Seed lists allow the contacts within your company who monitor and approve emails to confirm receipt of the emails you send to your customers.

Overview

Use seed lists to send blind copies (for monitoring purposes) to the contacts on the seed List of all emails except autoresponders and test emails. You can import a seed list, create a seed list from scratch, and attach seed lists at the database level. You can choose one seed list for the organization level and a different seed list for the user level.

Seed lists indicate the coverage of an email and provide a mechanism for organizational consistency by including certain contacts. For example, seed lists allow you to include contacts within your company who monitor, approve, and confirm receipt of emails.

Note: To enable a seed list, contact your Organization Administrator.

What can you do with seed lists

• Import contacts or manually add them to the list (such as names from a company email list or another seed list).
• Send blind copies (for monitoring purposes) of all emails (except autoresponders, emails sent via programs, and those sent as a test) to the membership of the seed list.
• Attach seed lists at the query level.
• Choose a different seed list from one selected at the organization level, the user level, or the list level.

Limitations of seed lists

• You should not enter contact data into the seed list.
• Emails to seed-list contacts do not always behave the same way as they do for regular contacts.
• Your organization may have more than one seed list, but your organization administrator will only activate one seed list.
• Seed lists cannot be used with test emails. Seed list recipients are only sent an email during a regular email send.
• Seed list contacts are not checked against organization suppression lists. Any email that has a seed list associated with it will be sent to the contacts in the seed list regardless of whether the contact is in an organization's suppression list.

Note: If a seed list is attached at the database level, organization level and/or at user level, and the recipient is on all 3 lists, the recipient receives 3 separate seed emails because each seed list has a unique ID.

Import a seed list

You can import a seed list from a local drive.

1. Select Data > Database > Import > Import New.
2. Enter the name of the seed list in the Name field.
3. Select Seed List from the Choose Import New Type menu.
4. Select the Upload file from local hard drive option.
5. Click Browse to browse for the import file. The File Upload box opens.
6. Select the seed list file and click Open. The Import New screen opens.
7. Click Next.
8. If the top row of your contact source contains header information, select the First row contains field names check box.
9. Define the date format you want to use for your date fields.
10. Click Next.
11. If your seed list file contains fields other than Email, define the field types and select Next.
12. Click Next again. The Import Data Job page opens.
13. Click Submit to start the data job. The Data Job Submitted page opens.
14. Click the Data Job ID link to see the status of the import. When the data job completes, your seed list is created.

Enable seed lists

You can enable seed lists on three levels in Acoustic Campaign.

• Organization level
• User level
• List Level

Regardless of the method you select to initiate seed lists, you need a separate list for each level from which you enable seeds. If you enable seed lists at both the user account and organizational levels, you need two separate seed lists.

You can select the position of your seed list from a menu. The choices are Beginning of Send and End of Send, meaning your seed list would append to the beginning or end of your email list, respectively. This option is commonly used to track when a send begins and/or ends.

You can set up a seed list at the database, query or test list level. You can also set up seed lists at an organizational level or for a specific user. A common reason for initiating a seed list from this level is to inform internal recipients or clients upon completion of an email sent to a particular list.

You may need to be the list owner or an organization administrator to perform these procedures.

Enable a seed list for a database

1. Go to Data and then Manage Data.
2. Select the database that you want to associate the Seed List too.
3. Under the Fields tab, click Settings.
4. Check the box that is labeled Enable Seed List, choose the Seed List Position and then click Select to choose the Seed List you want to attach to your database.

Enable a seed list for a query

1. Go to Data and then Manage Data.
2. Click the Queries tab and then select the query that you want to associate the Seed List too.
3. Under the Fields tab, click Query Settings.
4. Check the box that is labeled Enable Seed List, choose the Seed List Position and then click Select to choose the Seed List you want to attach to your database.

Enable a seed list for a test list

1. Go to Data and then Manage Data.
2. Click the Test List tab and then select the test list that you want to associate the Seed List too.
3. Under the Fields tab, click Settings.
4. Check the box that is labeled Enable Seed List, choose the Seed List Position and then click Select to choose the Seed List you want to attach to your database.

Enable a seed list at the organizational level

You can set up a seed list on the organization level so that whenever a person in the organization sends an email, the contacts on the seed list also receive a copy of the email.

1. Select Settings > Org Admin > Organization Settings.
2. Click the (+) next to Seed List Settings to expand the menu.
3. Click Edit. The Update Seed List Settings page opens.
4. Click the Enable Seed List check box below the Organization Name field.
5. Select the seed list position from the Seed List Position menu. You can choose Beginning of Send or End of Send.
6. Click Select so you to choose the seed list you created.
7. Click the option next to the name of the seed list you want.
8. Click Select.
9. Select the Enable Seed Contact Indicator check box to add the word Seed at the beginning of the subject line. This indicates to the contacts on the seed list that they are receiving a seed.
10. Click Save.

The seed list is now set up for your organization. Whenever someone in your organization sends an email, the contacts on the seed list also receive a copy of the email at the end of the send.

Attach a seed list to a specific user

An organization administrator can attach a seed list to a user, so when that user sends an email, all contacts on the seed list receive a copy of the email.

