What is the difference between Groups and Distribution Lists?
Distribution lists allow the management of sets of email addresses for either contacts or organisations. They enable you to email a set of contacts/organisations rather than email individually. User Distribution lists are managed manually and System lists are managed by the modules such as Membership.
Groups allow the management of sets of contacts/organisations. For each group you can choose which fields will be shown in the group. For example for a specific contact group you could include the contacts postal address and mobile phone number in addition to their name.
Groups can be useful where you want to maintain a list of contacts/organisations independently of the data stored against the contact/organisation.
For example tracking a list of contacts that you want to speak to over a period of time. As you ring each contact you then remove that contact from the list. Groups also support system distribution lists enabling you to email the members of a group.