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Create a list based on contacts' geographical location
Create a list based on contacts' geographical location

Deliver more targeted and relevant content to your audience.

Gareth Burroughes avatar
Written by Gareth Burroughes
Updated over 7 months ago

Creating contact lists based on geographical location offers a powerful method for enhancing your marketing and communication strategies.

Manage regional promotions, events, or campaigns to ensure that your messaging reaches the right audience at the right time.


Before you start

Things you need to know:

  • You can only generate geographical queries for contacts in the following countries:

    • UK

    • US

    • Canada

    • Australia

    • Japan

    • New Zealand


Create a list based on location

You can create a list based on the location of your contacts by building a geographical query. This function enables you to produce a mapped view according to the postcodes or zip codes in any lists, segments, or marketing preferences that you select. You can then easily select contacts and segment further using the generated map.

1. Generate your map

To generate your map:

  1. Go to Audience > Segments.

  2. Select the Geographical queries tab.

  3. Expand the Postcode data field drop-down menu and select the contact data field that contains your contacts' postcode/zip code.
    The default contact data field POSTCODE/ZIPCODE is already selected for you. However, if you hold this data in another contact data field, then make sure you select it.

  4. Optionally, you can expand the Country data field drop-down menu and select the contact data field that contains your contacts' country. We can make use of this when a postcode/zip code could exist in more than one country.
    For country identification to work, you must be storing country data using the two-letter ISO alpha-2 format for country codes.

  5. Select the checkboxes for the lists, segments or marketing preferences containing the contacts you want to query.

  6. Select CONTINUE to generate your map.

The heat map displays the concentration levels of your contacts’ location.

2. Manipulate your map view

You can use your mouse controls to navigate around the map view; select and drag to move the map, and use the scroll wheel to zoom. The left side of the map also features a slider so you can zoom in and out, plus a directional controller so you can move around the map.

3. Choose your contacts

To choose your contacts, select a square, circle or polygon tool from the toolbar above the map. Draw around a geographical area on the map using your selected shape tool.

If you want your selected area to adhere to a fixed ratio, expand the drop-down menu next to the shape tools and select Fixed.

If your initial selection isn't quite right you can delete, rotate or resize using the selection tools.

  • Select the red X icon to delete your selection.

  • Select the polygon icon to alter your selection area.

The width and length of your selection area is shown in the toolbar above the map. The default setting is in miles but you can be toggle this to kilometres if you want to. The number of contacts within the selected area is shown in the bottom left corner.

You can select more than one area at a time. To do this, select a shape tool and draw around an additional area on the map. The contacts selected are then added to the existing number shown on the screen.

4. Create a new geographical list

When you're happy with your selection of contacts, to create your geographical list:

  1. Select ADD TO A LIST.

  2. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the list.

  3. Select NEXT to confirm.

Your geographical list is created and added to your other contact lists, ready for use.

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