From accidental imports to list cleanups, you sometimes need to remove subscribers from your list.
You have two options: either delete them entirely or unsubscribe them on their behalf—individually or in bulk. In this article, we'll go over the difference between these two options and how to do them.
Deleting vs. unsubscribing
Deleting a subscriber removes them from your Kit account entirely, along with their historical data. This data includes information on their first name, Tags, and email history.
Deleting is handy for situations like:
Mistaken imports, where the subscriber(s) shouldn't have been added to your list in the first place
Removing cold subscribers who haven't been engaging with your content
Deleted subscribers can rejoin your email list—including rejoining (from the start) any Visual Automations they had been progressing through before being deleted.
On the other hand, unsubscribing someone keeps them in your Kit account with their historical data intact. They'll have the "Unsubscribed" status, and you'll no longer be able to contact them via Kit.
A subscriber can become unsubscribed in these situations:
They click the "Unsubscribe" link in one of your emails
Unsubscribed subscribers won't count toward your email list size for billing purposes.
They can rejoin your email list, but they won't automatically rejoin any Visual Automations they had been progressing through before being unsubscribed.
A good rule of thumb if you aren't sure whether to delete or unsubscribe a subscriber: if you need to keep their historical data for future reference, unsubscribe them. If not, delete them.
How to delete a subscriber
To delete an individual subscriber, go to their subscriber profile and click Delete in the left sidebar:
Alternatively, delete multiple subscribers at once via a bulk action.
How to unsubscribe a subscriber
To manually unsubscribe someone, go to their subscriber profile and click Unsubscribe in the left sidebar:
Bulk unsubscribe subscribers
You can also unsubscribe multiple subscribers at once. On the Subscribers page, use the checkboxes next to your subscribers to select the ones you want to unsubscribe (or click Select all # in the Bulk Actions menu to select everyone in the current view).
Then, click the three vertical dots (⋮) in the Bulk Actions menu > Unsubscribe. For a full walkthrough, see our guide to using bulk actions.
For safety, we recommend adding the subscribers to a Tag first before unsubscribing them. Doing this gives you a way to review or reference the group later if needed, by viewing all subscribers who have this Tag.
GDPR right to be forgotten
If one of your EU-based subscribers exercises their right to be forgotten under the GDPR, please use this form to let us know rather than deleting them yourself.
We'll help delete that subscriber and any records of them from your account.