As an Engaging Networks client, you have a supporter record limit. This is the maximum number of individual supporter records (identified by an email address) that are allowed in your account. Usually it is in a multiple of 50,000.
Any record in your account counts towards this limit. This is another reason why a good reactivation process is recommended to remove inactive records. This also has the added benefit of giving better email open rates and other statistics, and importantly improves your sending reputation with email providers since you are not constantly emailing inactive records which can count against you.
How do I find out my supporter record limit?
The number depends on what’s been agreed in your contract with us. If you are unsure, please contact your account manager.
How do I find out how many records I have?
Go to Data & Reports > Export, and then create a new query. In the blue “Build your universe” area add All Users, and then preview the query (you do not need to export it). It will show you the number of records in your account.
What happens if I go over?
We will contact you if you go over the limit. It will not block the account or anything like that, and you have time to discuss with us your options, which are either to increase the limit or to remove records so you fall back below.
If I want to remove records, which ones should I delete?
This is up to you as it is your data.
It is important to get this right. The process of deleting supporters cannot be undone and you also lose related information (petitions signed, opt-in history and so on) for those deleted supporters from the system too.
There are several Profile filters that can identify groups of supporters. We would recommend first analysing your database by creating broad groups of supporters using combinations of the Last participation date filter, Email Engagement Scoring filter (if you have the Email module) and other filters such as whether they have donated or taken action.
If you use our Email module, you might start by looking at suppressed supporters. These are those where the email address has failed, for example because it doesn’t exist. You can export these via Email > Email suppression.
Who you remove really depends on your data and how you manage it – for example, you might find a massive group that are not opted in and haven’t done anything at all, perhaps from an old import. You may then decide that this group can be deleted, freeing up space. Some investigation is definitely worth it to begin.
Examples
For example, you could create a filter that looks at those supporters who are not opted-in to anything, and who have not participated for over a year or two, and who have never donated. You may decide that keeping these supporters in your database is not worth it and to delete them.
Another group might be those in Email Engagement Score 11 (opted in to something, but haven’t done anything for a year or more). Instead of deleting these, you may exclude them from your general email campaigns and create a reactivation journey for them to try and get them to interact. Those that do not could be removed.
OK I’m ready to delete. What do I do next?
You need to prepare a file containing the emails of those to remove, and then use the delete function.
Refer to this page, about how to create a file of records to delete, and this page, which shows you how to perform the deletion.
Are there advantages to keeping inactive records?
If a supporter should return after being considered inactive, then you would have their transactional history in your database to look back at. If you had removed them previously, then that would not be available.
Should you need to keep opt-in history for past contact, then this would also be removed since related transactions are deleted along with the supporter.