Import Email Subscribers From a File

You can import subscribers using a number of common file formats, even compressed files for the really large files. Accepted file formats include:

By adding people to a subscriber list, you are asserting that you have permission to email them. If you're not sure, read more about what counts as permission to send. Importing subscribers without their permission may result in the immediate termination of your account.

File Preparation

Before importing your file, there are a few important steps you can take to make sure they correct data is imported. 

Deleted subscribers

If you're importing to a list of existing subscribers, make sure the file doesn't contain email addresses for anyone previously deleted from the list, because it will change their subscriber status from "Deleted" back to "Active".

To cross-check deleted subscriber addresses against the list you intend to import, first export the existing list of subscribers selecting "Manually Deleted Subscribers" from the Export menu.

Excel files

When importing an Excel file, ensure that all of your subscribers are on one sheet. When a file with multiple sheets is imported, only the data from the first sheet is captured.

Non-English characters

If your list of subscribers contains non-English characters, ensure the file is saved using UTF-8 encoding before you import it. Most text editors, such as Notepad and TextEdit, offer encoding options when you save the file.

Supported formats for importing date data

M and D can represent 1 or 2 integers (eg. M or MM, and D or DD).

Permission to track

Privacy is a growing concern for many users. You can optionally include whether a subscriber has given permission to have their email opens and clicks tracked when importing a file.

Tracking permission is updated across all of your lists. For example, if recipient@example.com is on two different lists, changing their tracking permission on one list will update the other.

To set an email address' permission to track response, create a column in your spreadsheet program or CSV file with the heading permission to track. You can then use yes, no, or unknown as the values for specific email addresses to set whether a subscriber has given their permission or not. A subscriber with an "unknown" permission to track response will be tracked until their setting is explicitly set to no.

Import subscribers from a file

Follow the steps below to import a file to a subscriber list in your account. If you don't already have a list, create one first.

1. Click Lists & subscribers.

2. Click on a list name to open the list details page.

3. Click Add new subscribers in the right sidebar.

4. To import a file, either drag-and-drop it from your desktop or click the option to Select it from your computer.

5. Match the file columns with your subscriber list fields, as shown here:

6. Click Finish adding subscribers.