Contact Management: A Comprehensive Guide

• What is contact management?
• Why would I use contact management?
• How to manage a contact profile
• How to bulk edit contacts
• How to unsubscribe a contact
• How to re-subscribe a contact
• How does the AC unsubscribe process work?
• Why isn’t someone receiving our newsletter?
• How to check a subscriber’s newsletter preferences

What is Contact Management?

ActiveCampaign Contact Management is the process of managing contacts’ data fields and tags, automation status and list subscription status.

Why would I use Contact Management?

• Changing a field value:
  • Publications will add a contact’s first name in AC so that their emails will be personalized rather than using a standard salutation.
• Adding a contact to a list:
  • If a contact wants to be added back on a list that they have unsubscribed from, publications can add them back directly through the contact profile.
• Removing from an automation:
  • If a contact has reached out stating that they do not wish to receive an automated renewal series, then you can remove them directly from their contact profile.

How do I manage my contact profile? What fields may be edited here?

There are several changes that you can make to a contact profile, and you can review documentation of these here. We’ve also listed some of the most common changes below:

• Changing a field value
• Adding/removing a list
• Adding/removing tags
• Adding/removing from automations

How do I bulk edit contacts?

You can review the documentation for bulk editing contacts and the changes that can be made here. Be sure to review the section on editing multiple contacts with the bulk editor.

How do I unsubscribe someone from ActiveCampaign?

• For documentation on the general unsubscribe process, click here.
  • This is useful when a contact wants to unsubscribe from a single list. However, it should be noted that if the contact wants to unsubscribe from the main master list (the list that all site registrants are automatically signed up for), then you’ll want to use the Exclusion List process (see below).
• For documentation on the user-managed Exclusion List unsubscribe process, click here.
  • Be sure to review the section on adding a single contact to the user-managed Exclusion List. This is useful when a contact wants to stop all communication, and should be used when a contact wants to unsubscribe from multiple lists. The only time that this should be used for single list unsubscribes is when the contact wants to unsubscribe from the main master list.

If a contact is unsubscribed from my account, how do I change their profile to allow them to receive emails again?

There are three different types of unsubscribes, which are remedied using slightly different methods.

• For documentation on re-subscribing contacts that are regular unsubscribes, click here.
• If you see a red error message when following the regular unsubscribe process, that means that the contact is either on the user-managed exclusion list or the backend AC exclusion list.

• Select the “Click here to manage your exclusion list” link, and this will take you to your List Exclusions page. Search for the contact’s email address in the search bar. If your contact appears here, go to the far right-hand side and select “Delete” to remove them from the exclusion list.
  • Please note that after deleting the exclusion listing, you’ll need to navigate back to the contact’s profile and re-subscribe them to any lists they were previously subscribed to.
• If after clicking on the link, the contact does not appear on your user managed exclusion list, they are on the backend exclusion list.
  • In this case, you’ll need to obtain a request from the contact themselves asking to receive your emails again. Then send that request to the BlueLena team (either your Strategy and Solutions Consultant or support@bluelena.io). From here, our team will submit the contact’s request to receive emails again to the ActiveCampaign team. The AC team is the only one who has access to the Backend exclusion list. This process MUST be done in cases where a contact is on the Backend exclusion list.

How does the standard AC unsubscribe link/form work?

1. “I no longer wish to receive these emails”
   • This is a standard unsubscribe where the contact is only unsubscribed from the list(s) that the campaign was sent to.
   • The contact will be able to go to your website and re-sign up for newsletters on their own accord.
2. “The emails are no longer for content that I originally signed up for”
   • This is a user-managed exclusion list unsubscribe, where the contact is unsubscribed from all lists.
   • Either your team or the BlueLena team will be able to re-subscribe the contact by navigating to Contacts. -> List Exclusions and then deleting the record for the contact.
3. “I never gave my permission to receive these emails, please report this as abuse”
   • This is a backend exclusion list unsubscribe, where the contact is unsubscribed from all lists.
   • You’ll need to share a screenshot or forwarded thread of the subscriber stating their intent to receive your newsletters/messaging again. Finally you’ll file a ticket to support@bluelena.io where we’ll rope in the AC team to get them re-subscribed.
   • ***A subscriber can also find any old email, click the unsubscribe link, and then select “I unsubscribed by accident! Please add me back to this list”.
4. “I unsubscribed by accident! Please add me back to this list”
   • This will not unsubscribe the contact at all and undoes the click on the unsubscribe form for those subscribers who accidentally clicked this.
5. “Other”
   • This is also a standard unsubscribe, where the contact is only unsubscribed from the list(s) that a campaign was sent to.
   • The contact will be able to go to your website and re-sign up for newsletters on their own accord.

Why are contacts not receiving newsletters?

• The most common reason that a contact is not receiving a newsletter is that they do not have it selected within their newsletter preferences. Depending on the way your publication has elected to segment newsletters, this may mean that they aren’t on the correct list, they don’t have the correct tags or they don’t have the correct values in their direct Newsletter data field.
  • To resolve this issue, either add the contact to the correct list, add the corresponding tags or update the corresponding Newsletters data field.
• The second most common reason that a contact is not receiving your newsletter is that they’re unsubscribed from your list or on the exclusion list.
  • For documentation on both of the exclusion list unsubscribes, click here.
  • *Note that if the contact is on the backend exclusion list that you should contact support@bluelena.io rather than the AC support team.
• A final commonly noted situation is when a contact’s email domain has a strict verification system or a strict spam system. The newsletter usually ends up in the contact’s spam or junk folder, outside of a safe sender list or is not delivered due to their domain’s settings. In these cases, make sure that your AC DKIM/SPF settings are set up correctly for email verification that the contact adds the email addresses you send AC campaigns from to their safe sender list or trusted emails list.
  • For an overview on setting up your AC domain verification, find documentation here.
  • To learn more about contacts adding you to their safe sender list, review the process for each email client here.
    • Be sure to read over the section regarding email client safe sender list instructions to see the specific steps needed for each email client.
• Lastly, there are some less common issues that could be causing non-delivery of emails:
  • It’s possible that newsletters are either being sent to the wrong list and/or segment. To determine this, go to the last campaign that a subscriber was supposed to receive by navigating to Reports and searching the campaign name. From here, click the “Details” link underneath the open trends graph up top, and this will designate the list and segment the campaign was sent to.
    • If the campaign was sent to the correct list, you’ll navigate to the Contacts->Lists tab and select the arrow to the right of “Import Contacts” and select “Segments”. Locate the segment and select this to pull up the conditions to ensure the campaign was delivered to the correct group of subscribers
  • It’s also possible that your account has reached its contact limit, and to determine this you’ll click the avatar icon in the bottom left of any ActiveCampaign page. This will pull up a small menu that shows your current contact usage, and just hover of the scale to see if you’ve gone over the current limit.
    • If so, please reach out to support@bluelena.io to get your account upgraded to the next contact tier.

How do I check newsletter preferences?

There are generally three different ways that publications choose to designate their newsletter selections:

• Lists: When using lists to designate newsletter selections, navigate to the contact profile and review the Lists section at the bottom.
• Newsletter data field: When using a newsletter data field, navigate to the contact profile and review the newsletter-specific field in the contact’s field information.
• Tags: When using tags to designate newsletter selections, navigate to the contact profile and review the Tags section at the bottom.