Is there a way to add subscribers from sendable data extension (linked by subscriber key) without sending the first email?
We are importing/uploading customer data to sendable data extension as it has different fields than subscribers list.
We've heard that sendable data extensions get automatically added to Subscribers list once you send the first email.
However, we want to define the INITIAL Subscriber Status (Active/Unsubscribed/Held) for each subscriber before sending the first email, as we are migrating from a different emailing system and want to preserve the current subscription/optout statuses to Exacttarget/SFMC. i.e. we do not want to send the first email to the people who have been unsubscribed in the current/old system.
Is there a way to add data extension records to subscribers list without sending an email? -- If that's possible, we can update the subscriber statuses after this happens, before sending the first email.