIPs and assigning a to-do for personal follow-up.
Database Cleanup Project: Build a workgroup of contacts from an outdated source, then use Group Edit to update or delete them.
Geographic Marketing Campaign: Search for clients in a specific ZIP code, send them to Group Actions, and create Mailing Labels for a local mailer.
Tag-Based Follow-Up: Add contacts with a "Downloaded eBook" tag, remove anyone with "Contacted," and send a follow-up email. Then use Batch Add Note to document the outreach.
Re-engagement Campaign: Find contacts who haven't been contacted in six months, validate their emails, and send a reactivation campaign.
Complex Segmentation: Add all Clients, include Special Promotion tags, remove Do Not Contact tags, and fine-tune the list in MANAGE for precision targeting.
Questions and Answers
Q: How many contacts can I add to a workgroup?
A: There's no fixed limit. Group Actions can process small or large groups efficiently.
Q: What happens if I add the same contact multiple times?
A: The system automatically prevents duplicates. Each contact appears only once.
Q: Can I save a workgroup for later use?
A: Workgroups are temporary. To reuse one, save your criteria as a Saved Search and send those results to Group Actions.
Q: How do I verify who will receive my email?
A: Check the About This Workgroup section—it shows eligible and ineligible contacts before sending.
Q: Can I undo a group action?
A: Some actions, like adding tags, can be undone; sending emails or deleting contacts cannot. Always review before executing.
Q: Can I include contacts from another team member's database?
A: Yes. Use the Team Database dropdown to select another team member's contacts.
Q: How do I build complex groups like "Clients who are VIPs but not from California"?
A: Add Clients, add VIPs, then remove contacts from California sources.
Q: How can I test Group Actions safely?
A: Create test contacts, tag them, and perform actions on that small set before using real contacts.
Q: What happens if I click "Add Everyone"?
A: Every contact in your database is added. Always double-check your totals before proceeding.
Q: Can I see who's in my workgroup?
A: Yes, the MANAGE tab shows every contact by name for review before taking action.
Guide Type: Feature Overview
Estimated Time: 8 minutes
Next Guides: How to Use Group Actions, How to Send an Email Blast, How to Use Advanced Search
Video Transcript
Here on this Contact Card, we are working with a specific contact, but anything you want to do with a single contact, like sending an email or assigning a task, you can also do with a group of contacts in Group Actions.
Let’s jump over to Group Actions and see how this works.
We can take a group of contacts and do any of these actions for the group.
We can send them an email or a letter, print mailing labels, start them on an autoresponder campaign, put a note that will appear on each of their contact records and a lot more.
To create the group of contacts we want to work with, we can do that using two different methods:
First, we can do that right here by adding and removing contacts from our group.
Once you have the contact group you want to work with, you can see them all here.
You can always add everyone in your database to a contact group, just by clicking here.
The second way you can build a contact group is to do it in the contact list.
Once you have your list filtered just the way you want it, click here to send the results to Group Actions.
You’ll be happy to know that no matter how you get contacts into the workgroup, the system is smart enough to add a contact only once.