How to move your contacts off Constant Contact

Step 1: Export your contacts

These are the steps in Constant Contact's knowledge base as of October 2026. Menu names can shift, so check there if yours look different.

1. Open the Contacts page.
2. Tick any contact, then click the Select all contacts link so the export covers everyone, not just the first page.
3. Click Actions, then Export (it may say Export selection).
4. Choose the fields to include. Tick at least email address, first and last name, email status, email lists and tags.
5. Click Export. When it's done, open your import and export activity and download the CSV or Excel file.

Exporting doesn't remove anyone from Constant Contact. It just gives you a copy.

Why the email status column matters

The email status column tells your next tool who agreed to hear from you and who opted out. Without it, everyone looks the same, and you could end up emailing people who unsubscribed. That's a problem under anti-spam rules and a quick way to get marked as spam.

Constant Contact uses values like Active, Unsubscribed, Awaiting Confirmation and No Permissions Set. If your account has advanced email permissions turned on, the column is called email permission instead, with values like Explicit, Implicit and Unsubscribed. Either one works.

Step 2: Import it into MailWild

Drop the CSV or Excel file into MailWild as it is. MailWild matches the columns for you and then:

• Brings in active contacts ready to email.
• Keeps unsubscribed contacts as unsubscribed, so they never get your newsletters.
• Leaves out contacts still awaiting confirmation or with no permission set, because they haven't agreed to marketing email.
• Turns your Constant Contact lists and tags into MailWild lists.
• Removes duplicates and sets aside addresses that aren't valid.

You only pay for people you can email. Compare sizes on the pricing page.

Common export problems

• Only some contacts exported. Ticking the box at the top of the list selects the visible page. Use the Select all contacts link so you get everyone.
• No lists or tags in the file. Those columns are only included if you tick them on the export screen. Run the export again with them ticked.
• Exporting list by list. If you export each list separately, someone on two lists appears in two files. That's fine for MailWild, which removes duplicates and counts each person once, but one full export is simpler.
• Can't find the download. The file isn't emailed as an attachment. Look in your import and export activity in Constant Contact.

Step 3: Send once, then cancel Constant Contact

Don't cancel first. A safer order:

1. Connect your sending domain in MailWild and send yourself a test.
2. Send your next newsletter from MailWild and check the results.
3. If anyone signed up through a Constant Contact form since your export, export again and import the new people.
4. Cancel Constant Contact before your next billing date.

Constant Contact's cancellation page lists phone numbers for its support team, and many reviewers report that cancelling needs a call. Have your username ready, and ask for an email confirming the cancellation. Download any reports you want to keep before the account closes.

MailWild works differently: you cancel from the Plan screen in your account, with no call.

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