From accidental imports to list cleanups, sometimes you have to remove subscribers from your list.
You have two options: either delete them entirely, or manually unsubscribe them on their behalf. 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 ConvertKit 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) should never 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 ConvertKit account with their historical data intact. They'll have the "Cancelled" status and you'll no longer be able to contact them via ConvertKit.
A subscriber can become unsubscribed in these situations:
They click the "Unsubscribe" link in one of your emails
Unsubscribed subscribers will not count toward your email list size for billing purposes.
They can rejoin your email list, but will not be able to 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:
Do you need to maintain the subscriber's historical data for future reference?
If yes, unsubscribe them. If no, delete them.
How to delete a subscriber
You can delete individual subscribers by going to their subscriber's profile and clicking the Delete Subscriber button in the left sidebar:
Or, you can delete multiple subscribers at once via a bulk action.
How to unsubscribe a subscriber
You can manually unsubscribe someone by going to their subscriber's profile and clicking the Delete Subscriber button in the left sidebar:
Manually unsubscribing multiple subscribers via a bulk action isn't possible at this time.
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.