Add / Import Contacts to Your Existing Contact List

Now that you have a list, there are a few technical aspects you should consider before adding contacts. 

• The Default Contact List is created automatically after finishing the registration procedure. SmartSender.io adds to the Default Contact List the data of the person who has just registered as the first contact.
• Every new SmartSender.io Contact List starts out pretty empty, but our Contact List Import Wizard can help you quickly upload and organize your audience.
• If your SmartSender.io Contact List already has subscribed contacts, that’s great too. Our import feature can help you add new people to your Contact List and update the information of current subscribers at the same time.
• You can add contacts manually or import from the file (find how it works in this article below).

Things to know before you start:

• These instructions are for adding contacts to your list. Make sure you have the contact data of people who have opted in to receive your email marketing.
• In addition to the methods specified in this article, there are two more: adding contacts via АРI or by integrations with other available platforms in SmartSender.io.
• The only field SmartSender.io requires is one unique user identifiers (userId| email | phoneNumber). Other fields are optional but may be necessary for personalization, segmentation, or other features.
• The list fields with the “Date type” require ENUM_DATE (YYYY-MM-DD) format to import and work correctly.
• IMPORTANT You’ll need a blank sheet in spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, saved or exported as a Comma Separated Value (.CSV) or Microsoft Excel (.XLS).
  • Need some help saving your spreadsheet file in .CSV or .XLS formats before you import? Check out these CSV tips from Excel and Sheets. Or download one of the file samples: .CSV sample or .XLS sample, and replace the sample emails and other variable values with your own data.
• If you want to use Retention Report based on customer acquisition sources, you should add the contact with its source.
• If you faced some difficulties with file importing – take a look at our article. It will help you to fix problems with the file importing to SmartSender.io’s Contact List.

Definitions

Add contacts manually

This form lets you create or update the given contact.

• If the userId| email | phoneNumber, which you provide in this form matches someone that already exists in your Contact List, his/her attributes will be updated to reflect those ones provided in this form.
• In case there is no user with those attributes, a new profile will be created.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Select the Contact List domain from the drop-down menu (in the lower-left corner) if there are several domains in the account.
2. Navigate to the Contact List Management page (Menu -> Audience -> Lists).
3. Select a Contact List.
4. Click on the “Add Contacts” icon.
5. Select the “Add contact manually” section.
6. Fill in all input fields with valid contact’s data.

   First name	The optional display first name to use for the recipient.
   Last name	The optional display last name to use for the recipient.
   Email	This is the one of unique user identificators. The email address of the contact. You must include an email address column in your import file and only one email for each contact. IMPORTANT Review this column for anything that might cause syntax errors, like missing information, unsupported characters, and extra spaces before or after an address.
   Phone Number	This is the one of unique user identificators. Contact’s phone number. IMPORTANT should be valid E.164 phone number format.
   User ID	This is the one of unique user identificators. The userId from the customer’s platform which enables the manipulation of contacts based on it.
   Contact Source	A customer source determines how a customer got into the database. On this basis, you can search and filter the customer base.
   CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)	Customer Acquisition Value in 'ENUM_STRING' format correspondingly. If not provided default value will be used from the registered Customer Acquisition Source.
   CAC Currency	Customer Acquisition Currency: EUR or USD IMPORTANT Please use only Latin uppercase format. No numbers or other symbols allowed. If not provided default value will be used from the registered Customer Acquisition Source.
   Additional variables	This section appears when at least one custom variable is added for that particular Contact List. Select created custom variables for contacts segmentation and other features.

7. Mark a checkbox opposite “I have permission to add these persons to my list”. This means that you have the contact’s permission to use their personal data.
8. Click the “Add contact” button.
9. Manage contacts and the Сontact List itself.

How to prepare the import file

Download one of the file samples: .CSV sample or .XLS sample, and replace the sample emails and other variable values with your own data.

Import contacts to your existing Contact List

Things to know before you start:

• The file is required to contain text with comma-separated values.
• For large files, it will take some time to get imported and the Contact List updated. You can watch the loading process on your screen. Please wait till the end of the file validation and then you may leave the page. We will take care of your contacts from that point.
• Import contacts from a .CSV or .XLS file.
• Import is limited to 25 MB.
• If the file contains existing contacts – priority will be given to values of variables from the file. If the content is absent there – the cell in the Contact List will be set empty.
• The system will inform you about existing errors in the file. We recommend you export the file with the list of errors, fix them and upload again, or ignore them.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Select the Email List domain from the drop-down menu (in the lower-left corner) if there are several domains in the account.
2. Navigate to the Contact List Management page (Menu -> Audience -> Lists).
3. Select a Contact List.
4. Click the “Add Contacts” icon.
5. Select the “Import from file” section. 
   • The “Add or update contacts” option is selected by default.
6. Upload a file to add a contact:
   • Drag and drop the file.
   • Click to import a file.
7. Mark a checkbox next to the “I have permission to add these persons to my list” if you are sure that your clients are waiting for a communication from you.
8. Click the “Continue” button.
9. Check all the variables with the “Match variables” feature before adding them to the Contact List:
   • File column name – the name of the variable uploaded from the headers of your file.
   • Preview – the random value of the specific variable.
   • Type – select if variable string or date format (enabled while changing the variable name)

     String	Variable name in lowerCamelCase format. WARNING: Please use only Latin lowerCamelCase format. No numbers or other symbols allowed. String variable value in 'ENUM_STRING'.
     DateTime	For Variable name, use only Latin in lowerCamelCase format, no numbers or other symbols are allowed. For date variable value ENUM_DATE (YYYY- M-DD) is 'required'.

   • SmartSender.io column name – variables that already exist in the Smart Sender.io Contact List. Here you can change the name of your variable from the drop-down menu or create a custom new one. IMPORTANT Custom variables created here are only for the Contact List to which you are adding contacts. 
10. If some variables do not match the existing ones – the error messages will be displayed:
    • A red dot indicates that the variable has not been matched because the table has an invalid header view, which means that the system cannot pass it further. You can replace it. Select an existing variable from the list or create a new one and assign it to your variable. If the listed actions were not made – this variable will be ignored.
    • A gray dot also indicates that the variable has not been matched, but the header is in a valid format and has a chance to be manually matched for importing the column from the file into the SmartSender.io system. Select the String or DateTime format, select one of the existing variables, or create a new one.
    • A green dot indicates that your variable has been successfully matched with the one that already exists in the Contact List. If you change the name of your variable by choosing an existing variable from the list, after the import is complete, the name of your variable will be replaced with the new one you have chosen. IMPORTANT Do not specify 2 identical variables during the mapping process.
11. Press the “Ignore” button opposite those variables you do not want to be imported.
12. Press the “Import” button to continue.
    • If your file contains errors – the system will inform you about it. You can download a file with the errors or press the “Skip and continue” button – then values of the variables with errors will not be imported, but these which are valid – will pass the import.
    • IMPORTANT If you mark the checkbox  “Skip empty cells during import“, all the empty cells in your file will be ignored and the values of the existing variables will stay the same. If you remove the checkbox – the corresponding cells of the contacts will be rewritten and become empty.
13. After passing the validation and import – you can:
    • View contacts – you will be moved to the Contact List to which you have just imported contacts.
    • Send campaign. NOTE You can send the Campaign only to the contacts that were just imported; selecting segments and the Contact List changing will not be available; only the launch type “Now” will be available.

Delete contacts from the Contact List

Often there is a need to clean your Contact List from contacts who are no longer actually your customers. SmartSendeer.io have created convenient tools for quick removal. Get acquainted with those in our article.