How to Add Contacts to Your Audience
Growing an engaged audience is the foundation of any successful marketing strategy! Sendlane offers four ways to add Contacts to your audience:
- Import Existing Contacts
- Add New Contacts With Integrations
- Add New Contacts With Pop-Ups
- Add New Contacts With the Sendlane API
🚦 Before Getting Started
- Create at least one List for new Contacts to be added to
- Ensure that all Contacts' opt-in details (date, IP Address, and source) are recorded
🚨 Important Note
- All imported Contacts will be in List Review for the first 2-5 Campaigns
- Custom Fields must be created in Sendlane before uploading custom data.
Import Existing Contacts
There are three ways to add or import existing Contacts to your Sendlane account:
Head to the Contact Import Screen by clicking Audience > Contacts > +Contact > Import
Import via .CSV or .TXT file
🙋 How do I format my .CSV file?
- Size: Ensure your file is 100MB or smaller.
- Headers: All columns must have descriptive headers with no special characters.
- Required data: Email address, Sign-up source, Subscribed date, and Sign-up IP are required for all rows.
- SMS Consent + Phone Numbers:
- Rows with an affirmative indicator for SMS consent must contain a valid phone number.
- The SMS Consent column can use the following formats to indicate consent:
- Yes/No
- True/False
- On/Off
- 1/0
To import Contacts in bulk via .CSV or .TXT file, drag your file in or click File Upload to select your file. Once your file loads, you'll see options to map your file's fields to standard or custom fields.
Columns for standard fields (Email, First Name, Last Name, Phone, and SMS Consent) should automatically map. Opt-in details like subscribed date, sign-up IP, and sign-up source, should automatically be set to "Ignore this field." Select the correct field from the dropdown if it is not set automatically.
To add a Tag to every Contact in your file, enter the Tag in the Tags field.
To trigger Automations for your new Contacts, click the Trigger Automations checkbox.
Check the permission checkbox to confirm that you have explicit permission to send marketing content to these Contacts and click Next to head to the SMS import questionnaire!
If you do not plan to send SMS marketing content to the Contacts you're uploading, answer No and click Finish to complete your upload!
If you do plan to send SMS marketing content to the Contacts you're uploading, answer Yes and complete the questionnaire. Include as much detail as possible, then click Finish to complete your upload!
⏭ Next Steps
Congratulations on adding your first Contacts to your account! Check out our guide to List Review to learn more about what to expect next!
Copy and Paste Contacts
🚨 Important Note
SMS Consent cannot be uploaded via copied lists. Please use the file import method to add Contacts with SMS Consent.
Copy and paste a list of Contacts by selecting the Copy + Paste option on the Contact Import window, then paste your Contacts and click Import Contacts.
To add a Tag to every Contact in your file, enter the Tag in the Tags field.
To trigger Automations for your new Contacts, click the Trigger Automations checkbox.
Check the permission checkbox to confirm that you have explicit permission to send marketing content to these Contacts and click Import Contacts to complete your upload!
⏭ Next Steps
Congratulations on adding your first Contacts to your account! Check out our guide to List Review to learn more about what to expect next!
Manually Create a Contact
To manually add one Contact at a time, click +Contact > enter the Contact's information > Create
Add New Contacts With Pop-ups
Use a Pop-Up form to collect leads from your business' website! Check out our guide to setting up a Pop-Up to learn more.
Want to create even more intelligent forms with advanced segmentation options, A/B testing, and more? Check out Sendlane's premiere partner for lead capture: Justuno!
Add New Contacts With Integrations
Sendlane offers hundreds of integration options with marketing tools you use every day. Head to the Integrations page for a full list of platforms we integrate with.
Add New Contacts with the Sendlane API
For advanced users, we have created an index of API calls to add individual Contacts or lists of Contacts to your audience.
Troubleshooting
Importing: Received the email "Uh-oh... There's an issue with your import!"
Make sure that your file is in .CSV or .TXT format. Next, remove any extra empty rows or columns, unnecessary data, or special characters from your file.
If you continue having issues, please reach out to our Support Team for assistance!