When creating and implementing a preference center, we recommend that all lists in your account be subscription-based and that you create no more lists than the ones to which you intend to send email marketing messages. This helps drive higher engagement and conversion rates and decreases unsubscribe rates and spam complaints.
In this article, you’ll learn how to convert your current lists to communication-based lists to help you take full advantage of the Preference Center feature.
Take note
- If your lists are already subscription-based list, you do not need to convert your lists
- Do not delete old lists once you convert them to communication-based lists(s). Doing so will create data loss for your account
- Learn best practices for creating, naming, and maintaining lists
- Learn how to create segments
- Learn about ActiveCampaign list statuses
Convert your lists to a communication-based list
- Create an advanced search for contacts on a list:
- Click Contacts on the left menu
- Click into the “Search contacts” field, then select “Advanced Search”
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Use the segment builder to search for the lists you want to convert. For example, you would use “is subscribed to” as the condition, “at least one of” as the operator, then select a list you want to convert as the value. We recommend selecting one list here, then repeating steps 2-7 for each list you wish to convert
- Click the “Search” button
- Next, you will tag all contacts pulled in your search. To do so:
- Click the “Edit all” button
- A modal window will appear. Click “Add a tag”
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Type the tag name into the field provided, then click “Add”
We recommend creating a tag that includes the name of the list that you’re converting. For example, the tag can be “Old_List_Name_Date.”
- Click the “Apply” button
- Confirm you want to apply the changes by clicking “Apply changes to X contacts”
- Click “Okay”
- Next, create a new list. This will be your subscription-based list. To do so:
- Click “Add a list” on the Lists page in your account
- A modal window will appear. Complete the fields in the modal
- Click the “Save” button
- Add contacts to your new list:
- From the contacts page, use the advanced search to locate contacts that you applied a tag to in step 2
- Select all contacts in the search, then click the “Edit” button
- A modal window will appear. Click the “Add to a list” action
- Select the new list you want to add contacts to
- Click the “Add” button
- Click “Apply”
- Click “Apply changes to X contacts”
- Click “Okay”
- Confirm that your contacts were successfully added to the new list:
- Go to Contacts > Lists
- Search for the new list name
- Click the list name
- Ensure the count of contacts in the list is correct and spot check the names and email addresses
- Unsubscribe contacts from the old list:
- From the contacts page, use the advanced search to locate contacts in the old list. To do this, click the condition dropdown and select “Contact List Status”> Is subscribed to list (active).” To remove contacts from more than one list, choose the “at least one of” operator, then select one or multiple lists for the value
- Select all contacts in the search, then click the “Edit” button
- A modal window will appear. Click the “Unsubscribe from a list” action
- Select the old list from which you want to unsubscribe contacts
- Click the “Remove” button
- Click the “Apply” button
- Click “Apply changes to X contacts”
- Click “Okay”
- Confirm that the contact count in your old list(s) is 0.
- As a best practice, rename your old list. If you want to move your old list to the bottom of your lists, type “Z_OLD_” in front of the list name. To do so:
- From the Lists page, locate the list you want to update
- Click the down arrow next to the “Import contacts” button for that list
- Select “Edit” from the list of options
- In the name field, provide a different name for your old list or type “Z_OLD_” in front of the list name
- Click the “Save” button