1. Select User Accounts.
2. Select the name of the user you want to attach the Seed List to.
3. In User Settings, expand the menu.
4. Select the Enable Seed List check box.
5. Select the Seed List Position menu to indicate whether your contacts on the seed list should receive the email at the Beginning of Send or at the End of Send.
6. Click Select and choose the seed list you created.
7. Click Select. The Seed List field populates.
8. Click Save.

Your seed list is now attached to the user. When this user sends an email in the future, contacts in the seed list receive a copy of the email.

Seed list limitations and best practices

Typically, seed lists include you and others inside your organization. Associating seed lists at the organization, user, list, or query level allows seed list recipients to monitor the delivery of email campaigns, receive feedback from seed list recipients, monitor how the list is being used, and safeguard against unauthorized use.

Avoid using seed lists to test and review content. Seed list sending is best suited for monitoring the delivery of email campaigns, recruiting general feedback from seed list recipients, monitoring how lists are being used, and as a safeguard against unauthorized use.

If your seed list recipients encounter unexpected content or behavior, it could be by design. If you review this article and still have questions or concerns, be sure to let us know.

Note: For all messages sent to a seed list "SEED::" appears at the beginning of the subject line and the text "You are receiving this email as a part of a Seed List. Some contents of this email may not display properly. Learn More..." appears in the email body header.

Limitations and best practices  

The following are proven limitations and known behaviors for seed list contacts included as part of a regular email:

Click to view

Click to view mimics the seed recipient's inbox view. Because seed recipients typically do not have full personalization fields and dynamic content fields present, the message content in both the inbox and the browser is likely to be incomplete.

Dynamic content

If the seed list contains fields with the same name and data type as the fields in the regular list (which are used in the dynamic content rule evaluation) then seed recipient sees the correct dynamic content. If the seed list fields do not match the regular list fields for a given dynamic content area, then the seed list recipient sees the default dynamic content. This is true for all dynamic content in the message body, subject lines, and elsewhere.

Forward to a friend

Seed list recipients can use the Forward to a Friend link or form in the message, regardless of whether the friend is on the seed or regular contact list. However, when using Forward to a Friend to forward a SEED email, you receive the error 'We were unable to process your request; please try again later. If the problem persists, contact support for assistance.' This is expected due to the differences in associated IDs between the database and seed list. The email still sends, however. If the friend is on a suppression list, then the message might not be delivered, depending on the Opt Out/Suppression settings.

Tip: Avoid forwarding messages sent to seed recipients to other contacts (such as external contacts, managers, or colleagues) because messages sent to seed list recipients might contain incomplete personalization, dynamic content, or other information.

Share to social

The share to social function does not work for seed list recipients. The following message appears: "Display Error, contact Administrator." However, if a seed list recipient uses the Forward to a Friend link to forward the message, the forwarded recipient has full use of the share to social feature.

Personalization

Seed lists do not work with personalization, except when fields in the seed list exist in the regular recipient list. If the fields are not present in both lists, personalization fields are left blank. This also applies to personalized hyperlinks in the subject line, message body, and elsewhere.

Opt-in links

When an opt-in link is present, clicking the link takes the seed recipient to the opt-in form, which behaves the same as it does for a recipient on the regular contact list. The regular contact list for the email receives opt-in entries.

Tip: Avoid clicking opt-in links. Seed list recipients and actual list recipients should remain separate in all cases.

Opt-out links

Opt-out links for seed list recipients behave the same as for regular list recipients. The opt-out is shown only in the Recipient Mailing Report.

To view a list of opt-outs, open a seed list from the View Data page (the Seed List Summary page opens) and do the following:

1. Select the Search tab.
2. Review the data in the Unsubscribed column.

Tip: Keep seed and regular contact lists completely separate. If a seed recipient is also a regular list recipient and the seed recipient opts out, then the regular recipient stops receiving email. The seed recipient continues receiving seed email as expected.

Send time optimization

Send time optimization (STO) is respected if the seed list and the regular list have a Send Hour field with the same title.

Tip: Avoid including a Send Hour field in seed lists so that seed list recipients get the email as soon as the send starts or ends, depending on which option is selected.

Why is a query level seed list not displayed in the send experience?

When sending an email to a query, which has an associated Seed List in Query Settings, at the confirm and send a screen of the Send Experience, you cannot see the seed list's name under the About the Contact Source - Seed List section. Why?

You can enable seed lists on four levels in the Acoustic Campaign:

1. Organization Level
2. User Level
3. Database Level
4. Query Level

But only the seed list(s) from the first 3 levels will be displayed in the Send Experience confirmation screen. The query-level seed list is not displayed at this time, even ALL enabled seed lists will be sent to. If multiple seed lists from the first 3 levels (organization, user & database) are enabled, they will all be displayed and separated by commas.

How do seed lists and frequency controls work together?

A contact still receives the seed email after the frequency control limit has been met. However, they do not receive the live emails for their record in the database.

Do seed lists set at the query level override those set at the database level?

A send to a query triggers a send to the seed list associated with the query and to the seed list associated with the database.