Best practices for creating and importing contacts
Before you start adding contacts to Zoho Campaigns, a few things are worth keeping in mind. Following these practices helps you stay compliant, protect your sender reputation, and build a contact base that works for your campaigns.
Best practices for manually adding contacts
Use a valid email address and phone number
Every contact needs a working email address. Without one, your campaigns cannot reach them. A valid phone number is also required if you plan to run SMS campaigns. Double-check for typos before saving a contact.
Add only contacts who have opted in
Only add contacts who have explicitly agreed to receive communications from you, whether they signed up through a form, shared their details at an event, or reached out directly. Adding contacts without their consent can harm your sender reputation and put you in violation of laws like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.
Never add purchased or rented contact lists
Purchased lists are not permitted in Zoho Campaigns. These contacts have not consented to hear from you, which leads to high bounce rates, spam complaints, and potential account suspension.
Assign the correct subscription type
When creating a contact, Zoho Campaigns requires you to assign a subscription type: Marketing, Non-Marketing, or Unsubscribed. Only contacts marked as Marketing will receive your email campaigns. If a contact is a customer but has not opted in to marketing communications, mark them as Non-Marketing.
Add contacts to the right mailing list
Assign each contact to a relevant mailing list at the time of creation. This keeps your contact base organized and makes it easier to send targeted campaigns to the right audience from the start.
Best practices for importing contacts
If you've been managing contacts in a spreadsheet or a different software and want them in Zoho Campaigns, you can use the Import Contacts option to bring them in. Before you do, here are some best practices to follow for a smooth and error-free import.
Before the Import
Decide what data you need - Start with an analysis of the fields you want in Zoho Campaigns, such as address, social handles, and other relevant details. At a minimum, your file should have: First Name, Last Name, Contact Email, and Mobile. For segmentation purposes, additional fields like Country, City, and Job Title are useful to have.
Label your field names clearly - Field names in your file should be labeled accurately. This makes field mapping during the import process straightforward and reduces errors.
Remove duplicate contacts - Before importing, go through your file and remove any duplicate entries. Duplicate contacts can skew your campaign reports and lead to contacts receiving the same email more than once.
Exclude unsubscribed and bounced contacts - If you're migrating from another platform, keep your unsubscribed and bounced contacts out of your import file. Importing these contacts can hurt your sender reputation and cause compliance issues.
Format your data correctly - Some fields require data in a specific format. Review the Field Formats section below before finalizing your file.
Run a sample import first - Before importing your full list, run a test import with a small sample of contacts. This helps you catch formatting issues or mapping errors early.
Supported File Formats
Zoho Campaigns supports the following file formats for contact import:
- .csv (Comma Separated Values)
- .xlsx (Excel documents)
The maximum file size allowed is 25 MB.
Note: If your contacts are in a CSV file, open it in a spreadsheet application like Zoho Sheets or Microsoft Excel before making any edits or modifications.How to Structure Your Import File
Your import file should follow a simple structure for Zoho Campaigns to read it correctly.
- The first row is the header row. Each column header represents a field name, such as Contact Email or First Name. Column headers should not exceed 255 characters.
- Each subsequent row should contain the information of one contact only. Do not combine details of two or more contacts in a single row.
- Each column holds the data for one field. For example, the Contact Email column should only contain email addresses.
Field Formats
Pay attention to how data is formatted in each field. Incorrect formats will either be ignored during import or cause errors.
Email address is a mandatory field. Each contact should have only one email address in the Contact Email column. Before importing, check for:
- Missing "@" symbol — for example, jane.doegmail.com
- Missing "." — for example, Patrick@yahoocom
- Domain extensions longer than 6 characters after the last dot — for example, jane.doe@zylker.incostica
- Extra spaces before or after the email address
- Hyperlinks used in place of plain email addresses
Text
Text fields are used for first name, last name, company name, and similar data. Check for extra spaces before or after values in text fields.
Date
Date fields must be in MM/dd/yyyy format. Any other format will be ignored during import. For example, a contact born on July 1, 1992, should be entered as 07/01/1992.
Phone and Mobile
There are a few rules to follow for phone and mobile fields, depending on the type of campaigns you send.
- Contacts who receive only email campaigns must have a valid entry in the Contact Email field.
- Contacts who receive only SMS campaigns must have a valid entry in the Mobile field.
- Contacts who receive both email and SMS campaigns must have entries in both the Contact Email and Mobile fields.
Mobile numbers must follow the E.164 format: +[country code][area code][subscriber number]. For example, +12345678901, where +1 is the country code, 234 is the area code, and 5678901 is the subscriber's number.
During import, make sure you map your file's mobile column to the Mobile field in Zoho Campaigns. This is required for SMS campaigns to work correctly after the import.
Custom Fields
Custom fields let you store information that does not fit into Zoho Campaigns' default fields. For example, if you want to store a contact's date of birth or a secondary email address, you can create a custom field for it.
Custom fields can be created during the import process itself, directly in the field mapping step, so you do not need to set them up separately beforehand.
Note: Custom fields are available on all pricing plans, including the Forever Free plan.Tips for importing contacts from an Excel file
Prepare your Excel file correctly
- Save the file in MS Excel 95 or a later format before importing.
- Keep all your contacts on one sheet. Data on other sheets will not be picked up during import.
- Do not embed special controls, combo filters, or images in your file. These can cause unexpected errors during import.
Format field values accurately
- Email addresses should be added under the correct column header as plain text. Each contact should have only one email address.
- Checkbox fields only accept true or false as values.
- Date fields must follow the MM/dd/yyyy format. Dates in any other format will be ignored.
- Date and time fields must follow the MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss format. Values in any other format will be ignored.
- Character encoding is set to UTF-8 by default. If your file uses a different encoding, make sure to select the correct one during import.
Import mobile numbers as plain values
Mobile numbers must include the country code and should be stored as plain values, not formulas. If you are using an Excel formula to add a country code (such as +91), copy the column, paste it into a new sheet using Paste Values Only, and then import that file. This ensures the numbers are stored correctly for SMS and WhatsApp campaigns.
If your Excel file does not import successfully
Excel imports can occasionally fail due to formatting or compatibility issues. If you run into errors that cannot be resolved, convert your file to a .csv format and try the import again.
Why are some contacts excluded after import?
After an import, you may notice that the total contacts added is fewer than what was in your file. Some reasons a contact may be excluded are given below; please refer to the detailed ignored contacts document to know all the reasons:
Reason | What it means |
Bounced | The email address is undeliverable or does not exist. |
Blocked | The contact has been blocked by Zoho Campaigns. |
Do-Not-Mail | The contact has unsubscribed from your emails or was manually added to the do-not-mail list. |
Role-based email address | The email is tied to a role rather than a person, such as info@, support@, admin@, or careers@. |
File duplicate | The same contact appears more than once in your import file. |
Invalid email pattern | The email address does not follow a valid format, such as johngmail.com, jane@aol, or ted@zylkercom. |
Empty email | The contact's email address field is blank. |
Other errors | The contact has invalid or unprocessable field values in the file. |
Why does Zoho Campaigns restrict role-based email addresses?
Role-based email addresses like info@, support@, admin@, and help@ are not tied to a specific individual. Emails sent to these addresses have a higher chance of being marked as spam, which can hurt your sender reputation and deliverability.
By default, Zoho Campaigns restricts the import of such addresses. If you have a valid reason to import role-based addresses into your mailing lists, reach out to the support team at support@zohocampaigns.com.
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