When it comes to managing your subscribers and their data, you're faced with the decision of whether to use a List or a Data Extension. Unless you really dig in to our documentation (which you can), you don't immediately know the difference between the two. Jason Greulich, an Implementation Consultant with ExactTarget, recently put together a comparison of the two features, and now it lives in our documentation. Let's go through some of it.
A List is a collection of your subscribers that receive your communications. You create as many lists as you need to segment your subscribers so that you can target your email communications.
A Data Extension is a table within the application database that contains your data. You could use a data extension to store sendable subscriber data like Lists or just to house relational data.
To get you started, here are some guidelines on whether to use a List or a Data Extension:
Use a List when:
- your lists are going to be 500,000 subscribers or less long-term
- you prefer simplicity over performance
- you're exclusively supporting messages using Western ASCII character sets
- your import speed is not critical
- your subscriber attributes will be limited in number
- you're using the XML API
- your lists are going to be greater than 500,000 subscribers
- you're supporting multiple subscriber data sets (with separate definitions)
- you're sending global messages
- your import speed is critical
- you're using triggered sends
- you're using the SOAP API
- you prefer a flexible subscription model
If you have questions, leave a comment here or respond in the feedback form at the link above.
Comments for Do I Use a List or a Data Extension?
blog comments powered by Disqus