Tags are labels for your contacts that allow you to create groups of contacts for segmentation and to provide personalized communications to each contact. You can tag your contacts according to where they came from, which form they filled out, what they’ve purchased, specific demographics such as job title or location, and more.

It’s important to note that, with Ontraport, tags are just one way to tailor your follow up, and they shouldn’t be overused as that can become unwieldy. If you’re using automation maps, you’ll often dictate automated, personalized follow-up based on whether the contacts meet certain criteria, such as taking a specific action (filling out a form, opening an email, etc.) or if a field within their contact record is a certain value (such as if their job title is CEO). You’ll be able to accomplish this without using tags.

Tags are best for labeling contacts so you can create groups to whom you can send special broadcast emails, SMS, or postcards or so you can make other group actions. They’re often best for temporary things, such as labeling contacts you met at a Chamber of Commerce event, labeling contacts who have purchased a certain amount of your products so you can reach out to seek a referral, or labeling a group you want to send a special holiday promotion to.

To create a new tag, edit an existing one or delete a tag:

Before you can tag a contact, you’ll need to create the tag in your account. You can do this via these steps, or you can do so within the workflows below.

1. Go to Contacts → Settings → Manage Tags.
2. Click New Tag.
3. Enter a tag name and click Save at the top.
4. This is also where you can edit a tag. Select the tag, click on the tag name, rename it and click . All automation maps, contact records, groups, and other items that contain that tag will be updated for you (exceptions: WordPress shortcodes and API calls).

To manually tag one contact at a time:

1. Go to Contacts.
2. Click on a contact to open the record.
3. In the Tags section, click Add in the contact tags section.
4. Select a tag from the list of existing tags. To add a new one, click Create New Tag.

To manually tag many contacts at once:

1. Go to Contacts.
2. Select a group or several individual contacts.
3. The Actions bar appears. Click Tags.
4. Select add or remove from the dropdown menu.
5. Select the tag from the dropdown menu that you want to add or remove.
6. Click Submit.

To automatically tag contacts within automation maps:

You can set up your automation to add or change a contact’s tag based on their actions within the map. For example, contacts who are tagged “Lead” could be tagged “Customer” once they make a purchase.

1. Add a “Change Tags” action element to your automation map wherever you’d like the tag change to occur.
2. When contacts on the automation reach that element, they will get the tag, and any automation you’ve set up based on that tag will occur.