Building mailing lists

Collect and organize subscribers’ email addresses into a list that you can use to send engaging emails.

A mailing list is a collection of email addresses. When you're ready to send your email campaign, you'll send it to one or more mailing lists.

This guide covers how to create mailing lists, add subscribers manually, and import contacts. If you get started and decide you want more hands-on help, you can hire a vetted Squarespace Expert.

Tip: Register for our Engage Your Audience with Email Campaigns webinar where we’ll walk you through how to use Email Campaigns, Squarespace’s built-in email marketing tool, to grow and engage your audience. You’ll learn how to build mailing lists, create and send campaigns, and measure campaign performance with our analytics tools. 

Create a mailing list

In the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Mailing Lists, then click Add.

After you've created a list, you can add contacts individually, import them as a .csv file, or connect your list to your newsletter subscription forms.

• For tips on building a successful, healthy mailing list, visit our best practices before adding contacts.
• Contacts appear on mailing lists in alphabetical order based on email address.
• You can have up to 20 mailing lists.
• Mailing lists have no subscriber limit, but if a list has more than your monthly send limit, you can't send campaigns to that list.
• When copying and pasting email addresses into your mailing list or .csv file, ensure you paste them as plain text to avoid unsupported characters or formatting that might cause errors.

Note: Ensure you have permission to send emails to every subscriber on your list. If you're sending commercial messages, review the legal requirements for your country and the country of anyone you're emailing, such as CAN-SPAM, CASL, and PECR.

Add contacts individually

To add a contact manually:

1. Click the mailing list.
2. If the mailing list is empty, click Add Subscribers Manually. If the mailing list already has subscribers, click ..., then click Add Subscriber.
3. Add the email address and the subscriber's first and last name (optional).
4. Switch the Marketing toggle on to confirm you have permission to send this subscriber marketing emails.
5. Click Done.

Error message: You must enter a valid email address

This error displays when the email address entered is not valid. If the email address looks correct, ensure there aren't extra spaces before or after the text, especially if you copied and pasted the address from elsewhere. 

Import contacts

You can import a .csv list of contacts that you've exported from another email marketing service or the Contacts panel.

• Import contacts in Email Campaigns dashboard - To import contacts directly from your Email Campaigns dashboard, click Import Subscribers, then click Add a CSV file. You can select an existing mailing list or create a new one.
• Create a new list in Mailing Lists panel - To import the contacts as a new list, create a new mailing list, then click Import CSV.
• Add the contacts to an existing list in Mailing Lists panel - If a mailing list has one or more contacts, click the list, click ..., then click Import List.

After selecting your .csv file, switch the These subscribers accept marketing or Marketing toggle on. This confirms you have permission to send emails to these addresses.

File formatting

Lists uploaded to Email Campaigns need to have 250,000 contacts or fewer. If you upload mailing lists with duplicate contacts, our system excludes the duplicates.

Your .csv file can have up to three columns, and need to be arranged in this order:

• Email address
• First name (optional)
• Last name (optional)

If your .csv file has different data in the first three columns, our system still imports them regardless of how they're titled or what kind of information is in them. For example, if your third column has middle names, they'll be imported into your list as last names. Any columns after the first three in your .csv file are ignored.

Here's an example of how your file should be set up:

Use only basic alphanumeric characters for your .csv filename. A filename with special or accented characters may cause the upload to fail.

Note: If someone unsubscribes from a mailing list in Squarespace, uploading a .csv with their email address to the same mailing list won't resubscribe them.

Error message: Improperly Formatted

If an Improperly Formatted error message appears, revise your .csv file based on the specifications above. Ensure the first column contains email addresses. If it doesn't, the error message appears.

Depending on their settings, some spreadsheet programs may not export .csv files correctly. For example, they may use semicolons to separate values instead of commas. If that's the case, contact your spreadsheet program's provider for help changing this setting, or try exporting your mailing list from a different program and importing again.

Error message: Upload Failed

If an Upload Failed error message appears, your mailing list has addresses that may cause high bounce rates and spam reports. Review our best practices and revise your list.

Connect forms to your list

You can collect new subscribers through your site with built-in features like newsletter blocks and promotional pop-ups. These connections are set up in each feature's individual storage settings. It's not possible to connect them from the mailing list settings.

