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List Settings Guide

Learn about the various list settings and how they affect the emails from from a list.

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Written by Support
Updated over 8 months ago

List Settings

The List Settings page will need to be configured for each list in an account. Some settings are enabled by default, however, these can be edited at any time.

To access the List Settings page navigate to the preferred List and go to Settings> Email Settings List Settings.

⚠️ Don't forget to select Commit Changes (located at the bottom left corner of the page) if any updates have been made to this page!



Default Settings

Adding the From Email Address and From Name in the List Settings page will dynamically populate this information in the Message Settings section on the email authoring page.

  • List Title: The name of the list associated with the List Settings.

  • From Address: The From Email Address that will appear in your contact's inbox.

  • From Name: The From Name that will appear in your contact's inbox.

  • IP Pool: The IP dropdown is enabled when an account has 2 or more IP pools to choose between, this represents the IP(s) that all messages from the list will send from. However, there could be an exception to this which will be discussed during implementation with the Account Manager and/or the Listrak Deliverability Team.



Seed List Association

The Seed List feature is used to trigger marketing sends to a specific list of contacts, that can be imported outside the account, insurance they will receive any message sent from the list and will not be affected by filtering or segmentation that may be applied to any given message.

This is particularly useful for clients that use third party monitoring services, such as Return Path / Validity, or eDataSource, where an automated A/B split test would normally prevent the entire seed list to be sent to all segments in a test.

NOTE: If you are interested in using a Seed List please contact your Account Manager to learn more about enabling this feature. The initial setup is administered by the Deliverability team; however, updates to these settings can be made by the Technical Support team or your Account Manager.

Once this has been abled, the following parameters can be set by the Listrak team.

  • Seed List Selection: Specify which seed list will receive messages from the list.

  • Seed List Send Rules: Chose to enable for every send from the list, select a minimum required number of contacts in a marketing send to trigger the seed list, or disable the seed list. The seed list not be triggered by one-off sends from the TEST / REVIEW function.

  • Seed List Time Frame: Specify a date range during which the seed list should be active or chose to deactivate after a number of sends.

  • Seed Sends Per Month: Set a monthly quota for seed list deployments.

⚠️ Some functionality such as View in Browser Links may not work in Seed List messages.



List User Access

This setting allows the admin to grant a specified user access to the list. Each user needs to be added to the account for them to show up in the selection. Follow the steps in these articles to learn how to Add New Users or Modify User Access.



Message Composition

Manage settings that are specific to the message design and personalization in a contact's inbox.

NOTE: If any of these settings are disabled (grey), the corresponding field in the message authoring page will not display.

Automatically insert the browser link at the top of the message

Enabling this feature allows you to automatically add an alternate browser link to the top of each message you create. The link is available for anyone who cannot view the email to click through to a landing page hosted by Listrak that features the email as a web page.

For Example: When enabled, the browser link text will look like this:

A couple of things to note:

  • If this setting is enabled, and the Browser link is also coded into the message, the Listrak system will be able to find the code in your HTML and suppress the List generated one from showing in the message.

  • If you are using a domain alias, the landing page will be hosted using your domain alias.


Automatically insert the list removal link at the bottom of the message

Enabling this feature will add the standard removal link to the bottom of each message you create.

For Example: When enabled, the unsubscribe link text will look like this:


You are receiving this email because you signed up for weekly updates. We respect your privacy and promise to safeguard your information responsibly according to our privacy policy.

©️ 2022 Brand Name

Street Address | City, State Zip code

Click Here to be removed from this list


If the unsubscribe link was also hardcoded into the message, and this setting is left enabled you would not see two options to unsubscribe. The Listrak system will be able to find the code in your HTML and suppress the list generated version from showing in your message so you don't see two separate unsubscribe links.

For Example: When disabled, the assumption is that you prefer to write this code into the footer of the message and your own version might then look like this:


You are receiving this email because you signed up for weekly updates. We respect your privacy and promise to safeguard your information responsibly according to our privacy policy.

