Use the action bar to manage your contacts and perform group actions, like sending mass emails, adding tags and more.
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Action bar + group actions
Course Instructor
- Where to find the action bar
- The three ways to select records
- The functions of each group action button
- Which actions can only be performed in Detail View for single records
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Transcript
Ready for a little action? In this video, I’ll talk about the action bar in your Ontraport account.
This is where you’ll manually manage contacts and perform group actions like sending emails, changing field values and more. You can perform these actions on just one contact, a group of people or all your records at once.
The action bar also slides down when you look at a single contact in detail view, or select contacts in table or card view.
You’re going to be using this feature a lot, so let’s get into it.
When you look at a single contact in detail view, the action bar — like a loyal friend — will always be there for you. Or in this case, just right here.
But when you view collections, like in table or card view, you’ll only see the action bar if you’ve selected a record or two.
To do that, use these checkboxes next to each record. If you want to select a bunch of records, use the checkbox up here. It lets you select all the records on the page or in a certain group. You can also use this to un-select your records.
Meanwhile in card view, you have three ways to select records: one by one, “All in group,” or “all in column.”
When you’ve selected at least one contact, your action bar will show up like this. You’ll see all these action buttons — so let’s run through what each of them do.
The first action here is “email.” As you might’ve guessed, this button lets you send a one-off email to your selected contacts. Easy peasy.
When using this action, you’ll have the choice between an existing email template or the Quick Email editor. When your email is all ready, you’ll either send it immediately or schedule a date and time to send it later.
Next up is “SMS.” This action button acts a lot like your email button. When you click on it, you’ll be able to send a text message to the contacts you select.
Once again, you’ll choose between an SMS template or a Quick SMS. Like you did with the emails, you’ll need to decide if you want to send it now or put it off for later.
Now you have the “tasks” action button, which lets you assign tasks for your selected contacts.
Just like the email and SMS messages, you can choose between an existing task template or a Quick Task. Since tasks have due dates, you can go ahead and assign it to yourself or hand it off to someone else to take care of it.
The “tags” action button lets you add or remove tags from your contacts. These are great for segmenting your audience. You can also trigger some fancy automation by adding or removing tags. You’ll learn all about that later, though, so we won’t get into it now.
This “automations” action lets you add or remove your selected contacts from automated campaigns. If you’re adding contacts, Ontraport will use the default “Added to campaign” trigger. Make sure to design your automation maps accordingly, so these contacts have somewhere to go next. You don’t want them stuck in the middle of your automation with nowhere to go!
Now you have the “Facebook” action button. If you’ve turned on Facebook Custom Audiences, you can use this to add groups of contacts to those audiences.
You can turn on this feature in your Administration settings. Just toggle it on here in the Advanced Features section.
You’ll also need a Facebook Business Manager or Ads Manager Account with Custom Audiences. The good news is that it's free — but don’t forget to set that up before diving into this feature.
Once you’ve ironed out those details, you can use this action button to add contacts to a specific Facebook Audience. After that, you’ll be able to target those contacts with your Facebook ads. To learn more about this feature, check out our “Facebook custom audiences” video.
Alright, let’s move on to the “double opt-in” button. This one lets you send a double opt-in message to your selected contacts.
Double opt-in messages are those “verify your email” messages you sometimes get after filling out a form. You can always set these up while you’re creating your forms — but if you need to do it separately, you’ll use this action.
This is especially nice if you’re importing contacts manually and want to make sure your list has valid email addresses because you’re super thorough like that. And it’s useful if you need to update a customer’s email address.
Or maybe someone’s email hard bounces. In that case, you'd update their information by adding a new address in their email field. Then, update your contact’s Bulk Email Status by sending a double opt-in message to the new address.
Okay, next you have the “change field” action button. With this, you can change the information in a field for whatever contacts you select. You can manually update all kinds of data this way, from a customer’s new mailing address to someone’s SMS preferences. Just select the field you want to change, then add the information you want to change it to. Done.
Now here’s the “export” action button. You’ll use this to export information about the contacts you select.
When you click “export,” pick the fields you want to add to your .CSV list. Then simply email that .CSV list to yourself.
If you need to, you can always download records you’ve exported in the past. To do this, go to Administration, then Data, then Exported Lists.
Alright, almost done! Only two more action buttons left. These are slightly different from the others — you can only use them in detail view for a single record.
First, there’s the “log transaction” button. This lets you charge someone’s credit card manually or log an offline transaction. Super convenient.
This feature is a big one, so it has its own video. Check out “Manual transactions” for more information on how it works.
Finally, you’ve got the “log phone call” action. Use this one to record notes about your calls.
Just add the subject, clarify if the call was incoming or outgoing, and jot down a few details. When you’re done, it’ll save in the “notes” section of the contact record, so you’ll have it for posterity.
Well done, team — that concludes an action-packed lesson on the action bar. Now you can use it to perform group actions on your contacts.
