Managing people

Once you have added people to your customer data platform (CDP), you can view and edit a persontag and untag peopleexport people, as well as archive and delete people through the People page.


Filter people

Applying filters to your people list enables you to view and manage different segments of people.

To create a filter, on the People page, click Filter and choose filter conditions from any of the following categories:

  • Audience
  • Person
  • Organization (if enabled)
  • Filter by activity.

If you have integrated a data source (such as Help Scout), a category containing filter conditions associated with the integration will appear in the filter list.

Example Help Scout fields for people

Add multiple filter conditions by clicking Add condition. Click Clear to clear all conditions and start again.

Learn more about the Person fields and filter conditions in Working with filters.

Once you have applied all the filter conditions you need, you can use the filter matches to:

Filter people beyond 90 days data retention

Customers on selected Ortto plans can opt-in to selectively store their activity data for longer.

Extending data retention past 90 days enables you to create a single-purpose filter on the People page of all your stored data. The filter you create is single-purpose because it is a snapshot of your people data against the particular activity or activities you selected. The results are not dynamic in the way that a report or audience entry criteria can be.

When generated, the filter applies a tag to your filter matches that specifies the filter condition/s you have selected.

Once you have your filter results tagged, you can then save people with the tag as an audience send them campaign messages, export them, or archive them.

To filter people beyond 90 days data retention:

  1. Ensure you have data retention set to beyond 90 days for the activity or activities you wish to filter by.
  2. On the People page, click Filter.
  3. Choose an activity condition and select a Where clause.
  4. Click Done to view the results.
  5. Click Create filter, edit the tag text if you wish, then click Create.
  6. You will receive an email (at the email address associated with your Ortto account) containing a link to your filter.
  7. Click the View filter link in your email to view the filter results on the People page.



Example filter created to generate a tag
The resulting tag created from the filter

For additional examples of how default and extended data retention works in your Ortto account, read Understanding activity data in Ortto.


Tag and untag people

Tags are useful for filtering and grouping people and organizations within your CDP. For example, you can add and remove tags to help move your CDP records from one playbook to another, control which CDP records enter a playbook, group CDP records created or updated from different CSV file imports, and so on.

Note that if you import people into your Ortto account from a CSV file, a tag consisting of the name of your CSV file, as well as the date and time of import is automatically applied to all people and organizations data imported from this CSV file.

Tagging and untagging people can be done in the same step.

  1. On the People page:
    • To tag a single person or multiple people, select the checkboxes next to the people you wish tag or untag. Alternatively, select a segment of people to modify by applying one or more filters.
    • To tag all people records, select the checkbox in the header row of the people list or filter matches.
  2. Click Tag.
    • To add an existing tag, select the relevant tag from the list. Or,
    • To create a new tag:
      • Click New tag, type in a name for your tag, then click Done. You can create more than one new tag by repeating this step.
      • The new tag/s will be added to the list of available tags.
  3. To modify the tags, select the checkbox next to one or more tags to add them or clear their checkboxes to remove them.
  4. Click Apply and you will receive a temporary message confirming your changes have been successfully applied.

NOTE: If you select all people to tag, either by selecting your entire people list or all filter matches, you will get a warning when you modify the tags that doing so could affect audiences and campaigns. An example of this is if you have used tags to create an audience. By removing tags for some people, they may no longer appear in the audience and may not receive any campaigns you send to that audience.

TIP: If the list of tags is extensive, you can filter this list by typing one or more consecutive letters into the Search box.


Export people

Exporting people enables you to download a CSV file containing your CDP data.

  1. To export all people records, on the People page, click More > Export. Alternatively, select the checkboxes next to the people you wish to export, or apply a filter, then click More > Export selected.
  2. Choose whether you want to export the visible data or all data, then click Export.
  3. You are returned to the People page and see a temporary message confirming that your CSV file has been sent to the email address connected to your Ortto account. Head to your email inbox to download the CSV file.

NOTE: Any time and date values in your exported CSV will be shown according to the timezone of your Ortto account (configured at Settings > General > Timezone). They won't be in UTC.


Archive people

Archiving a person soft deletes them from your main people list. The archive is a safety net for holding contacts if you accidentally archived them and don’t want to delete them, or just want to move them out of your main list temporarily.

When you archive a person, they:

  • Will automatically be deleted after 30 days unless you restore or manually delete them.
  • Can no longer be found via search, which only operates on people in your main people list; you can only search for archived people within the Archived people list.
  • Can no longer be involved in campaigns, reports, dashboards, or audiences, as well as be associated with activities.
  • Will not have any activity visible in their person view.
  • Are removed from the contact count of your Ortto plan (for pricing purposes).

WARNING: Archived people will automatically be deleted after 29 days (deleted on day 30).

Exercise caution when archiving people, since doing so puts them in a state where they are no longer tracked or recognized.

If Ortto receives an activity involving an archived person from a data source (which is configured to add unknown people by default) then a duplicate contact/person record will be created for this person in your CDP.

The duplicate person will not retain the person’s original subscription status (unless created as an unsubscribed record via a data source or via the appropriate API call), as the duplicate is treated as a new record. Similarly, should you re-add people you have archived, you will need to verify their subscription status before they are added back.

To archive people:

  1. On the People page, select the checkboxes next to the people you wish to archive. Alternatively, select a segment of people to archive by applying one or more filters, then select the checkbox in the header row of the people records.
  2. Click Archive  OK.
  3. To view the archived people, on the People page, click All > Archived.

Restore archived people

Restoring an archived person returns them to your main people list and they can again be involved in campaigns, reports, dashboards, or audiences, as well as be associated with activities. The restored person’s history up until the time they were archived will be visible in their person’s view.

Once a person is restored, if there is a duplicate record (such as if one was created due to activity while the person was archived) you can choose which record is the primary when merging records. In this case, it is recommended to choose the newest record as it would represent the newest data set.

To restore a person:

  1. View the list of archived people by clicking All > Archived.
  2. To restore:
    • A single person or multiple people, select the checkbox next to the records you wish to restore.
    • All archived people, select the checkbox in the header row of the people records.
  3. Click Restore and the selected record/s will be returned to the people records.

Delete people

Deleting a person:

  • permanently removes that person’s data from your CDP.
  • cannot be undone and you will be asked to confirm your choice in writing when you select delete.

To delete a person you must first archive them.

  1. View the archived people by clicking All > Archived.
  2. To delete a single person or multiple people, select the checkbox next to the individual people records you wish to delete. Alternatively, to delete all archived people, select the checkbox in the header row of the people records.
  3. Click Delete.
  4. Confirm you are sure by typing PERMANENTLY DELETE in uppercase to continue, then click OK.
  5. The person or people are permanently deleted and you will return to the archived people records.