Understanding Contact Labels, Attributes, and Filters

Labels, attributes, and filters each solve a different contact-management problem. Attributes describe a contact, labels organize contacts for a purpose, and filters find the exact group you need.

At a glance

Tool	Think of it as	Best for	Examples
Attributes	Facts about a contact	Structured profile information	Job title, department, employee ID
Labels	Flexible tags	Purpose-based groups	Safety Committee, Forklift Operators, Weekend Project
Filters	Dynamic contact views	Finding and reusing an exact audience	Ohio supervisors who are forklift operators

Contact attributes

Attributes describe who a contact is. Use them for structured, single-value profile fields, such as job title, department, employee ID, supervisor, role, or state. Each attribute holds one value for that contact and can be updated when needed.

Attributes work especially well when the same type of information applies across many contacts and you want to filter by it later.

Example: Use attributes for structured facts such as Job Title, Department, Employee ID, Role, or State. Each attribute holds one value for a contact.

Contact labels

Labels organize contacts for a purpose. A contact can have multiple labels. Use them for flexible groupings you manage intentionally, such as a location, safety committee, project, qualification group, or temporary team.

Tip: Use labels for flexible, purpose-based groups such as Safety Committee, Forklift Operators, or a temporary project team. A contact can have multiple labels.

Contact filters

Filters find contacts by combining criteria. You can filter using labels, attributes, search, and quick-select fields such as Owner or Hire Date. Save a filter when you expect to use the same criteria again.

Example: Set Archived to No and save the filter as All Employees. Saved filters are dynamic, so new active contacts are included automatically and archived contacts drop out automatically—no manual label management.

Best practices

Use attributes for structured, single-value profile information.
Use labels for flexible, purpose-based groups; a contact can have multiple labels.
Use saved filters instead of creating duplicate labels for every possible combination.
Give labels and filters names that other admins will immediately understand.
Organize related labels into folders to keep the Contacts page tidy.

Labels, attributes, and saved filters can all be used for reporting and for assigning training or sending invitations.