Update the subscription status of your existing contacts
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Subscription statuses are recorded on each contact’s contact profile. For each channel that you have installed, there is a separate subscription field.
For each channel, the contact’s subscription status can either be:
Subscribed
Unsubscribed
As of August 2023, contact profiles have been updated to record channel subscription statuses. Contacts that were created before this date will need to be updated to include their subscription statuses.
Re-uploading contacts will not create duplicates. Existing contact profiles will be updated to include subscription statuses.
You can update the subscription status of your contacts by creating CSV files and uploading them into Contacts.
There are two ways to do this:
By uploading a CSV file that contains subscription information. The contacts’s subscription information will be updated automatically.
By uploading a CSV file that doesn’t contain subscription information. We’ll ask you what subscription status you want to apply.
You can download the sample CSV file available in the Import from CSV screen, in the Upload File step. This file can now be edited as per the requirement. You may specify the subscription status of contacts for one or more channels at once.
Below are some sample CSVs to start formatting your customer's subscription data:
If you want to include channel subscription status in the CSV files you upload, you can do so by adding a column that contains this information.
Name the subscription columns as follows:
subscribedWhatsapp
subscribedEmail
subscribedSms
For each ‘Opted in’ CSV file, make sure the value in the subscription column is ‘TRUE’.
For each ‘Opted out’ CSV file, make sure the value in the subscription column is ‘FALSE’.
Example: Correct formatting ✅
Use the following examples to see how your CSVs should be formatted.
SMS: Opted in
+31 6 22 22 22 22
TRUE
+31 6 33 33 33 33
TRUE
SMS: Opted out
+31 6 11 11 11 11
FALSE
+31 6 44 44 44 44
FALSE
Upload your formatted CSV
You’ll need to upload your CSV files one at a time. To do this, follow these steps:
Go to Grow customers > All contacts.
Click Add contact > Import from CSV.
Upload your CSV file.
Review your CSV sample, then click Next step.
In 'Apply Categories' section, you will see the option 'Update subscription status for imported contacts'. Under this, you can only specify subscription status for channels for which subscription columns are not present in the CSV file. If your CSV file already contains all the channel subscription columns, all the checkboxes will be disabled.
If the CSV file contains contacts you already uploaded before, and you want to not change the subscription status of those through the existing file, you may select the 'Import without updating subscription status' option. Through this option, subscription status for existing contacts will remain unchanged. New contacts will be imported without consent to receive marketing messages.
Click Finish.
Repeat these steps for every CSV file that you have.
If you want to upload CSV files without channel subscription information, you can still create separate CSV files for each channel subscription - just omit the subscription column.
During the CSV upload process, we’ll ask you which channel the contacts in the CSV are subscribed to.
Upload your formatted CSV
Like the previous process, you’ll need to upload your CSV files one at a time. To do this, follow these steps:
Go to Grow contacts > All contacts.
Click Add contact > Import from CSV.
Upload your CSV file.
Review your CSV sample, then click Next step.
In 'Apply Categories' section, you will see the option 'Update subscription status for imported contacts'. Under this, you can only specify subscription status for channels for which subscription columns are not present in the CSV file.
If the CSV file contains contacts you already uploaded before, and you want to not change the subscription status of those through the existing file, you may select the 'Import without updating subscription status' option. Through this option, subscription status for existing contacts will remain unchanged. New contacts will be imported without consent to receive marketing messages.
Click Finish.
After the CSV is reviewed, and the checkbox for subscription for different channels are checked, you can apply groups to the contacts being uploaded in one of the following ways:
Auto-assign the contact to a List
Manually add the contact to an existing List
Contacts that have been individually created, either by adding a single contact manually, automatically by interacting with agents in Inbox, or via Flows, will need to be updated manually.
To do this, follow these steps:
Go to Grow customers > All contacts > Directory.
Search for and select the contact that you want to update.
In the contact profile panel, scroll down to the channel subscription fields.
Click the drop-down next to one of the channel subscription fields, and update the contacts subscription status as required.
The contact profile will be updated, and the changes will be saved automatically.
Once you have updated your contact’s subscription statuses, you will no longer be able to send campaigns to unsubscribed contacts.
You don’t need to take any further action here; if an audience contains unsubscribed contacts, and you send a campaign to that audience, only subscribed contacts will receive the campaign.
If you want to tidy up your audiences and get a more accurate estimation of the number of contacts that will receive a campaign when you send it, you can edit the audience to exclude unsubscribed contacts by following these steps:
Go to Grow Customers > All Contacts > Audiences and select Attributes
Choose the channel subscription field, for example, for WhatsApp, you may use “WhatsApp Subscription”.
Select the condition “is subscribed”.
Select other conditions as applicable. The result will be the audience excluding the unsubscribers.