Contacts
Contacts are the people you can email. You manage them under Audience > Contacts, and every contact belongs to one workspace.
Add contacts
- By hand: Audience > Contacts > Add contact. Email address is required. First name, last name, tags (comma-separated) and any custom fields are optional. If the email already exists, that contact is updated instead of duplicated, and its tags and custom fields are replaced by what you enter.
- From a file: Audience > Contacts > Import CSV (see below).
- From a form: people who sign up through a Form or a list's subscribe page become contacts.
- From code: the Contacts API.
Import a CSV
The file needs a header row. Only email is required.
- Recognized columns are
email,firstName,lastName,tagsandstatus. Common variants such as "Email Address" or "First Name" are mapped for you. Separate tags inside a cell with commas or semicolons. - Columns that match one of your custom fields (by key or label, ignoring case and spaces) are imported. Any other column is skipped, and the result message lists it.
- Add to list puts the imported contacts on a list (Unsubscribed and Bounced rows are left off). Tag every imported contact adds one tag to the whole batch, alongside any tags in the file.
- Contacts are matched by email. An existing contact is updated, and a column your file leaves out keeps its current value. A row with tags replaces that contact's tags.
- A
statuscolumn marks rows as unsubscribed, bounced or complained. Those addresses are imported as unmailable and suppressed. An import never resubscribes someone who opted out. - Limits: 5 MB per file and 10,000 rows. Rows with a missing or invalid email are skipped and counted.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Subscribed | Can be emailed. |
| Pending | Signed up through double opt-in and has not confirmed yet. |
| Unsubscribed | Opted out. |
| Bounced | The address hard-bounced. |
Campaigns reach Subscribed contacts only. A Pending contact receives nothing until they confirm. See Double Opt-In.
The contacts table opens on Active, which shows Subscribed and Pending. Unsubscribed and Bounced contacts are kept but hidden, with a "hidden, show all" link next to the status chips.
Marking a contact Unsubscribed or Bounced, one at a time or in bulk, asks you to confirm. It adds the address to the suppression list and takes the contact off every list. Setting the status back to Subscribed does not undo that: only the person can re-subscribe, through a signup form or the preference centre. See Compliance.
Find and filter
The filter bar searches email and name, and filters by status, tag, "Opened campaign", "Clicked in campaign" and "On list". Export CSV downloads exactly the contacts in the current view.
Bulk actions
Tick rows to open the action bar: Change status, Add tag, Remove tag, Add to list and Delete. Ticking covers one page, so use Select all N matching to include every contact that matches the current filters, up to 10,000 at a time.
- Add to list skips Unsubscribed and Bounced contacts.
- Delete suppresses Unsubscribed and Bounced addresses first, so deleting a contact never erases an opt-out.
Tags and custom fields
A contact can have up to 50 tags, each up to 100 characters.
Custom fields are defined under Settings > Workspace, in the Custom contact fields card (see Settings). Each has a label, a key and a type: Text, Number, Date or Yes/No. You can define up to 30. Keys start with a letter and use lowercase letters, digits and underscores. email, firstName, lastName, tags and status are reserved. Custom fields show on the contact form, in imports and exports, and as conditions in Segments. For merge tags in email copy, see Personalization.
A contact's page
Click an email to open the contact. You can edit details, change the subscription status, and see engagement, the consent log and campaign activity. Each campaign in the activity list links to that campaign's analytics.
Erase personal data (GDPR) replaces the name, email and tags with anonymous placeholders and removes the contact from every list. Engagement history stays but can no longer be traced to a person. This cannot be undone.