Audiences and CRM contacts

Work with the right context

Bring source details and purpose evidence with each audience import. Keep a subscriber’s identity consistent across lists, while preserving list-specific preferences. A person who changes their preferences should not become a new unrestricted subscriber because another source imports the same address.

Keep the next action clear

Connect CRM contact updates through an explicit field mapping. The campaign workspace uses that connection to maintain identity and context; the sales record does not decide marketing permission. Review rejected import rows and unresolved matches before using the audience.

Coordinate the workflow

Build permitted audience. Import subscribers with source and purpose evidence, deduplicate normalized addresses and preserve withdrawals. Validate any required confirmation using a hashed single-use token with expiry. A source CRM connector maps explicit contact identifiers and allowed fields; it cannot infer marketing permission from a sales record. Confirmation consumes the hashed token atomically after expiry and purpose checks; a used or expired token cannot restore permission.

Honor preferences. Apply a preference change to its explicit list or global scope and stop unsent queued work that is no longer eligible. The dispatch-time check closes the race with an earlier audience snapshot. A request cannot recall a message already accepted by the provider. Suppression removal requires an independent approved review and never restores a withdrawn purpose by itself. A ListSpecific unsubscribe updates only its named list and purpose and creates no global suppression; unrelated still-permitted lists remain eligible. Global unsubscribe blocks all lists in its stated scope.

Audience segmentation. The approved segment resolves to the eligible intended audience. Reject arbitrary query execution and foreign-workspace recipients.

CRM contact sync. A repeated contact update reconciles to the same subscriber. Sales-record existence cannot grant email permission or expose unrelated contacts.

Consent and suppression. List A withdrawal blocks A while still-permitted list B remains eligible; global withdrawal blocks both at dispatch. Reject converting ListSpecific withdrawal into global suppression; withdrawal after snapshot blocks its unsent scope and suppression removal cannot restore consent.

Prepare a segment for a specific message

A product announcement might target subscribers interested in that product, while a customer onboarding message uses a different purpose. Define the audience selection and its permitted purpose together. A CRM record can supply a useful identity or attribute, but the presence of a sales contact does not authorize promotional email.

During an import, reconcile each source identity with its intended subscriber and preserve the preference evidence supplied with it. Keep rejected or unresolved rows visible for correction. Replaying the same import or CRM update should find the existing identity instead of adding another recipient to the campaign.

Understand the audience snapshot

The reviewed campaign retains its audience version so the approver can understand the intended reach. Before each message is actually dispatched, the system checks current permission and suppression again. A subscriber who withdraws after approval must not receive an unsent message merely because they belonged to the earlier snapshot.

This distinction is useful when a scheduled campaign spans several hours. The planning audience explains what was approved, while the final recipient outcomes explain what was actually eligible and attempted. Delivered, suppressed and unresolved recipients remain distinct. The marketing team can reconcile those differences without assuming that every selected contact received the message or that a connector update can erase a later preference.