How to manually add or remove a contact(s) from a list

Keeping your contact lists organized is essential for targeted communication. While you can manage your contacts through imports or automated processes, there are times when you need to make quick, manual adjustments. This guide walks you through how to manually subscribe or unsubscribe individual contacts and groups of contacts from your lists.

Take note

• To view the status of any bulk edit updates, check out the Contact Bulk Edit status page in your account
• If you are looking for information on how to import your contacts, for instance, from a .csv file, please see the article on that topic

How to manually subscribe a single contact to a list

1. Click Contacts on the left menu. 
2. Click into the search field and search for the contact you wish to subscribe to a list.
3. Click the contact's name or email address to open their contact record.
4. Scroll down until you see the "Lists" section in the info box. To add or subscribe the contact to a new list, click the "Add" button.
5. A modal window will appear and display lists that the contact is not associated with. Click the list you wish to subscribe the contact to and click "OK."

The contact is now subscribed to the list you selected.

How to manually unsubscribe a single contact from a list

1. Click Contacts on the left menu.
2. Click into the search field and search for the contact you wish to unsubscribe from a list.
3. Click the contact's name or email address to open their contact record.
4. Scroll down until you see the Lists section in the info box. Click the list from which you want to unsubscribe the contact.
5. A modal window will appear. Click the "Status" dropdown and select Unsubscribed.

The contact is now unsubscribed from the selected list. They will not be included in any campaigns sent to this list.

It is not possible to remove a contact's association from a list—they can either be unsubscribed, unconfirmed, subscribed, or bounced.

How to manually subscribe a group of contacts to a list

To bulk subscribe contacts to a list, you'll need to first create an advanced search, then use the bulk editor to perform the preferred action.

1. Click Contacts on the left menu.
2. Click "Advanced Search."
3. In the segment builder that appears, you can create your search conditions by either prompting Active Intelligence or manually selecting them.
4. A list of contacts who meet your search requirements will load. Click the "Edit All" button.
5. The bulk editor will appear. Here you can subscribe the selected contacts to a list by clicking "Add to a list." A dropdown list will appear, choose the list you want to add contacts to then click "Add."
6. Click the "Apply" button.
7. A confirmation window will appear. Click the "Apply changes" button to proceed with the bulk edit.

Note that the changes cannot be canceled or undone.

How to manually unsubscribe a group of contacts from a list

To bulk unsubscribe contacts from a list, you'll need to first create an advanced search, then use the bulk editor to perform the preferred action.

1. Click Contacts on the left menu.
2. Click "Advanced Search."
3. In the segment builder that appears, you can create your search conditions by either prompting Active Intelligence or manually selecting them.
4. A list of contacts who meet your search requirements will load. Click the "Edit All" button.
5. The bulk editor will appear. Here you can unsubscribe the selected contacts from a list by clicking "Unsubscribe from a list." 
6. A dropdown list will appear, choose the list  then click "Apply.
7. A confirmation window will appear. Click the "Apply changes" button to proceed with the bulk edit.

It is not possible to remove a contact's association from a list—they can either be unsubscribed, unconfirmed, subscribed, or bounced.

Use Active Intelligence to create an advanced search

Instead of building search conditions from scratch, you can have Active Intelligence do it for you. 

To do so, click the “Advanced Search” button, type your prompt into the field provided, then hit the “Return” or “Enter” key on your keyboard.

Active Intelligence then translates your prompt into segment conditions and executes the search. You can see your search conditions by clicking the “Build with segment conditions” dropdown. Contacts who meet your conditions display below the segment builder.

You can use prompts such as:

• Find contacts who opened at least one email in the last 90 days
• Show me contacts who clicked a link in my last campaign
• Show contacts who submitted a form in the last 30 days
• Find contacts who haven't opened any emails in the last 6 months
• Show me inactive contacts on my [List name] list
• Find contacts who haven't engaged with any campaigns in the last year