Before you leave, remember that you can take actions on single records or on groups of records.
Now that you’ve seen how all the actions work, it’ll be easy to make any manual changes to contacts or other records.
This is where you’ll manually manage contacts and perform group actions like sending emails, changing field values and more. You can perform these actions on just one contact, a group of people or all your records at once.
The action bar also slides down when you look at a single contact in detail view, or select contacts in table or card view.
You’re going to be using this feature a lot, so let’s get into it.
When you look at a single contact in detail view, the action bar — like a loyal friend — will always be there for you. Or in this case, just right here.
But when you view collections, like in table or card view, you’ll only see the action bar if you’ve selected a record or two.
To do that, use these checkboxes next to each record. If you want to select a bunch of records, use the checkbox up here. It lets you select all the records on the page or in a certain group. You can also use this to un-select your records.
Meanwhile in card view, you have three ways to select records: one by one, “All in group,” or “all in column.”
When you’ve selected at least one contact, your action bar will show up like this. You’ll see all these action buttons — so let’s run through what each of them do.
The first action here is “email.” As you might’ve guessed, this button lets you send a one-off email to your selected contacts. Easy peasy.
When using this action, you’ll have the choice between an existing email template or the Quick Email editor. When your email is all ready, you’ll either send it immediately or schedule a date and time to send it later.
Next up is “SMS.” This action button acts a lot like your email button. When you click on it, you’ll be able to send a text message to the contacts you select.
Once again, you’ll choose between an SMS template or a Quick SMS. Like you did with the emails, you’ll need to decide if you want to send it now or put it off for later.
Now you have the “tasks” action button, which lets you assign tasks for your selected contacts.
Just like the email and SMS messages, you can choose between an existing task template or a Quick Task. Since tasks have due dates, you can go ahead and assign it to yourself or hand it off to someone else to take care of it.
The “tags” action button lets you add or remove tags from your contacts. These are great for segmenting your audience. You can also trigger some fancy automation by adding or removing tags. You’ll learn all about that later, though, so we won’t get into it now.
This “automations” action lets you add or remove your selected contacts from automated campaigns. If you’re adding contacts, Ontraport will use the default “Added to campaign” trigger. Make sure to design your automation maps accordingly, so these contacts have somewhere to go next. You don’t want them stuck in the middle of your automation with nowhere to go!
Now you have the “Facebook” action button. If you’ve turned on Facebook Custom Audiences, you can use this to add groups of contacts to those audiences.
You can turn on this feature in your Administration settings. Just toggle it on here in the Advanced Features section.
You’ll also need a Facebook Business Manager or Ads Manager Account with Custom Audiences. The good news is that it's free — but don’t forget to set that up before diving into this feature.
Once you’ve ironed out those details, you can use this action button to add contacts to a specific Facebook Audience. After that, you’ll be able to target those contacts with your Facebook ads. To learn more about this feature, check out our “Facebook custom audiences” video.
Alright, let’s move on to the “double opt-in” button. This one lets you send a double opt-in message to your selected contacts.
Double opt-in messages are those “verify your email” messages you sometimes get after filling out a form. You can always set these up while you’re creating your forms — but if you need to do it separately, you’ll use this action.
This is especially nice if you’re importing contacts manually and want to make sure your list has valid email addresses because you’re super thorough like that. And it’s useful if you need to update a customer’s email address.
Or maybe someone’s email hard bounces. In that case, you'd update their information by adding a new address in their email field. Then, update your contact’s Bulk Email Status by sending a double opt-in message to the new address.
Okay, next you have the “change field” action button. With this, you can change the information in a field for whatever contacts you select. You can manually update all kinds of data this way, from a customer’s new mailing address to someone’s SMS preferences. Just select the field you want to change, then add the information you want to change it to. Done.
Now here’s the “export” action button. You’ll use this to export information about the contacts you select.
When you click “export,” pick the fields you want to add to your .CSV list. Then simply email that .CSV list to yourself.
If you need to, you can always download records you’ve exported in the past. To do this, go to Administration, then Data, then Exported Lists.
Alright, almost done! Only two more action buttons left. These are slightly different from the others — you can only use them in detail view for a single record.
First, there’s the “log transaction” button. This lets you charge someone’s credit card manually or log an offline transaction. Super convenient.
This feature is a big one, so it has its own video. Check out “Manual transactions” for more information on how it works.
Finally, you’ve got the “log phone call” action. Use this one to record notes about your calls.
Just add the subject, clarify if the call was incoming or outgoing, and jot down a few details. When you’re done, it’ll save in the “notes” section of the contact record, so you’ll have it for posterity.
Well done, team — that concludes an action-packed lesson on the action bar. Now you can use it to perform group actions on your contacts.
Before you leave, remember that you can take actions on single records or on groups of records.
Now that you’ve seen how all the actions work, it’ll be easy to make any manual changes to contacts or other records.
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