Contacts can be imported using a comma-separated-value(CSV) file. In the Import navigation menu, you will find a template that you can use to import new contacts.

The following fields are required to appear in the import file headers. If any of these fields does not appear in the header, then the import will fail and no data will be imported.

  • FirstName - 64 characters max
  • LastName - 64 characters max
  • Email - 256 characters max
  • Phone - 32 characters max
  • TitleOrPosition- 64 characters max
  • Company - 256 characters max
The following fields are completely optional and can be included or excluded from the import file headers:
  • Tags - 128 characters max for each tag. See below for formatting.
  • CustomFields* - Name: 50 characters max. Value: 1024 characters max.
* : See below for details, as the heading will be different for each Custom Field.

When importing, you may add Contacts to a Sequence as part of the import process. The following fields are available to use for this operation:
  • SequenceId - Integer representing the Id of the Sequence this Contact should be added to.
  • Step - 0 or 1. Setting this to 0 represents the Sequence Buffer while 1 represents Step 1. (Default: 0)
  • ProcessAfter - Date in ISO-8601 format. ie: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM+00:00. (Default: Current UTC date)
  • FromAddress - Email address to associate with the Contact in the Sequence.
NOTE: When doing this, the SequenceId and FromAddress are both required.

Common Import Problems

The most common problems encountered during an import are as follows:

  • The maximum length of a field has been exceeded
  • A header row was not included or all of the required column header names were not found in the import file. Many times, this is the result of a space or underscore being added into the column header such as "First Name" instead of "FirstName".

Tags

If you wish to add more than one tag to a Contact during the import, then the Tags field should use a comma separated list of tag names enclosed in double quotes to indicate the tag names are all part of the "Tags" column.

Example:
FirstName,LastName,Email,Phone,TitleOrPosition,Company,Tags
Joe,User,joe@test.com,,,,"tag1,tag2"


Removing Tags

If you wish to delete a tag from a Contact, then you should prefix the name of the tag with a 'dash' character.

Example:
In the following example, tag1 will be added if it doesn't exist and tag2 will be removed if it already exists.
FirstName,LastName,Email,Phone,TitleOrPosition,Company,Tags
Joe,User,joe@test.com,,,,"tag1,-tag2"

Custom Fields

You can optionally apply Custom Fields to a Contact during the import process by appending an additional column for each Custom Field with a prefix of "cf_".

Example:
FirstName,LastName,Email,Phone,TitleOrPosition,Company,Tags,cf_MyField1,cf_MyField2
Joe,User,joe@test.com,,,,"tag1,tag2",,This is my second custom field

Using Custom Fields in an Email Sequence

Custom Fields for a Contact may also be used inside of an email template by referring to the Custom Field name from the Liquid template engine.

Example:
Hi {{ contact.first_name}},
We met last week at {{contact.cf.conference_name}} and I wanted to reconnect with you.


Adding Contacts to a Sequence

When you are adding Contacts to a Sequence, you must specify both the SequenceId and the FromAddress. Additionally, the FromAddress must match an SmtpServerId which is Active and has an associated Mailbox which is also Active.

If any of these conditions are not met, then the Contact will not be added to the Sequence.

Remember that a Contact cannot be added to a Sequence more than once, so attempts to add a Contact to a Sequence it is already part of will be ignored.