Marketing Contacts

Not every person you want to email is a client or a lead. Newsletter subscribers, past inquirers, referral contacts, conference connections — these are people worth staying in front of, but they don't belong in your client pipeline or lead queue just yet.

Marketing Contacts is a separate list designed exactly for this. Import thousands of subscriber emails without creating client records or inflating your lead count. When you're ready to send, add your contacts to any campaign alongside your clients and leads — and JourneyFuse handles deduplication so nobody gets two copies.

Find your contacts under Contacts in the left sidebar.

What Are Marketing Contacts?

Marketing contacts are a standalone audience separate from your Clients and Leads. They exist purely for email marketing purposes — they don't appear in your pipeline, client pages, or trip records.

Use them for:

• Newsletter subscriber lists
• Past inquirers who never converted
• Conference or event contacts
• Referral partners and travel bloggers
• Anyone you want to email but aren't actively working as a client or lead

Keep using Clients and Leads for:

• Active travelers you're booking trips for
• Prospects you're actively working in your pipeline
• Anyone who has accepted a proposal or paid a deposit

The distinction keeps your operational view clean while giving you a proper home for bulk marketing audiences.

Adding Contacts

Add a Single Contact

Click Add contact at the top of the Contacts page. Fill in:

Field	Required?
Email	Yes
First name	Optional
Last name	Optional
Tags	Optional

Click Save. The contact appears in your list immediately.

Import a CSV

For bulk imports — newsletter exports, event lists, CRM exports — use Import CSV. Click the button, upload your file, and JourneyFuse processes it automatically.

CSV format:

email,first_name,last_name,tags
jane@example.com,Jane,Doe,"Newsletter,VIP"
bob@example.com,Bob,Smith,Newsletter
alex@example.com,,,Past Cruisers

Column rules:

• email — required; rows without a valid email are skipped
• first_name / last_name — optional; leave the column empty or omit it entirely
• tags — optional; comma-separated tag names inside the cell (quote the cell if it contains commas, as shown above)

Re-importing the same email updates the existing contact — it won't create a duplicate. If you export a list from another tool, update some fields, and re-import, those contacts are refreshed in place.

Duplicate emails within the same file are de-duplicated automatically — only the first row for each email address is used.

Organizing with Tags

Tags are the primary way to organize your contacts into groups. JourneyFuse uses the same tag system across contacts, leads, and clients, so any tag you've created elsewhere is already available here.

Good tag examples:

• Newsletter — your general subscriber list
• VIP — high-value relationships to prioritize
• Past Cruisers — segment for cruise marketing
• 2025 Conference — contacts from a specific event
• Cold List — older contacts you're warming up

Adding Tags

• Single contact: set tags when you add a contact, or click the contact to edit its tags
• CSV import: include tag names in the tags column — if a tag doesn't exist yet, it's created automatically

Using Tags as Lists

Think of each tag as a list. When you include marketing contacts in a campaign, you can filter by tag — so a "Past Cruisers" tag effectively becomes your cruise marketing list. You can apply multiple tags to a contact to have them appear on several lists simultaneously.

Sending a Campaign to Contacts

Marketing contacts slot into the campaign audience you already know. When building or editing a campaign:

1. Open the Audience section of the campaign editor
2. Toggle on Include contacts (appears alongside your client and lead audience options)
3. Optionally, filter by one or more tags to narrow which contacts receive this send

Deduplication across your audience: if the same email address exists as both a marketing contact and a client (or lead), that person receives the email only once — the client or lead record takes priority and the marketing contact is skipped for that send. You never have to worry about the same person getting two copies of the same campaign.

Tip: Pair tag filters with your existing client/lead audience for a complete picture. A "River Cruise 2026" campaign might target leads tagged River Cruise Interest plus clients who've traveled rivers before — and your contacts tagged Past Cruisers all in one send.

Unsubscribes

Every email sent to a marketing contact includes an unsubscribe link — the same footer your client and lead emails carry.

When a contact clicks unsubscribe:

• They are automatically excluded from all future campaigns
• Their subscribed status in the Contacts table updates immediately
• No manual cleanup required

You can also manage a contact's subscription status directly from the Contacts table — toggle it on or off without waiting for them to click an unsubscribe link. This is useful when a contact replies to an email asking to be removed, or when you want to re-enable someone who originally unsubscribed.

Unsubscribed contacts remain in your list — they aren't deleted — so you retain the record while respecting their preference.

Contacts vs. Clients and Leads

	Marketing Contacts	Clients / Leads
Appears in pipeline	No	Yes
Linked to trips or bookings	No	Yes
Included in campaigns	Yes (opt-in per campaign)	Yes (standard audience)
Unsubscribe link in emails	Yes	Yes
Tagged for segmentation	Yes	Yes
Profile info (passport, preferences, etc.)	No	Yes

When in doubt: if you're actively working with someone — they've asked for a quote, expressed real intent, or you've booked them before — put them in Leads or Clients. Use Contacts for the broader marketing audience you're nurturing toward that first conversation.

FAQ

I imported 2,500 contacts and some didn't show up. What happened? Rows missing a valid email address are skipped during import, and duplicate emails within the same file are merged into one. Check your CSV for empty email cells, typos (no @), or cells with extra spaces. The import summary shows how many contacts were imported, so compare that against your row count.

Can I import contacts who are already clients? Yes, but they won't be duplicated. If an email already exists as a client or lead, that record takes priority in campaigns. The import will either create a contact record alongside them or simply skip the email — either way, the client or lead record is the one that actually sends.

Can I edit a contact's name or email after importing? To fix a name, re-import the same email with the corrected name — re-importing updates the name on the existing record. You can change subscription status right from the Contacts table. To change the email itself, delete the contact and re-add it. To adjust tags, re-import with an updated tags column.

Does adding someone as a contact affect their client or lead record? No. Contacts are entirely separate. A contact record doesn't create, modify, or link to any client or lead.

Can I delete a contact? Yes. Click the contact row in the Contacts table and select Delete. This permanently removes the record. If they later re-subscribe or you re-import them, a new record is created from scratch.

What happens to an unsubscribed contact if I re-import their email? Re-importing a contact does not reset their unsubscribe status. If they unsubscribed, they stay unsubscribed after the re-import. Update their status manually if they've given you permission to re-add them.

Is there a limit to how many contacts I can import? There's no hard cap on the number of contacts. Very large files (tens of thousands of rows) may take a moment to process, and the list updates once the import finishes. If a huge file times out, split it into a few smaller files and import them one after another.

Can I export my contact list? Not currently from the Contacts page directly. If you need an export for reporting or to use in another tool, contact support.