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Subscribing many contacts to marketing at once, and when you shouldn't

A contact only receives a marketing email when they're subscribed to its subscription type. So when a campaign reaches fewer people than you expected, it's tempting to subscribe everyone in one go. Leat lets you, but only do it for contacts who have actually agreed to hear from you.

This article explains what each bulk route does, why a contact import often subscribes fewer people than you ticked, and how to grow your subscribers without overriding anyone's choice.

Marketing email needs the contact's permission. A contact who isn't subscribed has either never given it, or has given it and taken it back by unsubscribing. Subscribing them yourself doesn't change that: it only changes what Leat thinks.

That matters most for contacts who unsubscribed. They told you they don't want your emails, and the tools below will subscribe them again without asking them. Doing that ignores their choice, it's likely to break privacy rules such as the GDPR, and people who get mail they opted out of report it as spam, which hurts delivery of everything else you send. See How to avoid making spam emails.

So before you subscribe anyone in bulk, ask: did every contact in this file agree to receive marketing from you, for example on a sign-up form or at the counter? If you can't say yes for all of them, leave the ones you're unsure about out.

Why your import subscribed fewer contacts than you ticked

A contact import has a Marketing subscriptions step where you choose, per subscription type, whether contacts are imported as subscribed. That choice only applies to contacts the import creates. As the step says: marketing preferences for existing contacts don't change.

So if part of your file was already in Leat, those contacts keep whatever status they had, including unsubscribed. Rows that failed, for example because the email address was empty, weren't imported at all. Check the import's results under Data → Imports to see how many rows were created, updated or failed. See How to import a list of contacts.

Subscribing contacts you already have

To subscribe existing contacts in bulk, use a Marketing import:

  1. Go to Data → Imports.
  2. Click New import, choose Marketing and then Subscribe contacts.
  3. Upload a CSV file with a column of email addresses and assign it to the contact's email address.
  4. Choose the subscription type.
  5. Check the summary and click Import.

What happens per row:

  • The email address has to belong to a contact who's already in Leat. A row without a matching contact fails.
  • A contact who's already subscribed stays as they are.
  • Every other contact is subscribed, including contacts who unsubscribed themselves. For a double opt-in subscription type they're set to Pending confirmation instead, and only receive marketing once they confirm.

Because it doesn't skip contacts who unsubscribed, only put people in this file who agreed to receive your marketing. Unsubscribe contacts in the same import does the opposite, for example to process a list of opt-outs you collected elsewhere.

To subscribe a single contact, open their profile, click Marketing in the sidebar and click Subscribe next to the subscription type on the Subscriptions tab. See Adding a contact by hand.

Getting more contacts to subscribe themselves

The lasting way to a bigger audience is letting contacts subscribe themselves, which also gives you a record of their consent:

Checking who will receive a campaign

On the campaign's Recipients tab, Leat counts only the contacts in your selection who are subscribed to the campaign's subscription type. A list of 100 contacts with 30 subscribers reaches 30 people. See Campaigns: sending a one-off email, and every option.

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