Lists and subscribers

Your audience is the most valuable asset in your email marketing. This guide covers how to add contacts, how to organize them to speak to the right person, and how to keep the list healthy so every campaign performs. The step-by-step of importing is in the import and clean lists tutorial; here's the full picture.

How to add subscribers

arrobaMail offers several methods depending on the case:

• Import from file (recommended for volume): upload an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file with the first row as column headers, map each column to its field (Email, Name, custom fields), and confirm. The system validates every address, discards invalid formats, and flags duplicates.
• Manual entry: to add individual contacts one at a time.
• Copy and paste: paste a column of addresses from a spreadsheet and they get processed like an import.
• Web forms: the most recommended method long-term. Your site's visitor signs up on their own, ideally with double confirmation (double opt-in).

Tip: importing has automatic hygiene. arrobaMail validates and discards addresses with invalid formats, nonexistent domains, and duplicates without you having to review them by hand.

Role addresses: handle with care

"Role" addresses like info@, contacto@, ventas@, or admin@ are problematic: they don't represent a person, tend to have low open rates, and anti-abuse systems flag them often. Because of that:

• They're not allowed in bulk imports (neither by file nor by copy and paste).
• They are allowed manually, one at a time, assuming you have the recipient's explicit consent.

Important: adding addresses like abuse@, spam@, or postmaster@ results in immediate account suspension. Never add them.

Subscriber states

Every contact has a state that defines whether they receive campaigns. Management is automatic:

State	What it means	Receives campaigns?
Subscribed	Active, validated contact.	Yes
Pending	Completed a form but hasn't confirmed (double opt-in).	No
Unsubscribed	Requested opt-out via the email link.	No
Blocked	Hard bounce, spam complaint, or nonexistent inbox.	No

Unsubscribes are processed instantly and hard bounces move to blocked without you needing to step in.

Segmentation: speaking to the right audience

Segmentation applies filters to a list to create subgroups, without having to duplicate contacts across separate lists. Instead of "Argentina List" and "Chile List," you keep one master list and segment by country at send time.

You can filter by:

• Subscriber data: email, name, subscription date, last activity, and any custom field.
• Behavior: whether they opened a campaign or not, whether they clicked a link or not, date of last open.
• Geolocation: country, region, city.
• Device and technology: computer, phone, or tablet; operating system; email client.

And you choose the type of segmentation: custom (you define your own conditions), predefined (templates for common cases), or RFM (by recency, frequency, and monetary value).

Important: avoid segmenting by email domain (for example, only @gmail.com). Receiving servers may read that send as a targeted attack and block it.

Tags: the most flexible tool

A tag is a free-text label you assign to a subscriber to flag something relevant: their status, interests, or behavior (VIP, newsletter, promo, active). A single contact can have several tags at once.

They're assigned in three ways: manually (from the profile or in bulk actions), by automation (a flow adds or removes the tag based on behavior), or from your system via integration. Once assigned, they work as filter conditions in segments and automations.

Tip: tags are the most powerful tool for building smart automations. Instead of duplicating lists, you distinguish behaviors within the same base: a subscriber can be VIP, newsletter, and retention all at once, and each flow treats them differently based on which ones they have.

Ongoing hygiene

Keeping the list clean is a routine, not a one-time event. After every campaign, it's worth:

• Removing hard bounces from the rejected tab, with one click.
• Reviewing complaints and unsubscribes, looking for patterns.
• Every three to six months, identifying inactive contacts and sending them a re-engagement campaign. If they don't respond, remove them.

A healthy list protects your reputation and improves all your metrics. To understand why, revisit reputation and Health Score or continue with create and send campaigns.