Import Contacts Into the CRM

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.

From there, you will be presented with three options to add contacts:

1. Manually add a new contact: Enter a contact's details one-at-a-time.
2. Import contacts from a file: Import your existing contact list from a previous CRM, email list, or spreadsheet. Skip down to the section below for more information.
3. 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.

Importing 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). You should also set up a Contact Source for the contacts on this list (i.e., how they became a Contact). 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.

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.

1. On the CRM dashboard, you will land on the Contacts list. Click on the vertical ellipses (three vertical dots) on the top-right corner of the page, then select Import Contacts from the drop down menu.
   
2. A pop-up will appear. Drag your file to the pop-up, or click inside the grey box under Upload to select your CSV file from your computer.
   
3. Next, you will need to match each CRM Field with the corresponding field on your form. This will ensure that all of the form fields on your existing CSV match with the fields in your CRM. The column all the way to the left, CSV Column, refers to the column in your spreadsheet. The column labeled CRM Field refers to the field in your CRM.
   

   Next to each CSV Column, select the relevant CRM Field where you would like the information to populate within your CRM. Important: Make sure you have not selected the same CRM Field more than once.

4. After you match each field, you can choose whether you want to "flag" entries that already match existing contacts in your CRM. It is usually recommended that you specify that the email address must be unique to prevent duplicate contacts from being created. To do this, check the box in the "Email Address" row in the Prevent Duplicates column.
   If you skip preventing duplicates, duplicate contacts may be created in your CRM.
5. Click Submit when finished. You will then be asked to fill out a few fields before you save your import:
   • Existing Contacts: 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.
   • Missing Type, Status, Source, & Tag Options: 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 for Type, Status, Source, or Tag, you can choose to Create a new option.
   • Cancel On Error: Decide whether to cancel the import automatically if a validation error occurs.
6. Below the above fields, you will also be asked to set Default Settings for New Contacts. You are required to select the Source for the new contacts in your CSV - select the drop down menu to select which Source you would like to assign these new contacts. If you like, you can also assign the new contacts to a specific Assignee, a specific Contact Type, or a specific Contact Status.
7. Finally, you will see Advanced Settings at the bottom of the page. This section is optional.
   • Multiple Value Spacer: This field allows you to define which "character" is used to decide how list options (for example, options in checkboxes or dropdown menus) should be separated within a single spreadsheet cell. If you are unsure, then you can leave the field as-is. By default, this "character" is a comma.
   • 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.
8. Click Submit to finish the import process.