Editing Contacts

Every contact in SendBeam has a profile page where you can view all of their information and an edit page where you update it. Whether you need to correct a misspelled name, fill in a custom field, or manually adjust a subscription status, this is where you do it.

Opening a contact profile

You can reach a contact's profile from several places in SendBeam:

• From the Contacts list: click the contact's name or email to open their profile.
• From a list's page: contacts listed as members link to their profile.
• From the Dashboard: the Recent Contacts panel links to each profile.

The profile shows the contact's details, tags, lists, custom fields and activity. To edit the contact:

1. Click the Edit button at the top of the profile page. The edit page opens with the current values filled in.
2. Make your changes to any of the fields. You can update several fields before saving.
3. Click Save. You are returned to the profile with the new values.
4. To discard your changes without saving, use the back arrow instead.

Editable fields

The following fields can be edited from the contact's edit page:

• Email address — you can correct a typo or update an address. The new address must not already belong to another contact in the workspace.
• First name — used in {"{{first_name}}"} merge tags throughout your campaigns.
• Last name — used in {"{{last_name}}"} merge tags.
• Status — Subscribed, Unsubscribed, Bounced or Complained. See below.
• Custom fields — one input per field declared under Settings → Custom fields, matching its type: a date picker for a Date field, Yes/No for a yes/no field, a list for a dropdown, a number box for a number. A value that no longer fits its field's type is shown as it is with a Does not fit mark and must be corrected or cleared to save. Each field is available as a {"{{custom_fields.key}}"} merge tag and in segment rules — see Custom fields.

Tags and list memberships are not edited here. Add or remove tags from the Contacts list (select the contact, then Add tag or Remove tag), and manage list membership from the list's page. The profile shows the contact's current tags and lists, with a link to each list.

Changing subscription status

A contact's status controls whether they can receive emails from you. You can change it by hand when necessary — for example, to re-subscribe someone who unsubscribed by mistake, or to mark a contact as unsubscribed at their request.

To change the status:

1. Open the contact profile and click Edit.
2. Choose the new value in the Status dropdown.
3. Choosing Unsubscribed reveals Also block this address so it can never be re-added, ticked by default. Leave it ticked unless you have a reason not to (see below).
4. Click Save. The status updates immediately and applies to every list this contact belongs to — only Subscribed contacts receive campaigns and automation emails.

Marked versus blocked

Unsubscribed on its own is a status: it keeps the contact out of every campaign and automation, but nothing stops the address coming back. A later CSV import that lists it as subscribed, an API call, or the person filling in one of your signup forms would make it a subscriber again. Blocking puts the address on the workspace's suppression list, which every one of those paths checks: an import brings it in as unsubscribed, the API refuses with 409, and only the person themselves — opting in again through a form — can lift it.

The contact profile shows which of the two you have. A blocked address carries a Suppressed badge next to its status, with the reason (unsubscribed, bounced, complained or deleted). A contact that is unsubscribed but not blocked says so, with a Block this address link that does it in one click. Untick the box only when the unsubscribe is temporary — a pause you expect to undo yourself, say.

The same choice exists everywhere a status is set: the bulk Unsubscribe action on the Contacts page offers the box for the whole selection, and the API takes suppress: true alongside status: "unsubscribed" (off unless you send it — see the API reference).

Re-subscribing a blocked contact

Setting a blocked contact back to Subscribed is refused unless the block is an unsubscribed one and you tick They asked to be re-subscribed — lift the block, which appears under the Status field when you choose Subscribed. Tick it only when the person has told you they want your emails again; saving removes the address from the suppression list and sets the status. A bounced, complained or deleted block cannot be lifted this way — the address is dead, the person reported you, or the record was removed — and the page says which (a workspace admin can lift a deleted block from the Suppressions page). Changing a contact's email address to one that is blocked follows the same rule.

Viewing engagement history

The Activity Timeline on the right of every contact profile lists the campaigns the contact has been sent, newest first. Each entry shows the campaign name and subject, the delivery status, and whether the contact opened or clicked. This gives you a quick picture of how engaged the contact is.

The timeline is read-only. For a full per-message log across the workspace, including automation emails, see the Log tab under Reports.

Archive, delete or erase

Three ways to take a contact out of your audience, each doing something different to the address. The profile's buttons say which is which before anything happens.

• Archive — the contact leaves the working list: hidden from the Contacts page (choose the Archived status filter to see them), never mailed, not counted against your plan. The address is not blocked. Restore brings the contact back with the status it had; a signup, an import or POST /api/v1/contacts at the same address restores it too. Use this for "out of the way, might come back" — a test contact, a paused customer, a duplicate you are not sure about.
• Delete — the record and its send history are removed (the email log keeps an anonymous placeholder). The address goes on the suppression list as deleted, so a later import or API call cannot quietly add it back as subscribed. A workspace admin can lift that block from the Suppressions page if the deletion was a mistake, and the person can always return through a signup form.
• Erase — for a request to be forgotten. The same removal, but the suppression row keeps a one-way hash alone (no masked form, no domain) and can never be lifted from the app. Only the person can return, by subscribing again themselves.

Through the API, DELETE /api/v1/contacts/{id} is a delete, ?mode=erase an erasure, and PATCH with status: "archived" an archive; the bulk endpoint takes archive, restore, delete and erase. Deleting or erasing frees the contact's slot in your plan's limit; so does archiving, since only subscribed contacts count.