Send to one group of my mailing list, not everyone
Not every campaign is for your whole community. Sometimes you only want the wholesale customers, or the members of one course, or a segment you have marked some other way. Tags do that: a word or short phrase you put on a contact, then use to narrow a campaign audience to just the people who carry it.
Tag a contact
Open that person's contact page and add a tag under Tags. Tags are yours to define
- "wholesale", "vip", "nursing-course", anything that means something to you. A contact can carry more than one.
Tag many contacts at once
From the contacts list, tick the rows you want, choose a tag, then add or remove it. One bulk action covers up to 200 contacts. For more than that, repeat the action, or filter the list first so fewer rows need ticking.
Narrow a campaign audience by tag
Open Community → Email campaigns, or ask Bernard, and choose a lawful group as usual - everyone who's said yes, buyers, students, or a form group. Then narrow it:
- Include keeps only people carrying at least one of the tags you pick.
- Except drops anyone carrying at least one of the tags you pick, even if they are otherwise in the group.
You can use up to 20 tags on each side. The eligible count updates as you choose, and it is a real count, not an estimate: Who will receive my email campaign? explains how bernard builds it from recorded permission.
A tag can only ever narrow a lawful group, never widen it. The tag check runs inside the same database query that checks recorded permission and this site's do not email list, so a tag can never add somebody who has not said yes, and it can never bring back somebody who unsubscribed, bounced, or was blocked.
Save the combination by name
Found a group-and-tag combination you will send to again, such as "Buyers, tagged wholesale"? Give it a name and save it. A saved audience stores the group and its tags, never a list of people, so it is checked fresh every time: open it and it recounts who is eligible right now; send with it and bernard resolves the actual recipients at that moment. Someone who unsubscribed since you saved it is simply not there.
Saved audiences appear in the picker with their own live count, alongside the built-in groups. Rename or delete one at any time - deleting it never changes a campaign you already drafted or sent from it, because each campaign keeps its own copy of the group and tags it used.
A campaign also remembers the tags it was sent with, so its results explain themselves: see What happened after I sent my email campaign? for what that history shows. For the full path from a saved draft to an approved send, read Send an email campaign to my audience.
The prompt
“Show me how to tag [a group of contacts] such as [wholesale customers / VIP members], narrow my next campaign to just that group, and save it as a named audience I can reuse.”
Press Copy, then paste it into your AI and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard first - a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI.
Questions people ask
- Does a tag create a new mailing list?
- No. In bernard there is one audience per lawful group, built from recorded permission. A tag only narrows which people in that audience receive one campaign - it never becomes a separate list or its own subscription.
- Can I use a tag to email someone who has not said yes?
- No. The tag check runs inside the same query that checks recorded permission and this site's do not email list. A tag can only remove people from a group, never add anyone who is not already lawfully in it.
- How many contacts can I tag at once?
- Up to 200 in one bulk action, from the contacts list. Tick the rows, choose a tag, then add or remove it. Tagging one person at a time has no limit; do it from that person's own contact page.
- Does capitalisation or spacing matter in a tag?
- No. "VIP", "vip" and " vip " are the same tag. Bernard folds case and trims spaces before comparing, so it never asks you to be exact.
- What happens to a saved audience if I delete it?
- Nothing changes for a campaign you already drafted or sent from it. Each campaign keeps its own copy of the group and tags at the moment you approved it, so deleting a saved audience later cannot reach backward.
- Do I still need to approve a send to a tagged group?
- Yes, the same approval as any other campaign. The final quote names the exact eligible count for the group and tags you chose, and nothing sends until you approve it.