When you first set up your Marketing 360® CRM, you can add contacts to your CRM by clicking the Contacts tab at the top of the dashboard, and clicking on the Import Contacts button.
From there, you will be presented with three options to add contacts:
- Manually add a new contact: Enter a contact's details one-at-a-time.
- Import contacts from a file: Import your existing contact list from a previous CRM, email list, or spreadsheet. Click here to view how to import contacts form a file.
- Import contacts from your phone: You can download the Marketing 360® mobile app to sync contacts directly from your smartphone. More information on setting up the Marketing 360® mobile app.
Import contacts from a file
Before you get started, you will want to save your existing contact list to a CSV file (a spreadsheet containing comma-separated values). In addition, to make sure the contacts import successfully, your CSV must contain a Contact Name, Email, or Phone for each contact, and you cannot use a CRM field more than once.
Preparing your CSV
If you're creating your import list manually, you can export "placeholder" contacts following this support article, which will give you a template to work from with predefined columns that will save you time when you're ready to import.
To ensure smooth importing, we recommend retitling the essential columns (name, phone, email) in your CSV to match the CRM field titles as listed in the table below. At least one of these pieces of information must be present in order for a contact to be created in the CRM. These are known as primary fields.
Contact Name/First Name |
Contact Name/Last Name |
Phone |
If you have the first and last name in one column, you may be able to use a split text feature in your spreadsheet editor.
Ensure your data is clean
Confirm you have:
- Only one type of information in each column. ie. The Phone column only has phone numbers and nothing else in it.
- Only one set of information for single data point fields like Phone and Email. ie. The Email column should only have one email address in it per contact.
- There are no invalid characters in the exported CSV. Sometimes exporting a CSV from Excel will result in odd characters replacing data. If the import fails, it's good to look over your CSV for anything that wasn't in the original sheet.
Upload a CSV to your CRM
Once you have your CSV spreadsheet saved, you will want to log in to your Marketing 360® account and navigate to the CRM app.
- Once in the CRM app, navigate to the Contacts page, then click the button titled Import Contacts.
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Under the Import contacts from a file option, click Begin Import.
- Click or drag in your CSV file, and click Next.
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Field Mapping: You will then match each CSV Column to the CRM Field where you would like the information to populate. See the Preview column to review a snapshot of your mapped fields. When you have finished mapping, click Next.
Important: Make sure you have not selected the same CRM Field more than once.
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Import Settings: You will then review the import settings to determine how data should be handled in various situations. For example, you will need to select the following settings:
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What should we look for to determine a unique Existing Contact: Set what unique identifier to use in order to determine if a contact already exists with the CRM: Email (The default selection), CRM ID, or First/Last name and phone number combined.
- What should we do if a contact in your file already exists in the CRM: Choose whether to Skip adding a new contact or Update an existing contact if one of the items in your CSV matches an existing contact in your CRM.
- What should we do if the field labels in your file do not match the CRM field labels for Type, Status, or Tags: Choose whether to Ignore instances where an item in the CSV is missing a pre-defined Type, Status, Source, or Tag; or, if the data in these fields to not match an existing option, you can choose to save them as new labels.
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What should we do if a validation error occurs during import? If an error occurs when importing you can choose to continue with the rest of the import or cancel the entire import.
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What should we look for to determine a unique Existing Contact: Set what unique identifier to use in order to determine if a contact already exists with the CRM: Email (The default selection), CRM ID, or First/Last name and phone number combined.
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Defaults for New Contacts
Click the arrow next to "Defaults for New Contacts" to set default field values for new contacts if not specified in the file. Missing fields will use these defaults. The Default Source for new contacts added via your upload will be ‘File Import’. Note: ‘Source’ cannot be imported. This makes it easy to identify which contacts were uploaded via Import. If you would like to change this source, you can click the dropdown to choose a different Source, or add a new one.
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If you like, you can also assign the new contacts to a specific Assignee, a specific Contact Type, or a specific Contact Status.
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Defaults for Existing Contacts
Click the arrow next to "Default Settings for Existing Contacts" to set default field values for existing contacts if not specified in the file. This won’t change existing values, only fill in missing ones. To append data to these fields, mark them in Step 1. Note: Values will not be updated if 'Skip the contact' is selected under Import Settings.
- Finally, you will see Advanced Settings. This section is optional.
- Separator Character: The separator character determines how list options (such as those in Checkboxes, Radio Buttons, Dropdowns, and Tag lists) are separated within a single cell. For example, if your CSV uses a comma to separate values, set this field to a comma. If you're unsure, leave this field as is
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Escape Character: You may want to define an "Escape Character" if the "Multiple Value Spacer" character is included in a list of options in a single cell. For example, imaging that your Multiple Value Spacer is a comma, and you have a spreadsheet cell that contains two options from a dropdown menu: "red, white, and blue" and "green, yellow, and red". The commas in those two items may cause interference, so you can assign a different character, such as a \ character (which is the default setting). If you are unsure, you can leave this field as-is.
- When you have finished configuring your import settings click Next. This will bring you to a confirmation screen. Click Complete Import to complete the import process.
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