Deleting can be a scary thing, but there’s no reason to fear! Mad Mimi is here to clear up the difference in deleting contacts and deleting a list. These are the two different things you can delete, when managing your Mad Mimi audience. You can delete contacts, and you can delete lists — all lists, that is, that you’ve created. You can never delete the “All contacts” list, since that is your master audience container.

The difference between the two is what you are actually deleting. If you are deleting a list, the contacts remain intact, in your audience. They were always, and will remain, members of the master “All contacts” list. You are simply deleting the segmentation of that list you’ve created. The list is gone, for good, but the contacts remain in your audience. The total count of contacts in your audience remains the same.

When you delete contacts, however, the contacts, themselves, are permanently deleted from your audience. This reduces the total number of contacts in your audience. Those contacts are removed completely, and there’s no way to recover them, once you’ve deleted.

We always recommend exporting your contacts to a CSV or XLS file, before you delete anything. That way you will have a back-up, just in case!

If you’re trying to reduce your audience total, you need to delete contacts. However, if you’re trying to rearrange your lists, or re-segment your audience — then deleting lists might be more what you’re looking for. Just remember that when you delete a list your “All contacts” master total will not change, because you’re not deleting any contacts from your audience.