# Contacts

> A contact is a single subscriber in MailCamp, identified by email address. Contacts belong to mailing lists and can carry custom field data such as name, location, or any attribute you define.

## What it is

The contact is the smallest unit MailCamp tracks. Every email sent goes to a contact; every form submission creates or updates one. Contacts have a status that determines whether they can be emailed and a history of activity (when they confirmed, when they bounced, when they unsubscribed).

## Key concepts

- **Email**: the unique identifier for a contact within a list.
- **List membership**: a contact lives inside exactly one mailing list, and that assignment is locked once the contact is saved — editing cannot move someone to another list. The same email on two lists is two independent records, with separate history and field values.
- **Status**: where the contact stands in the subscription lifecycle:
  - **Unconfirmed** — has signed up but not yet confirmed; not yet eligible to receive campaigns.
  - **Confirmed** — confirmed and eligible to receive email.
  - **Unsubscribed** — opted out; will not receive future sends.
  - **Bounced** — the email address was rejected by the receiving server; future sends are skipped.
- **Custom field values**: each contact carries the custom field values you defined for their list (see [Custom fields](/llms/custom-fields.txt)). Field types include text, textarea, email, number, dropdown, radio, checkbox and date.
- **Language**: used to pick the right localised version of campaigns and system emails.
- **Tags**: colour-coded labels you assign for grouping and segmenting. The contact never sees them (see [Tags](/llms/tags.txt)).
- **Topics**: interest preferences the contact chose themselves. The field only appears when the contact's list has topics linked (see [Topics](/llms/topics.txt)).
- **Geolocation**: country, region, and timezone are estimated from the contact's signup or last activity, when available.
- **Confirmed at / Unsubscribed at / Bounced at**: timestamps showing when the contact moved into each state.

## Common workflows

### Adding a single contact

1. Choose **New contact** from the actions menu on the contacts overview.
2. Pick the mailing list — required, and locked once saved.
3. Enter the email and any fields the list requires, then save.
4. Where the list requires confirmation, the contact is added as Unconfirmed and sent a confirmation email.

### Importing and exporting

Both run as background jobs from the contacts actions menu. See [Imports and exports](/llms/imports-exports.txt) for the wizard, duplicate handling and job statuses.

### Handling banned contacts

Contacts that bounce hard, complain, or are added to a global suppression list appear under **Banned**. They are excluded from all sends across the account.

## Limits and edge cases

- The same email address can exist as a separate contact in different mailing lists. Status is per-list, and each record counts separately toward the plan's subscriber limit.
- Unsubscribed contacts are not deleted — they are retained so they cannot be re-imported and resubscribed silently. Their history (which campaigns they received, opened and clicked) is kept; deleting the contact wipes it.
- A contact who unsubscribed cannot be reactivated from your side. They have to opt in again themselves through a subscribe form — flipping the status back manually breaches GDPR, because the permission is gone.
- A contact only carries values for the custom fields defined on its parent list.
- Geolocation is best-effort; it can be missing or inaccurate.

## Web routes

Paths use `:id` as the placeholder for a contact's identifier.

- `/contacts` — contact overview.
- `/contacts/new` — add a single contact.
- `/contacts/:id` — view a contact.
- `/contacts/:id/update` — edit a contact.
- `/contacts/import` — bulk import contacts.
- `/contacts/banned/emails` — banned email addresses (account-wide suppression).
- `/contacts/banned/domains` — banned sending or recipient domains.

For mailing-list-scoped subscriber routes, see [Mailing lists](/llms/mailing-lists.txt).

## Related

- [Mailing lists](/llms/mailing-lists.txt) — where contacts live.
- [Custom fields](/llms/custom-fields.txt) — the schema for contact attributes.
- [Forms](/llms/forms.txt) — how contacts are typically created.
- [Segments](/llms/segments.txt) — for filtering contacts.
- [Tags](/llms/tags.txt) and [Topics](/llms/topics.txt) — the two ways contacts are grouped.
- [Imports and exports](/llms/imports-exports.txt) — moving contacts in and out.