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Naming Conventions for Emails, Templates, and Contact Lists

A consistent naming system helps your team find assets quickly, filter reports accurately, and avoid duplication as your ContactMonkey library grows. This article provides a practical naming framework you can adopt across emails, templates, and List Management contact lists.

The Naming Pattern

Build every name from a set of standard "blocks" in a fixed order:

[Brand/Product]_[Audience]_[Purpose/Theme]_[Region/Language]_[Channel]_[YYYY-MM-DD]_[Owner/Team]_[Version]

Key rules:

  • Use underscores (_) between blocks for easy scanning and filtering.
  • Use YYYY-MM-DD date format so names sort chronologically.
  • Use version numbers like v01, v02, v03 so everyone knows which file is current.
  • Leave out any block that doesn't apply — don't force a placeholder.

Email Naming Examples

A good email name shows who it's for, what it is, and when it's being sent.

Name What it tells you
ContactMonkey_Customers_Newsletter_ProductUpdates_NA-EN_2026-03-12_JohnS_v01 March newsletter for North American customers, owned by John S
ContactMonkey_Leads_Nurture_OnboardingTips_UK-EN_2026-03-20_JohnS_v02 Second version of a UK onboarding nurture email
ContactMonkey_Customers_Renewal_90DaysOut_Global-EN_2026-04-01_CS_v01 Global renewal reminder, 90 days out, owned by Customer Success

Tip: When you create a new email in ContactMonkey, you're prompted to add a name before entering the Email Builder. Apply this convention at that moment — it's much harder to rename assets retroactively across a large library.

Template Naming Examples

Templates are reused across many sends, so the focus shifts to use case, audience, and format rather than a specific send date.

Name What it tells you
ContactMonkey_Newsletter_Customers_NA-EN_2Col_MarketingOps_v03 Third iteration of a two-column newsletter layout for customer comms
ContactMonkey_ProductAnnouncement_All_Global-EN_Simple_Marketing_v01 Clean single-column product announcement for all regions
ContactMonkey_Nurture_Leads_UK-EN_PlainText_Sales_v02 Plain-text nurture template for UK sales outreach

Optional status tags you can append at the end:

  • _Approved — marks templates that have passed review and are ready to use
  • _Draft — flags templates still in progress
  • _OutlookSafe — indicates the template has been tested and formatted to Outlook standards

Contact List Naming Examples

List names work best when they communicate the data source, any applied filters, and how the list is refreshed.

Name What it tells you
ContactMonkey_Prospects_Salesforce_Industry-SaaS_Size-200plus_NA-EN_Dynamic_SalesOps Dynamic list of SaaS prospects with 200+ employees, synced from Salesforce
ContactMonkey_Customers_HubSpot_Plan-Pro_Renewal-90Days_Global-EN_Dynamic_CS Dynamic list of Pro-plan customers up for renewal in 90 days
ContactMonkey_EventLeads_ZoomWebinar_Webinar-Mar2026_NA-EN_Import_2026-03-05_MarkG Manual import of March 2026 webinar attendees

Note: For imported lists that won't be refreshed, include the import date so your team knows how recent the data is.

Approved Terms Reference

To keep names consistent across your team, choose from this standardized vocabulary:

Block Approved Terms
Audience Leads, Prospects, Customers, Trials, Partners
Type Newsletter, Nurture, Onboarding, Renewal, Reactivation
Region/Language NA-EN, NA-FR, UK-EN, EU-EN, Global-EN
Owner/Team MarketingOps, SalesOps, CS, Product

Share this list with your team and store it somewhere accessible (a shared doc or pinned Slack/Teams message) so everyone uses the same terms when naming new assets.

See Also