Go through the checklist below before starting the import to import your contacts correctly.
1. Is your contact list up to date?
We recommend that you ensure that the list has only active contacts to maintain data quality and reduce opt-outs, spam complaints, and bounces.
For example, when importing a newsletter subscriber list, it is best to include those who engaged with your emails in the past 3-4 months.
2. What type of consent do you have?
Are the consent forms legitimate interests or freely given?
You can only set one consent form per imported list, which will be selected when you import.
You can read more about the different consent forms here.
3. Which subscription type?
One or more subscription types must be selected to collect the contact's consent when importing. You will choose the subscription type based on the information the contacts should receive.
Your organization includes a default 'Marketing' subscription type for consent storage from ticketing and booking systems. Many organizations find one enough, but you can create more for segmented communication.
Should the imported contact receive the same type of communication as those in the Marketing subscription type?
If so, you can import it to the Marketing subscription type.
Should the imported contact receive a different type of communication than those in the Marketing subscription?
If yes, consider importing them to another subscription type to keep those contacts' consent separate from the others.
You can read more about subscription types here; this guide explains how to create new ones.
4. When is the opt-in date?
The opt-in date must be specified when importing a contact list. You set this when creating the import and choose from the following options on how it is determined:
Picked up from your file: When using this option, the opt-in date can vary from contact to contact. The file must contain a column with the opt-in date.
Select a chosen date: This will be the opt-in date for all contacts on the list. This is set when creating the import.
5. Prepare the file
Attributes
Prepare your file with contacts and the attributes you want to import. To read more about attributes, click here.
Standard attributes
The standard contact attributes available to import are:
First name
Last name
Email
Phone number
Address
Zip code
City
Country
Gender:
Birth date
Custom attributes
Additional attributes can be created based on your organization's needs and added via the import. For more about custom attributes and how to create them, click here.
Formats and structure
Structure of the file:
The first row describes the data of each column.
The cells in the columns contain the values.
At least an email address or phone number must be included.
Supported formats
File format: The supported file format is .csv. If having another format, export your file and choose .csv.
Phone Numbers: The supported format is to include the country code, as 46730000000 or +46730000000.
If the country code is not included in the phone number, for example, 0730000000, the country must be specified using the attribute Country for the number to be correctly imported.
Date: The supported format is ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD)
Gender: Supported values are male, female, other, and unknown (capital or lowercase letters).
Country: Supported format is ISO 639 (SE, SWE, Sweden, DK, DNK, Denmark)
To generate location: If importing only Zip code or City (without address), the attributes Country must be included in the file for the location to be generated (and be visible on the map).