Deleting Contacts

Deleting Contacts

While it is possible to delete contacts in Delivra, we strongly recommend an alternative approach in most cases: setting a contact's status as "Expired" instead. This method ensures you maintain historical data and respect your contacts' communication preferences—all while keeping your lists clean and manageable.

A Better Option: Use the "Expired" Status

Instead of deleting, we recommend setting the contact’s status to Expired. Here’s why:

  • Prevents Future Sends: Expired contacts will no longer receive emails from your account, just like deleted contacts.

  • Easier to Re-Subscribe: You can manually return an expired contact to an active status if needed—ideal for seasonal or re-engagement campaigns.

  • Preserves Communication Preferences: This avoids unintentionally removing contacts who may already be Unsubscribed or Held, ensuring compliance with their stated preferences.

How to Expire a Contact

  1. Search for and hover over the contact, then press "Edit"

  2. Find Contact Status under Email Grouping.

  3. Choose Expired from the dropdown menu and confirm.

This preserves the contact’s record without allowing further emails, keeping your reporting intact and honoring compliance standards.

An article on moving contacts' status in bulk can be found here.

Best Practices and Tips

  • Avoid Deleting in Bulk: Unless mandated by compliance or legal reasons (like a GDPR deletion request), keep contact records for segmentation, reporting, and long-term relationship tracking.

  • Use Expired for Cold Leads: Mark contacts as Expired if they haven’t engaged in a long time but may re-engage later.

  • Be Careful with Segments: Deleting contacts who are in active automations or segments can lead to reporting gaps or logic issues.

Use Cases for the Expired Status

  • A lead that never converted but may return later.

  • An old customer no longer active but whose purchase history you'd like to keep.

  • A compliance-safe pause for marketing communication without fully removing someone from your database.

If you do need to delete a contact permanently (for instance, to comply with a GDPR "right to be forgotten" request), send a list of contacts that you want deleted to support@delivra.com, and we'd be happy to help you.


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