Add, edit and delete contacts

On Contacts, click New contact to add someone, or click an address in the table to open their page. That page is where you Edit, Unsubscribe, Delete and Erase…. The last three do very different things, so check which you need below.

Find a contact

The tabs above the table filter by status: All, Subscribed, Unsubscribed, Cleaned, and Pending when you have any. Type in Search name or email to search within the tab. To narrow it further, click Filters, pick a List, Tag or Segment, and click Apply filters. Each filter shows as a chip you can remove with its ×.

Export downloads exactly what the table is showing. See Export contacts to CSV.

Add a contact

1. Click New contact.
2. Enter the Email (the only required field), plus First name and Last name if you have them.
3. Fill in any of your custom fields.
4. Under Add to lists, tick the lists this person should join.
5. Click Create contact.

New contacts are subscribed. Adding someone to a list here starts any automation that begins when someone joins that list.

If the address is on your suppression list, the contact is created as unsubscribed or cleaned instead, depending on why it was suppressed. Adding someone again can’t subscribe a person who opted out.

Edit a contact

Edit changes the email, names, custom field values and lists. You’ll see the status, but you can’t edit it. Two things the list tickboxes won’t do:

• Undo someone leaving a list. A list the person left on your preference centre stays unticked, and ticking it doesn’t resubscribe them. Only the person can do that.
• Confirm a pending signup. Someone waiting on a double opt-in email becomes subscribed when they click the link in it.

Unsubscribe, Delete or Erase?

• Unsubscribe (shown for subscribed contacts) stops all email to them and adds their address to your suppression list, so a later import can’t put them back. Use this when someone asks to stop hearing from you.
• Delete removes the contact from your contacts, lists and segments, and they stop counting towards your plan. It doesn’t unsubscribe them or suppress their address.
• Erase… permanently removes the person’s details, for a right-to-be-forgotten request. It can’t be undone. See Erase a contact.

Bringing a deleted contact back

Add the same address again with New contact and you’ll see Contact restored. The contact comes back with its history and its old status, so deleting and re-adding never clears an opt-out.

What’s on the contact page

• Profile: status, source, subscribed date and your custom fields. A Suppressed row means the address is skipped on every send, whatever the status says. Platform-wide beside it means the block came from a permanent bounce. Cleaned with At import means your import file marked this contact as cleaned.
• Lists: every list they’re on, each with its own status.
• Tags: click the × on a tag to remove it from this contact.
• Activity: recent deliveries, opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes.
• Signup consent: for someone who joined through a signup form, when they submitted, when they confirmed, and their IP address. This is your proof if someone says they never signed up.

Where to go next

• Contact statuses explained
• Bulk actions on contacts
• Suppressions: why an address can’t be re-added