Email contact management: a list that stays clean
Contact management in 2Mail means you import, clean and organise your addresses into groups, while the platform processes bounces and unsubscribes automatically. That way you only send to addresses that exist and are allowed to receive you, and your domain reputation stays intact.
A good campaign does not start with the template but with the list. This page shows how you bring contacts in, how 2Mail keeps them clean and what the GDPR asks of you.
What you do with contacts and lists
Four actions you carry out in the dashboard, from the first import to the log of who unsubscribed.
Import from a file
You upload your addresses as a CSV, TSV or Excel file, for instance an export from your webshop, your CRM or your invoicing software. 2Mail recognises the columns automatically, including Dutch column names, and shows a preview of the first rows; where needed you map a column by hand. Alongside the email address you bring first name, last name, company, phone and language. You use those fields later as merge tags in your template and in the subject line.
Consent: the evidence stays at the source
Note per contact when and where consent was given: the form, the date, the IP address or the order number. You keep that evidence in the system where the sign-up took place, such as your webshop, your CRM or your form tool; only the contact fields go to 2Mail. You need it when someone asks why they receive your newsletter.
Clear out duplicates and invalid addresses
A list from several sources always contains duplicates and typos: a missing dot, a wrong domain, a stray space. During the import 2Mail validates the email address in every row and merges duplicate addresses. Addresses that had already bounced or unsubscribed elsewhere are best taken out of the file yourself: every faulty address is a bounce you could have avoided.
Unsubscribe log with CSV export
Every unsubscribe ends up in a log with the date, the IP address, the campaign and the groups. You search that log and export it to CSV, for instance to process the unsubscribes in your CRM or webshop as well. In the contact overview, unsubscribed and bounced contacts stay recognisable by their status.
List hygiene that takes care of itself
The maintenance that costs the most time, 2Mail does for you. Bounces and unsubscribes come in automatically and are applied to the contacts straight away, without you having to download and re-upload a file.
Why this matters: mailbox providers judge your domain by what you send them. Keep mailing addresses that do not exist or have unsubscribed and your domain reputation drops — and your order confirmations and invoices feel it too.
Groups: how you segment your list
In 2Mail you organise your contacts into groups: newsletter subscribers, webshop customers, event attendees. Each group gets a name, a description and a colour, and you choose whether it is public or private. You send a campaign to one or more groups. In the contact overview you search and filter by text, status and group, and with bulk actions you add contacts to a group, take them out, delete them or copy them from one group to another.
Segmentation is the simplest way to mail more relevantly and get fewer unsubscribes. How you divide your list into groups and which criteria work in practice is covered on the separate page about list segmentation.
Managing contacts under the GDPR
An email address is personal data. That places four obligations on you, and for each of them you can read how to handle it in practice.
Retention period
Do not keep contacts longer than needed for the purpose you collected them for. Agree on a period, for instance two years without an order or a response, and clean up periodically. A smaller, active list performs better anyway.
Data subject requests
Anyone may ask which data you hold on them, have it corrected or have it erased. Look the contact up in the dashboard, read off the stored fields, correct or delete it and note the date. You must respond within a month.
Legal basis and evidence
A newsletter requires consent; an order confirmation does not. Record per group on which basis you mail and keep the opt-in evidence in the system where the sign-up took place, so you can show it immediately when asked or audited. The unsubscribes are in 2Mail itself, in a log with date, IP address and campaign.
Processor inside the EU
2Mail processes and stores your contacts on its own servers in Belgium. You remain the controller, we are the processor. A data processing agreement is available on request.
From import to first send in four steps
This is how you move an existing address list to 2Mail safely, without putting your reputation on the line in the first week.
Export and clean your current list
Pull the addresses from your webshop, CRM or previous platform as a CSV or Excel file. Remove duplicates and obvious errors, and set aside addresses that had already bounced or unsubscribed there. Those you do not import.
Import with the fields you need
Upload the file in the dashboard and map the columns: email address, first name, last name, company, phone and language. Choose straight away the group the contacts go into: if you import a separate file per audience, your list is already segmented the moment it comes in.
Check your domain and authentication
The dashboard creates the DKIM key and shows the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records ready to copy. You publish them with your DNS provider and check them in one click before the first send. Without authentication even a perfect list ends up in the spam folder. At onboarding we check this together with you.
Send to a small, active group first
Pick your most engaged contacts for the first campaign, for instance those who ordered in recent months, and put them in a group of their own. Watch the bounces and unsubscribes in the statistics and only expand the volume when they stay low.