When a contact is added to your suppression list, this means that you can no longer contact them through the suppressed channel, or channels, until the suppression is removed, either by the contact themselves, or by you. The method to remove a suppression depends upon the channel and suppression type.
Read more about email contact suppression reasons and SMS contact opt-outs.
Channel suppressions vs contact suppressions
It’s possible for a contact to become suppressed on one channel, while remaining subscribed on the other. This is a channel-level suppression.
It’s also possible for a contact to be suppressed across all channels that you hold data for. This is a contact-level suppression.
Contacts who are only suppressed on one channel, while remaining subscribed on the other, are not removed from your lists, and can appear in segments. This allows you to still communicate with them on their subscribed channel. The contact is also added to the suppressed contacts list.
To learn more, check out Using the suppressed contacts list.
Let’s look at some example contact statuses:
Contact | Email address | Mobile number | Overall status |
Contact A | Subscribed ✔️ | Subscribed ✔️ |
|
Contact B | Subscribed ✔️ | Suppressed ❌ |
|
Contact C | Suppressed ❌ | Subscribed ✔️ |
|
Contact D | Suppressed ❌ | Suppressed ❌ |
|
Contact E | Not stored ➖ | Suppressed ❌ |
|
Contact F | Subscribed ✔️ | Not stored ➖ |
|
List-level suppressions
You have the option to upload contacts for suppression from a specific list only. This has the advantage of not suppressing a contact or contacts across all of your account's lists; they are only excluded from sends to that specific list but are still able to receive campaigns sent to your other lists. Contacts suppressed at a list level are not added to the account suppression list.
Learn more in Add and remove suppressions from a list.
Using the suppressed contacts list
The suppressed contacts list is the area of your account that stores contacts suppressed on at least one channel.
To view the suppressed contacts list, go to Audience > Suppressions.
The default view of the suppressed contacts list displays contacts who are suppressed on all available channels: your contact-level suppressions. In this view, you can still use the search function to locate a contact who is only suppressed on a single channel. To do this, enter their email address, email domain, or mobile number into the Search field.
To upload a file of contacts to the suppression list, or add a single contact to the suppression list, expand the SUPPRESS drop-down menu in the top left.
Learn more in Suppress a contact.
In the top right, you have options to edit the date range, filters and visible data fields for the suppression list.
Edit the date range
Editing the date range of the suppressed contacts list allows you to show only those contacts who were suppressed within the date range you select.
To do this:
On the Suppressed contacts list, select DATE RANGE.
In the Date options side panel, select the radio button for Pre-defined date range, or Custom date range.
For Pre-defined date range, expand the Date range drop-down menu and select the range you want from the list.
For Custom date range, enter a Start date and End date. To do this, either type a date into the field, or select the calendar icon, then select the date.Select APPLY.
Filter the suppressed contact list
The Filter option allows you to only display contacts who are suppressed on a specific channel, or who have a specific suppression reason.
To do this:
On the Suppressed contacts list, select FILTER.
Use the radio buttons to choose from:
Suppressed contacts: all contact level suppressions.
Contacts with a suppressed email address
Contacts with a suppressed mobile number
Optionally, for either Contacts with a suppressed email address or Contacts with a suppressed mobile number, expand the Show all suppression types drop-down menu and select the suppression type you want to display.
Select APPLY.
Edit the visible data fields
You can choose to edit which data fields display on the suppressed contacts list.
This choice also applies to exports of the suppression list.
To do this:
On the Suppressed contacts list, select DISPLAY.
If you want to change the sort order of the list, expand the Sort by drop-down menu and choose from Date removed (desc) or Date removed (asc).
Select the checkbox for any field you want to display.
Clear the checkbox to remove a field from the list.
Select APPLY.
Resubscribe contacts
You can resubscribe a contact directly from the suppressed contacts list. Depending on the channel and suppression type, the contact or channel is either immediately added back to your account, or a message is sent to the contact asking them to confirm their consent to be resubscribed. In some cases, you are unable to resubscribe a contact directly from the suppression list.
To resubscribe a contact:
On the Suppressed contacts list, select the checkbox to the right of the contacts you want to resubscribe.
Expand the MORE ACTIONS drop-down menu and select Resubscribe.
On the Resubscribe contacts screen, you see details of the possible resubscribe actions you can take.
Toggle Resubscribe to email and Resubscribe to SMS to YES or NO to confirm the actions you want to take. You can see how many contacts it is possible to resubscribe to each channel, as well as the resubscribe action:Channel can be resubscribed immediately.
A resubscribe confirmation must be sent.
This action applies to the email channel only.
The channel cannot be resubscribed by you.
Once you’ve chosen the channels you want to resubscribe, select RESUBSCRIBE.
You see a confirmation message of your chosen actions. Select RESUBSCRIBE CONTACTS.
Additional tabs
As well as the Suppressed contacts tab, this area also allows you to access the following tabs:
Suppressed domains
This tab displays any email domains that you have suppressed at an account level. For example, if you have suppressed example-mail.com, then no …@example-mail.com email addresses can be added to your account.Suppression history
This tab displays manually imported file suppressions created in the last 30 days. Select DATE RANGE in the top right to alter the date range displayed.
Reversing suppressions
You can delete a suppression import file from the Suppression history tab within 24 hours of the original suppression import. This removes the contacts included in the file from the suppression list, and they can be reimported back in to your account.
Pending contacts
This tab displays contacts who have been sent a verified double opt-in email but are yet to complete the double opt-in process. After contacts confirm their opt in, their email address is added to your lists and they are removed from Pending contacts.