©️ 2022 Brand Name

Street Address | City, State Zip code

Unsubscribe from future emails | View in Browser


Here is an example of the unsubscribe system link code, you can also find this under the Support Tab > Code Support > Email Unsubscribe Link in the platform:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><a href="[[UnsubscribeLink]]">Unsubscribe from future emails</a></font>

NOTE: Using an unsubscribe link is mandatory under the CAN-SPAM act.


Automatically insert list-unsubscribe information in the message header

Enabling this feature will allow the subscriber to unsubscribe instead of report the message as spam, within the header of the email client. This feature is important because it affects the deliverability of your messages. Some email clients, like Hotmail and Gmail, allow recipients to report the message as spam in the header of the inbox.

For Example: This is how the unsubscribe link will look if using within Gmail:


Enable Internationalization within Author page

Enabling this feature allows you to add or use international alphabet characters in an email message. This option only applies to character sets different from the American English alphabet, such as Japanese or Russian.


The default character set in Listrak is UTF-8. If you find that a character you are trying to use is not supported by UTF-8, then you have the ability to choose which character set you'd like to use by enabling this feature and selecting the character set at the message level. The standard used outside of UTF-8 when this feature is enabled is ISO-8859. For more information on ISO-8859 character sets, please see these external resources:


Enable personalization within Spam Score window

Enabling this feature allows you to see the spam score for individual contacts on your list before sending the message.

Based on the Spam Assassin rating system, the spam score in Listrak scans your message and provides a report on the areas of the email that may present a problem. The score rating is between zero and six - the threshold for concern is a score of three or higher.

There are many factors involved with email marketing deliverability and not all spam filters are the same. Therefore, keeping Listrak's spam score low and using best practices for copywriting and message composition are good points to keep in mind.

To view an individual contact's spam score, scroll to the bottom of the email author page and click Spam Score.

Select a contact from the drop-down list to see that person's individual spam score for that particular message and click Continue.

The spam score details, including descriptions, points, and a total score for the particular contact and message are displayed.

The 4.1 score is considered a high spam score. To reduce the score, the items mentioned in the description should be addressed.

When no issues have been found, indicating a perfect spam score, the description will read No details available.


Enable to-name personalization within the Author page

Enabling this feature will allow you to customize the To Name field when creating messages. Using this option results in a friendly and unique greeting for your customer.

For Example: if the contact's first name is saved in a segment, use this to populate the To Name field with the customer's first name next to their email address.

The name will then be available in the message details.


Enable Template selection within the Author page

Enabling this feature will display the Template section on the email authoring page allowing any user with template permissions to select a premade email template to begin the email design.

Learn more on how to create a template by reading the Creating an Email Template article.


Enable Dynamic Content within the Author page

Enabling this feature will display the Dynamic Content (for HTML email design) section on the email authoring page. Dynamic content allows you to send relevant content that resonates with subscribers on an individual or group level.



Message Approval

You have the ability to require approval from a specified user or multiple users prior to sending messages or publishing conversations. It is important to note that the message approval function is not available for recurring messages.

  1. To enable this feature > toggle the Require Approval for all sends and conversations slide. Blue indicates it is enabled.

  2. Select your designated approvers using a checkbox next to their usernames.

Learn more about the Message Approval process by reading the Requiring Message Approval article.



Web Analytics Integration

Enable any of the analytics tracking sources that are applicable to your brand to provide several ways to easily report on how much revenue is generated through your email sends.


Listrak Analytics: Enable Listrak Conversion Analytics tracking

Enabling Listrak's conversion tracking allows you to report on how much revenue is generated through your Listrak email sends, these metrics are displayed on the Conversion Dashboard. Things to note:

  • Listrak's JavaScript framework must be installed onto your site.

  • Learn more about how to use these settings and how they relate to the Conversion Dashboard.

  • Learn more about setting Listrak parameters when building your email.


Google Analytics: Enable Google Analytics link tracking

Enabling Google Analytics link tracking gives you the option to track the performance of the email messages sent through Listrak on your Google Analytics dashboard.

