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Remove duplicate email addresses from lists in Campaign Monitor
Remove duplicate email addresses from lists in Campaign Monitor

The process to dedupe email lists.

Ned Creed avatar
Written by Ned Creed
Updated over a week ago

Read this carefully please, because the last step is so very important when it comes to removing the email addresses from just one list. Deduping is timely. Proceed slowly and with intent.

For this example, let’s give faux names to the two email lists as they would appear in your Campaign Monitor account:

List 1 = Total Email List (A large list of unknown prospects or people that have never placed an order through Figure)

List 2 = Customers With Figure Accounts (your Synced list of actual buyers or mailing list sign-ups from Figure)

Over time, you have sent email campaigns to List 1. Some of those people then convert from “prospects” by creating an account in Figure and being synced into List 2. So now, their email address is in both lists.

Your goal is to remove duplicate emails from List 1, because those people have now created an account in Figure which would be represented in List 2.

Allocations and new releases are first sent to List 2, as they are existing/buying clients in your Figure account. Then, once List 2 has finished their allocation round, you want to send a release campaign out to List 1, to try and convert some prospects. If you do this without deduping List 1, there is a chance people will get two emails...and you don’t want that.

Therefore, jump into Campaign Monitor and head to the “Lists & Subscribers” page.

Click into one of your lists and look in the upper right hand area.

You will see a little line that says: “Export subscribers”
After clicking that link, the next page will ask you three questions:
>Export the “Active Subscribers”
>Export a “CSV (Comma Separated Values) file”
>Select the “Email address” field as the only one for export

Click the green “Export Subscribers” button and that will download an Excel spreadsheet of the people in the list.

Do the same thing for your second list.

That will give you two spreadsheets and will require you to copy/paste the column for “email addresses” from one to the other, as you need them side by side for the dedupe to commence.

Make sure to name each column header so you know which list they belong to.

Once those two columns are next to each other in Excel, highlight both columns.

On the Home tab, you will have to find the drop down button called “Conditional Formatting”.

Then select “Highlight Cell Rules”.

Then select “Duplicate Values”.

Here are the settings to utilize:

It will provide a default cell color shade and text color shade to highlight all the duplicates, but you can change that color if you desire.

Click the OK button and let it process.

Excel will then highlight all the duplicates in each column.

Engage the Filter function on the column which you want to remove duplicate email addresses, which in this example is “List 1 - Total Email List”.

In the filter window you will select:

Filter by Color>Cell Color>then choose the cell color that appears.

This will show you the list of email addresses that are in both columns, and hence both lists in Campaign Monitor.

Copy and paste the list of duplicate emails in “List 1 - Total Email List” to a new tab in the spreadsheet for safe keeping.

Back in Campaign Monitor, on the Lists & Subscribers page, click into “List 1 - Total Email List”.

In the right hand margin you will see a small arrow or link with the option to “Remove Subscribers”.

That is where you will copy/paste the list of duplicate email addresses from your Excel spreadsheet - List 1.
**Very Important**The three selections at the bottom of this window will default to “Unsubscribe from all lists”. YOU DO NOT WANT TO PICK THAT OPTION!! You only want to “Delete from this list only” which is the second option.

It is a good idea to perhaps test this procedure with one email first, to see the results in Campaign Monitor.

To do this, copy the first email address in your Excel duplicate list (List 1 - Total Email List).
Go to Campaign Monitor and on the “Lists & Subscribers” page in the upper right is a search cell where you can paste and search that one email address.
The results should show you that customer is located in both List 1 and List 2.
Now, click into List 1.
In the right margin go to the “Remove Subscribers” page.
Paste that one email address in to the cell AND BE SURE TO SELECT THE SECOND OPTION AT THE BOTTOM - “Delete from this list only”.
Once complete, go back the main “Lists & Subscribers” page.
Paste the email address into the search cell again and both lists should appear again, but under List 1 you should see the status of “Deleted”.

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