Uploading your contact list is an important step to ensuring your database has all of your connections. Importing a list of contacts all at once is the most efficient, effective way to ensure your contacts are organized and contain the best data. This will help you run your business more efficiently and effectively too!
NOTE: If you are not an Admin User for your account, you will not be able to import/export contacts. Your User Settings can be changed by the Admin User (usually the person who signed up for/set up the account) in Settings > My Staff > Team Management.
What You'll Need:
- A .csv file with the contacts you want to import
Step 1: Prepare Your .csv File
- Ensure that Row 1 of the file has all of your necessary headers such as ‘first name’, ‘last name’, ‘email’, ‘phone’, ‘tag’, etc. Headers in the image above are boxed in red.
Step 2: Import Your Contacts
There are 2 ways to add contacts. In the top left corner, you can click “+” to manually create a contact. The other option is to select the import icon (an arrow pointing up) which will allow you to import contacts using your .csv file discussed in Part 1. By selecting “Import Contacts” you can upload a list of multiple contacts at once, saving time. This is the most efficient and effective method for adding multiple contacts.
NOTE: If you cannot see the Import or Export icons, you will need to ensure that you have created a user in Settings --> Team Management. If you cannot find Team Management in Settings, please contact Support.
Once you click 'Import Contacts', Follow the steps in the pop-up window to ensure your list imports correctly.
- Click “Select File” or drag-and-drop the list.
- Map fields to determine how the data imports into the CRM fields.
- A green check mark on the left indicates the field is mapped and ready to import.
- “Column Header From File” shows you which .csv column is being imported
- “Preview Information” shows you what information was found in the .csv file
- “Contact Fields” shows what CRM contact record field the information will populate into. This is usually automatic for general fields such as first name, last name, email, phone, etc. The fields can be manually mapped using the drop down in the CRM field column as well, for data such as birthday, company, etc as well as any custom fields that you may have created. The system is generally able to recognize that “phone number” means “phone” but there are some cases where you may need to manually select the contact field from the dropdown (for example, if you have a birthday column in the .csv file titled “b-day” you may need to select “Birthday”).
- Click Next to advance to tab 3.
- Here you can choose an import name (by default the system will create a name based on date and time).
- You can check the box to create a “Smart List” of contacts from the import. This may be useful if the entire list is something you want to keep organized/managed together - if this is a list of contacts from one source, a list of people who signed up for information at a particular event, etc.
- Dropdown the “Advanced” tab to view more options.
- Here you can choose your duplicate strategy- if a duplicate contact record is found in the import that matches an existing contact, do you want the system to update the record, add a second/additional record, etc.? You can even specify what information you want to cross-check for finding the existing contacts.
- You can also add tags. (You may have tags in the spreadsheet, but you may also want to add a tag here. This is useful if you are adding 1 tag to the entire list.)
- Toggle on the “Add to Workflow/Campaign” if you wish to do so, and then choose the Workflow or Campaign to add the list to.
- Check the box if you wish to validate emails. This means the system will fire off a MailGun validation for all contact records with an email address. This may incur a MailGun charge.
- Click Submit and the import will begin. This may take a few minutes if the list is long.
Step 3. Confirm the Import
- Reload the Contacts page before checking that the list of contacts was successfully imported.
- Under Contacts > Bulk Actions, you can view the import status and check any relevant details on the completion status.
NOTE: All contact records must have a phone number and/or email address in order to import. You cannot import just a list of names.