💡 This only needs to be enabled if you use Google Analytics.

Listrak has applied default values that can be edited, but not left blank as these two parameters are required. These values will be the same for every message sent from that list.

  • Source: The source from where the email was sent from - default is set to "Listrak".

  • Medium: Used by Google to define the search channels of where the analytics are coming from - default is set to "Email".

Learn more about setting Google parameters when building your email.


Apply Google Analytics tracking for all domains

Enabling the Google Analytics link tracking (see above section) automatically enables this setting > Google Analytics tracking for all domains; this implies accounts with a single domain. This means for any unique domain that Listrak sees a URL in the message body/text, Listrak will apply Google Analytics parameters to them.

There are some clients that may have URLs to affiliates or other parties where they don’t want to have GA information tied to them. You are correct In those cases they’ll choose to disable “all domains” and enter each domain one by one.

Disabling this setting is useful when the Google Analytics parameters are not needed or should not be used in cases when a URL(s) are used with affiliate marketing or other parties.

The domains listed here need to the same as what they would be in the message. For example, if this link is being used https://www.styleco.com > www.styleco.com needs to be set. It’s best to add both the subdomain (www) and the root domain (styleco.com) since the alternate usage could be used in a message.


External Tracking

Enable Universal Email Key (SHA256)

Enabling this setting allows you to include an encoded value for a contact's email address in your email tracking parameters by appending an eKey value to the end of the link tracking. The Universal Email Key allows you to securely track and share contact's email addresses across your marketing platforms. Enabling this setting for a list will automatically enable the setting for all messages, but can be disabled for a specific email, if desired.

Enable External Campaign ID

Enabling the External Campaign ID provides another way to identify campaigns sent from Listrak. The External Analytics form field will display within the Analytics Integration section on the email authoring page allowing each message to have a unique External Campaign ID name. The External Campaign ID can be set manually by the user on the Authoring Page or programmatically through the REST API.

REST API option:

Data Export Tool options:

  • The External ID can be retrieved from Listing via a Flat File Export using the Data Export Tool.

  • The External Campaign ID can be added as a column in your Email Activity data set. Follow the Data Export Tool guide in order to set up daily exports containing the External Campaign ID to your FTP.

💡 This only needs to be enabled if you are using Optimove.


Enable Custom URL Variables

Enabling this feature allows specific parameters (key) and value pairs to be added to every link and is helpful when using other web analytics platforms or to add a coupon/promotional code to the links within a message.

Up to 10 custom URL key/values can be applied on the List Settings page and will be applied to every message sent from that list.

💡 Leaving these fields empty on the List Settings page will display empty input fields on the authoring page, allowing up to 10 unique Custom URL Variables per message.

After the custom URL key/values are added, they will be reflected as indicated on the list settings page, or use the values specified on that page.



Subscription Management

How would you like Listrak to manage bad email addresses?

Message bounces occur when the mail server is unable to deliver the message to the intended recipient due to a variety of reasons. The mailbox could be full, the server may be down, the email address could be no longer in use, etc.

◼️ Do Not Handle

If you opt to have Listrak not handle any bad email addresses, you'll be responsible for managing each bounce manually. When an email bounces, it will return back to the from address. For example, if an is sent from [email protected], every bounce that occurs will be sent to [email protected] rather than being handled by Listrak.

◼️ Standard Handling (Recommended)

Standard handling means that Listrak will manage the majority of the bounces for you so the bounce notifications will not go to the From Email Address inbox. The bounce emails will return to a Listrak system email address that allows Listrak to handle standard Non-Delivery Report (NDR), and bounced messages. This will capture most bounces except for auto-responders, out-of-office replies, and actual replies to the message.

◼️ Aggressive Handling

Aggressive handling means that the From Email Address will be reformatted as the Listrak system email address. Along with the From Email Address being updated, Listrak will then be able to receive all replies including bounces, auto-responders, out-of-office replies, etc.


Enable bounced email list hygiene for this list?

