Import contacts from a CSV

Contacts are imported against an audience list, so create the list first if you do not have one — see Create an audience list.

Import

Open Audiences, find the list you want to fill, and use Upload. Pick your CSV and map its columns to contact fields.

You can also import while building a campaign: the Audience step has an import option, so you are not forced to leave the builder half-finished.

What your file needs

An email column is required. Everything else is optional, but a first and last name are worth including — they power the {{first_name}} and {{last_name}} merge tags in your emails.

Tag everyone in the file

Under the column mapping there is a Tags to apply box. Anything you put there — comma-separated — is applied to every contact in the file, added to whatever tags they already have rather than replacing them.

This is the easiest way to keep track of where a list came from, and it is worth doing on every import: a tag is what you later build a segment from, and it can start an automation via the Tag added trigger. See Tags on contacts.

Re-uploading the same file does not re-apply a tag somebody already has, so it will not re-trigger anything.

What happens to the addresses

Addresses are validated as they are imported. Anything invalid is marked and then excluded from every campaign and automation, so bad addresses from an old list cannot quietly damage your sending reputation.

Importing the same address twice does not create a duplicate — the existing contact is updated instead.

Uploading does not resurrect opt-outs

If someone on your CSV previously unsubscribed, importing them again does not put them back into your sending list. Genuine opt-outs are preserved on purpose: re-adding them would be both a deliverability problem and, in most jurisdictions, a legal one.

Where they end up

Imported people appear on the Contacts page, which shows Contact, Source, Tags, Subscribed and Added for each one. You can search by name or email, and filter by source.

Next: open Audiences, choose your list, and click Upload.