Blackleaf Help Center
Platform and texting FAQ
Direct answers about Blackleaf, customer messaging, contacts, campaigns, delivery, compliance, billing, and troubleshooting.
Compliance information is general guidance, not legal advice. Requirements vary by jurisdiction, sender, content, and use case.
contacts
Contacts and lists
Imports, duplicates, subscription state, lists, and data quality.
What is a contact?
Short answer: A contact is a customer record that can contain a phone number, name, email, customer ID, subscription state, activity, loyalty, and transaction fields. Available data depends on its source.
What is a customer list?
Short answer: A list is a selectable audience definition. A contact may qualify for multiple lists, but should not receive duplicate copies merely because those lists overlap.
If I upload duplicate contacts, does Blackleaf handle them?
Short answer: Yes. Imports match a usable phone first; without one they can match email, and a customer ID can also match. A match updates the record instead of intentionally creating another contact.
Inconsistent or missing identifiers can still create separate records. Duplicate cleanup preserves an opt-out when any merged duplicate is opted out.
If someone unsubscribes and I upload them again, will it resubscribe them?
Short answer: Not when the upload action is “None.” Imports can explicitly set contacts to “Subscribed” or “Unsubscribed,” so never choose “Set as Subscribed” without valid, documented authority to restore consent.
A routine data refresh is not consent. Leave the action as “None” or “Unsubscribed” unless the person completed a valid re-opt-in.
How is an imported row matched?
Short answer: Blackleaf uses a valid cleaned phone when available, otherwise a valid email, and can also match a mapped customer ID. Matching depends on correctly mapped identifiers.
What happens to invalid phone numbers?
Short answer: Blackleaf cleans common formatting and marks numbers that fail basic validation as invalid. They cannot receive a text.
Format validation does not prove a number is mobile, active, owned by the intended person, or reachable.
Does importing a phone number prove consent?
Short answer: No. A phone number in a CSV, POS, order, or customer record is not by itself proof of SMS consent.
Keep records of how, when, and for which program the person opted in.
What does import action “None” do?
Short answer: It imports or updates mapped customer data without intentionally changing subscription state. Use it for ordinary data refreshes.
What do “Set as Subscribed” and “Set as Unsubscribed” do?
Short answer: They explicitly change subscription state for imported or matched rows. “Subscribed” requires valid consent; “Unsubscribed” places the contact in the opted-out state.
Why is a list count different from the recipient count?
Short answer: Lists can contain opted-out, invalid, duplicated, recently messaged, or otherwise ineligible contacts. The campaign estimate reflects applicable filtering.
Can I export contacts?
Short answer: Yes. Contacts supports exports including all, active/subscribed, and unsubscribed records. Treat every export as sensitive customer data.
Is deleting a contact the same as unsubscribing?
Short answer: No. Unsubscribing records a do-not-message state. Deleting is data management and must not erase or bypass an opt-out.
For a privacy deletion that must preserve suppression, ask Support for the correct process.