Enabling the List hygiene setting will automatically correct email addresses that were undeliverable due to common misspellings, such as [email protected] or joe@yahoocom. It also corrects email addresses that have changed due to corporate mergers or acquisitions but have not been updated in the system.

List hygiene runs within Listrak's bounce message processing system, which means an address must bounce and your Bad Email Management settings must be set to Standard Handling or Aggressive Handling.


Enable double opt-in subscription for this list?

Set the List to require a double opt-in message for every subscriber. When double opt-in is enabled, a contact has up to 7 days to confirm their subscription. To modify the look and feel of your double opt-in message:

  1. Navigate from the home menu to Authoring.

  2. Go to System Messages.

  3. Then Double Opt-In.


Enable form security key?

Enable the form security key allows you to add an encrypted key to the subscribe and unsubscribe form key. The key will be hidden in the URL that the form posts to. It will not be included as a new field in the form.

After this setting has been enabled, any forms on this list that don't include this setting will stop accepting submitted data.

If you want to invalidate forms that are already including a form key, you simply need to generate a new form key for the list by following the below steps:

  1. Toggle the enable form security key to YES.

  2. Check the checkbox to Generate New Key.

  3. Then click Commit Changes.


Unsubscribe all users after

Listrak will automatically unsubscribe anyone who has a certain number of consecutive general hard bounces. You may change the number of times an email must bounce before it is removed from the list. All other types of bounces need to be monitored through the message activity report within analytics and unsubscribed as needed.

It is important to note that all unsubscribes will be added to any suppression list associated with this list. For example, if the contact has subscribed to the StyleCo Event's List as well as the StyleCo Master List, and if the same suppression list is used, the contact will be removed from both email lists. Learn more about how to set up a suppression list by reading the Suppression Lists article.

NOTE: Adjusting this to 5 times or more is not recommended.


Which suppression list should this list be controlled by?

If you have a suppression list set up, you will be able to define if you want your list unsubscribes to be controlled by one of your suppression lists. This option will only display if you have a Suppression List created in your account.



Branding Settings

Domain Alias

The domain alias is a unique Canonical Name (CNAME) record that directs to Listrak's tracking server. With a domain alias, recipients will see the containing URLs and domain alias behind the links, instead of Listrak's domain name. Using a unique domain alias ensures your links are unique to your sends as opposed to the default Listrak domain begin used for your tracking links. The domain alias translates to the URL.

For Example: enews.mycompany.com (domain alias), instead of: customers.esp1.co (CNAME):


Bounce Domain

Bounce domain improves your overall deliverability by including a specific domain name in the header of the emails that are used to process an email bounce. This helps ensure compliance with new email authentication technologies such as SenderID and SPF.

NOTE: This record should never be added to the root domain. Doing so could cause incoming mail to be undeliverable and possibly unrecoverable.

Sender policy framework (SPF) is a protocol that is used to diminish forged email. A separate SPF record is necessary when implementing a bounce domain.

The checkmark verification indicates the SPF record on the domain name system (DNS) server is the correct value.



Notification Settings

List Review Group

Set up a list of reviewers to receive test versions of your email sends prior to launching the message to your list of contacts. To add someone to this group:

  1. Enter the email addresses one by one into the text field. Up to 27 email addresses can be included in the list review group

  2. Click Add Reviewer and repeat as needed

  3. Click Commit Changes

To send an email to the review group, scroll to the bottom of the email to be reviewed and click Send Review.

◼️ Using List Review Groups with Holdout Groups
List Review Groups can also be used with Holdout Groups to ensure that addresses listed in the Review Group that happen to be part of an active holdout group will receive the promotional messages they otherwise would have received. A common use case for this would be to ensure that some of a sender's internal users receive promotional messages and are not held out, despite being randomly included in an active holdout group.


List Admin Group

Creating a List Admin Group allows these recipients to receive any list-updating notifications such as subscribers and unsubscribers. The admin receives these notifications by default. To add someone to this group:

  1. Enter the email addresses one by one into the text field. Up to 6 email addresses can be included in the list admin group

  2. Click Add Admin and repeat as needed

  3. Click Commit Changes

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