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Deleting audience members and their contact details

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At Letterhead, compliance with email regulations like CAN-SPAM is a top priority — which is why audience members can’t be deleted.

Why?

Section titled “Why?”

Letterhead retains unsubscribed emails to prevent them from being accidentally re-added to future lists. Deleting them could lead to accidental re-subscriptions, which would violate CAN-SPAM rules.

What you can do

Section titled “What you can do”
  • Unsubscribe properly — encourage readers to use the unsubscribe link in each newsletter, which removes them from your active list. See What Happens When Someone Unsubscribes?
  • Mass-delete contact details — while members themselves can’t be deleted, their contact details can be removed in bulk. See below.
  • Need a full removal? For legal or compliance-related deletions (such as GDPR requests), email [email protected] and the team will handle it while ensuring continued compliance. See also How to Submit Data Requests.

Delete your entire audience list yourself

Section titled “Delete your entire audience list yourself”

If importing a CSV asks you to choose an Import Type, you’re on the classic per-channel audience, and the Delete & Overwrite type removes all existing contacts and replaces them with the list you import:

  1. Go to the Audience tab.
  2. Open the dropdown next to Add contact and select Import CSV.
  3. When asked for the Import Type, choose Delete & Overwrite (rather than Add & Update).

See How Do I Import Subscribers? for the full import flow.

Important: this replaces everything, so double-check the file you’re importing.

If instead your Audience page shows a single Add contact button with a separate Imports dropdown (New Import / Import History) and no Import Type prompt, you’re on the newer company-wide Contacts experience — every import there adds and updates, and there’s no self-service way to replace your whole list. Request a targeted mass deletion below, or, for a legal or compliance removal, see “Need a full removal?” above.

Request a targeted mass deletion

Section titled “Request a targeted mass deletion”

If you need to delete a large set of subscribers without overwriting your whole list, submit a support ticket and the team will handle it.

For more detail, review the CAN-SPAM guidelines on unsubscribe compliance, or see Working in Audience for the rest of the Audience toolkit.

Still can’t find what you need? Contact support.