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Add a subscriber manually

Use Add subscriber on the Subscribers page to add a single address to a brand. SmartMailing gives you two GDPR-aware ways to do it: send a double opt-in confirmation email, or attest that you already have consent.

Steps​

  1. Open Subscribers for the brand and click Add subscriber.
  2. Enter the Email (required), and optionally a Name and Language (English or Deutsch). The language controls which version of system emails like the confirmation email the subscriber receives.
  3. Optionally add Custom fields: click Add field and enter a field name and value, for example customer_id, company, or tier. These are stored on the subscriber, shown on their detail page, and available as merge fields in your emails.
  4. Pick a Method (see below).
  5. Click Send confirmation or Add with attestation.

This is the default and the safest path. SmartMailing creates the subscriber with the Pending status and emails them a double opt-in confirmation link. They must click it to activate; only then does their status become Subscribed and only then can they receive campaigns.

This produces the same consent audit trail as a public signup, so you can prove consent later.

Use this when the person already gave you consent somewhere else, typically because you're migrating from another email platform where double opt-in already happened. This skips the confirmation email and creates the subscriber as Subscribed immediately.

Because it skips double opt-in, you must fill in a consent audit trail:

  • Where did consent come from? For example Mailchimp export 2025-01-15 or a webform on your site.
  • When did the subscriber consent? The original consent date (it can't be in the future).
  • Exact consent text the subscriber saw. Paste the wording from your signup form or opt-in checkbox, verbatim if possible.
  • The attestation checkbox, confirming you have explicit, freely given consent and that the information is accurate.

Everything you enter is stored as a consent record on the subscriber and can be reviewed if a regulator asks for proof of consent.

warning

Only use the attestation method when consent genuinely exists. The attestation is stored with your user id and a timestamp, and you are responsible for its accuracy.

What can block an add​

  • Suppressed addresses are rejected in both methods. If the address is on the brand's suppression list (from an unsubscribe, bounce, complaint, manual suppression, or GDPR request), you must first Restore it from the suppression list, and you should only do that after confirming fresh consent.
  • Already subscribed addresses are rejected too, so you can't accidentally overwrite an existing subscriber. If the person already exists as pending, the attestation method upgrades them to subscribed instead of creating a duplicate.