Batch Delete without unsubscribing.

[Tytn Hays]

Hey all,

I'd like to batch delete about 30,000 from my list without unsubscribing them. This is to reduce my list size and to focus on a smaller demographic. I do not want to unsubscribe them because I may wish to re-add them into my list after a few months.

Is there a way to remove a bulk amount from the list and take advantage of a cheaper monthly payment for a short trial period?

Thanks in advance.

Tytn

[jesse]

That's simply not how things work - deleting is deleting.


jesse

[Tytn Hays]

So, just for clarity; once you have uploaded a list of subscribers, the only way to remove them from the list is to unsubscribe them? And if you wish to mail them again, you have to request that they re-subscribe to your email list?

[jesse]

Or delete them. Though you really shouldn't be playing with unsubscribing and resubscsribing folks - it may do you well to go read up on some of our recommended list management practices and reconsider how you're going about managing your subscribers:
http://kb.mailchimp.com/search/results/?q=list+management


jesse

[Tytn Hays]

Hi,

Sorry but I'm getting confused now; perhaps I didn't explain myself well enough.

I asked if there was a way to remove subscribers from my list on MailChimp without having to unsubscribe them; these are signed up members who agreed that we could mail them. They have not requested to be unsubscribed.

For a period of a few months we would like to have a smaller list size and see if this affects our open and click through rates. By doin this we take advantage of a cheaper monthly bill due to the reduction in list size. Additionally, I won't have to add another field to my list in order to segment the data on those subscribers which we won't be sending Campaigns too.

I really want to avoid having to request a re-subscribe from these subscribers because they will be wondering why we unsubscribed them in the first place.

If I can remove these subscribers without unsubscribing them, please can you explain how I can remove them in large enough batches.

Thanks in advance and all best regards

Tytn

[jesse]

Again, read the list management stuff b/c letting a set of subscribers go stale is also a bad idea. And maybe go read up on the many ways you can segment based on prior activity - that's how you do what you're talking about.

Then, I'm not sure where the disconnect comes or why that would be functionality that would exist, but just no - and you *really* don't want to delete them if you're going to start sending to them again. You can easily subscribe them again, though this just generally doesn't sound like a very sound plan, but do whatever you want.


jesse

[Tytn Hays]

Hi again,

We have no intention of letting our subscriber base go stale.

Segmenting based on prior activity means leaving a large amount of users on the list which is what I want to avoid to reduce monthly costs.

I don't need to read up on segmenting data because I know how to do it; this should have been clear in my last message where I said, "... I won't have to add another field to my list in order to segment the data on those subscribers".

Being able to remove list members without unsubscribing them should be basic functionality of the list for a small company to control it's costs, but it seems that the only way to go with list sizes is up and that just seems wrong.

If there is a way to easily re-subscribe members again after unsubscribing them, please can you explain how to do it using the API.

Thanks once again.

[jesse]

Here are the API docs:
http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/api/rtfm/

listBatchSubscribe, listBatchUnsubscribe, and listSubscribe allows you to force someone back on the list. Just remember it's been recommended that you not do this and instead use the service as intended.


jesse

[Tytn Hays]

rtfm --> Lol.

Thanks. It looks I can do it through the web interface when the 7 days campaign time is up. This seems much easier to achieve and within the recommendations laid out by MailChimp.

[Matt Baird]

I too am wondering the same thing, but for a different reason. My issue is that I accidentally added ~22,000 email addresses to the wrong list, and now I would like to delete these addresses without unsubscribing them. These emails are somewhat likely to subscribe to the list at some point in the future. I've read through this discussion and it appears as though this simply is not an option through the API. Is that the case? Am I going to have to delete 100 at a time through the web interface 220 times?

On Tuesday, June 4, 2013 6:36:08 AM UTC-4, Tytn Hays wrote:

[jesse]

I still don't understand how the "delete but don't unsubscribe" concept makes sense to folks, but like I said in the first reply, deleting is deleting. Gone. Like they never existed. There's nothing more to be said than already has.


jesse

[Matt Baird]

This makes sense. "Deleting is deleting" is incredibly vague at best and the method name listBatchUnsubscribe *could* be misleading if one is not familiar with all of the ins and outs of Mailchimp or of mailing lists in general. I simply thought it would be possible for an address to be deleted from a list yet the fact that they unsubscribed be stored elsewhere. I now realize that those who have unsubscribed are part of the list, and if they are deleted, the fact that they ever unsubscribed is lost as a result. And of course, taking advantage of this would be bad practice.