Creating & Editing Mailing Lists
This article explains how to create new mail lists and edit existing ones in Hail Mail.
Creating a New Mail List
Building a new mailing list takes just a few steps:
1. Access the Mail Lists section Navigate to "Hail Mail" from your main menu, then click "Your Mail Lists" tab.
2. Start creating Click the " + Mail List" button — this opens the list creation form.
3. Name your list Enter a descriptive name that clearly identifies the list's purpose. Examples: "Weekly Staff Newsletter" or "Media Contacts". This name appears when selecting lists for mailouts, so make it clear and recognisable.
4. Add a description (optional) Include notes about the list's purpose or audience. While subscribers never see this description, it helps your team understand what the list is for - particularly useful for organisations with multiple curators managing Hail Mail.
5. Configure list settings Add a sender name and sender email address and then add your physical address. You can also toggle the option to add a 'sign up form' for this specific mailing list to be added to your content. This option works well if you have a public newsletter and would like to grow your readership.
6. Create the list Click "Create List" to finish. Your new list is now ready to receive subscribers.
Empty lists are perfectly normal when you first create them - your next step would be to add subscribers.
Editing an Existing Mail List
You can update list details at any time without affecting your subscribers.
Note: editing a mailing list is basically editing the name of the list and send name and email address. You are not editing subscribers through this edit option.
1. Locate your list From the "Your Mail Lists" tab, find the list you want to edit.
2. Open list settings Click the edit icon next to the number of subscribers.
3. Update information Modify the list name or description as needed. Changes to the list name will appear immediately when selecting lists for future mailouts.
4. Save changes Click "Save" to apply your updates.
Managing List Subscribers
Once your list exists, you have several options for managing its contacts:
Adding subscribers: Go to the subscriber tab, Use the "+ Subscriber" button to add individual contacts, or "Bulk Import" to add multiple subscribers from a CSV file or by pasting email addresses. While uploading subscriber/s, you are asked to select a list to add them to, this is where you will specifically chose your mail list to ensure these contacts are added to the correct list.
Viewing subscribers: Click on the green number of subs(shown in the box below) to see all subscribers on that list. From here you can search, filter by status (subscribed, bounced, unsubscribed), or perform bulk actions.
Removing subscribers: If you would like to remove a subscriber from a specific list but keep them as a subscriber in your account (they may be apart of another list for example)> find the subscriber > click edit icon> and untick the list. Or you can choose delete subscriber if you would like to remove them all together.
Deleting a Mail List
If you no longer need a list:
1. Access list options Click the trash can option:
2. Select delete Options will pop up at this point:
- Are you sure you want to delete this list?
- Also delete subscribers from ALL other lists.
This is important to understand. When you delete a list, you are deleting the shell of the list and all contacts apart of that list remain in your account. This is because these email address may be attached to a separate list. If you are sure that the subscribers from the list you are deleting, are okay to be deleted from your account and ALL lists, you can tick the 'Also delete subscribers from ALL other lists' option as well.
3. Confirm deletion Confirm you want to permanently delete the list.
Important: Deleting a list removes all subscriber associations with that list, but the contact records themselves remain in your Hail account. Contacts will become "unlisted" if they're not on any other lists - you can view unlisted contacts in the Subscribers section and add them to other lists or remove them entirely.
List Permissions
Only organisation Owners and Admins can create, edit, or delete mail lists. If you don't see these options, check your user permissions with your organisation's owner.