How to add contacts to your audience

Overview

Growing an engaged audience is the foundation of any successful marketing strategy! Read this guide for information on importing contacts and how sending is affected after imports.

In this guide

🚦 Before Getting Started

  1.  Create at least one List for new contacts to be added to
  2.  Ensure that all contacts' opt-in details (date, IP Address, and source) are recorded

How to format a file of contacts for import

  •  Size: Ensure your file is 250MB 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. Proof of sending through another ESP is acceptable if you do not have the sign-up IP for all rows.
  •  Phone Numbers:
    • Do not include a + symbol without a country code in the phone number column
    • Rows with an affirmative indicator for SMS consent must contain a valid phone number.

How imports affect contacts' subscription status

Contacts' subscription status in your Sendlane account can change depending on whether the contact exists, the values used in the email and SMS consent columns, and whether the fields are mapped before import. Read the sections below to learn how the email and SMS consent columns affect contacts' subscription status.

Review the following table to learn how mapping the Email Consent column will affect contacts with different statuses in your account during import:

New contact? Subscription Status Before Import Email Consent (EC) Column Value and Mapping Contact's Subscription Status After Import
Yes N/A Yes, with EC column mapped Subscribed to Email
Yes N/A Blank, No, or unsupported value with EC column mapped Unsubscribed from Email
Yes N/A EC column not mapped Subscribed to Email
Yes Unsubscribed (from previous ESP) No, with EC column mapped Unsubscribed
Yes Unsubscribed (from previous ESP)
EC column NOT mapped Subscribed to Email
No Subscribed to Email Yes, with EC column mapped Subscribed to Email
No Subscribed to Email Blank, No, or unsupported value with EC column mapped Unsubscribed from Email
No Subscribed to Email EC column not mapped Subscribed to Email
No Unsubscribed from Email Yes, with EC column mapped Subscribed to Email
No Unsubscribed from Email Blank, No, or unsupported value with EC column mapped Unsubscribed from Email
No Unsubscribed from Email EC column not mapped Unsubscribed from Email

⚠️ *If you do not map the Email Consent column, all NEW contacts will be imported with email consent = yes

If you are uploading a list of contacts new to your Sendlane account and the Email Consent column is not mapped, they will be imported with email consent automatically set to yes. Doing this may mean you send to contacts who have not consented to receive your marketing emails and may result in increased spam complaints from these contacts.

If the SMS consent column is mapped during import, the consent value in the import file will overwrite the consent value in the contact's profile as long as the contact was originally subscribed via import.

If contacts unsubscribe from SMS by texting STOP, the SMS consent value will not be overwritten by future imports.

How sending is affected for imported contacts

All imported contacts will be reviewed by our Compliance team before they can be sent to and the first 3-5 Campaigns sent to newly imported contacts will also be reviewed by Sendlane's compliance team.

The initial List Review generally takes 24 business hours. Sendlane's compliance team reviews imports from 9AM to 5 PM PST, Monday through Friday.

During List Review, you may see the following statuses next to your Import:

  • Processing - The List is being processed and is in queue to be reviewed by the Compliance team
  • Active - The List has been processed, reviewed by our Compliance team, and is now being activated in your account
  • Completed - The List is finished activating and is now ready to send to!

During List Review, the Sendlane compliance team will review 3-5 Campaigns before they are sent to confirm the health of your list. You'll see a red flag next to a Campaign that is currently being reviewed, and you'll receive an email to the account holder's email address about the status of your Campaign.

Read List Sending Campaigns While on List Review for more information.

How to import contacts

You can import contacts in both the Contacts and List tabs of the Audience page. Use the Lists tab to import whole lists. Use the Contacts tab to import contacts to existing Lists. Both methods use the same import tool.

Import whole lists

To import whole lists:

  1. Click the Audience icon
  2. Click Lists 
  3. Click +List
  4. Enter a name for your new list
  5. Select or create a sender profile for your list
  6. Click Confirm
  7. Click Import
  8. Drag your file into the file upload area, or click to select your file
  9. See the Contact import tool section below for next steps

Import contacts to existing lists

To import new contacts to existing lists:

  1. Click the Audience icon
  2. Click Contacts 
  3. Click +Contact
  4. Select a List from the List dropdown to import contacts to
  5. Click Import
  6. Drag your file into the file upload area, or click to select your file
  7. See the Contact import tool section below for next steps

Contact import tool

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 number, email consent*, and SMS consent) should map automatically. Email and SMS consent fields may not map automatically, ensure consent fields are mapped appropriately using the guidance above.

Opt-in details, like subscribed date, sign-up IP, and sign-up source, are usually automatically set to "Ignore this field," but our import tool may detect the column header. 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.

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 about your SMS marketing program, then click  Finish to complete your upload!

⚠️ Imported contacts will be reviewed by Sendlane's compliance team before they can be sent to

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:

  1. Click the Audience icon
  2. Click Contacts
  3. Click +Contact 
  4. Enter the contact's information 
  5. Click Create

Add new contacts with forms

Use a form to collect leads from your business' website! To learn more, check out our guide to getting started with forms.

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

Advanced users can use API calls to add individual contacts or lists of contacts.

Troubleshooting

After importing I received an email saying "Uh-oh... There's an issue with your import!"

Import issues could be related to:

  • File formatting: Review the file formatting note above and make sure your import file is formatted correctly. If you've included columns for non-required data, try removing those columns and attempting to upload again.
  • Plan issue: If you are on a free trial, you cannot import more than 100 contacts. If your import file contained more than 100 contacts, your import will not be accepted. 

Additional Resources

Did this answer your question? Thanks for your feedback! There was a problem submitting your feedback. Please try again!

Related Articles