To learn more about each option, visit Growing your mailing lists with Squarespace.

Delete a list

To remove a mailing list:

1. Go to your Email Campaigns dashboard and click Mailing Lists.
2. Click the list you want to delete.
3. Click ....
4. Click Delete List, then click Delete again to confirm. You'll be alerted if the mailing list is still connected to a form somewhere on your site.

If visitors sign up through a form connected to a deleted mailing list, they won't be added to a mailing list, but they will appear in the Subscribers section of the Contacts panel.

Delete a contact

To remove a subscriber from a mailing list:

1. In the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Mailing Lists.
2. Click the list with the contact you want to delete.
3. Scroll down to the contact list, hover over the contact, and click the trash can icon.
4. Click Remove to confirm.

Tip: Subscribers can remove themselves by clicking the Unsubscribe link in your campaign.

Rename a list

To change a mailing list name:

1. In the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Mailing Lists.
2. Click the list you want to rename.
3. Click ..., then click Rename.
4. Add the new name, then click Save.

Search subscribers

To search a mailing list for a subscriber:

1. Click the mailing list you want to search.
2. Scroll to the subscriber list and begin typing their first name, last name, or email address in the search field.
3. Results filter in real-time as you type your search criteria.

If searching one criteria, like a first name, returns no results, try searching by last name or email address.

Edit subscribers

If a contact only has an email address and no name, or it has an outdated or incorrect name, add a new contact with the same email address. The two contacts will merge and the name information will be updated.

If multiple contacts have outdated or incorrect names, you can import a new .csv file with the correct information. The imported .csv file will overwrite existing subscriber First Name and Last Name fields in the mailing list, unless the email address is associated with a customer account, or if any fields are left blank. Fields left blank in the imported .csv retain their old information.

Export a mailing list

To export an Email Campaigns mailing list as a .csv file:

1. From the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Mailing Lists.
2. Click the list you want to export.
3. Click ....
4. Click Export List.

This downloads a .zip file that includes three files: subscribed users, unsubscribed users, and cleaned users.

Move subscribers between mailing lists

If you want to move subscribers from one mailing list to another, export the first mailing list, then import the subscribed users .csv file into the new list.

Export mailing lists from other providers

Most providers let you export your contacts as a .csv list. You can then import those contacts into an Email Campaigns mailing list.

For example, to export your list of contacts from Mailchimp:

1. Log into Mailchimp.
2. Click Audiences and click the audience you want to download.
3. Click Export Audience.
4. An Exporting message appears.
5. The Exporting message turns into an Exported message. (You may need to refresh the page.)
6. Click Export as CSV. The audience will download as a .zip file to your computer.
7. Open the file so it unzips. You'll see a Subscribed list and an Unsubscribed list.
8. Import the subscribed list into Squarespace Email Campaigns.

For more help, visit Mailchimp's documentation.

To export mailing lists from other providers, visit their documentation:

• Constant Contact
• ConvertKit
• Excel
• Gmail
• MyEmma
• Outlook
• Yahoo Mail

Emails not appearing on a mailing list

There are a few reasons why emails may not show up on a mailing list, depending on the situation.

Subscriber said they signed up, but they aren't on the list

If you have confirmation emails enabled for subscriber verification, subscribers who sign up with a newsletter block, promotional pop-up, or cover page newsletter sign-up must click the link in that email before they're added to the mailing list.

If the person says they haven't received that confirmation email, ask them to check their spam folder. You can disable the confirmation email in some cases. To learn more, visit Subscriber verification.

Subscriber was on the list, but isn't anymore

When someone clicks Unsubscribe in your campaign footer, their name and email address are removed from all mailing lists. To learn more, visit Email campaign unsubscribes.

Squarespace also automatically "cleans" (removes) email addresses that "hard bounce," which means they aren't connected to a valid inbox. Removing these email addresses reduces bounce rates and helps improve deliverability for all your campaigns.

Track mailing list growth and unsubscribes

You can view a mailing list's subscriber growth over time, and see which addresses have been removed or unsubscribed from the list.

Send campaigns to mailing lists

When you're ready to send your campaign, you'll select one or more mailing lists in the Email tab of your campaign draft. To learn more, visit Sending email campaigns.

You can create mailing lists at any time. After your three free trial campaigns, subscribe to an Email Campaigns plan to send more campaigns.