Import Contacts from a file in Zoho Campaigns

IMPORTANT: This is the help page of the latest version of Zoho Campaigns. Click here to access the corresponding help page if you're still in the older version.

Importing contacts in the process of bringing in your contacts inside Zoho Campaigns by uploading a spreadsheet file containing the details of the contacts. You can access the option to import contacts under the Contacts section.

Why do you need to import contacts?

Imagine you've been handling the data of 10,000 contacts in a spreadsheet database, and you want to create those contacts in Zoho Campaigns. This would be a cumbersome and pain-staking process to create each contact. Instead, if there's a functionality where the spreadsheet file can be directly uploaded into Zoho Campaigns, and the system will create the contacts for you, it would save a great deal of your time. That is where the import process is useful.

Another instance where importing contacts is essential is if you're moving from a different email marketing software to Zoho Campaigns, and would like to bring in the contacts from there, you can export the contacts from there and upload the spreadsheet file into Zoho Campaigns.

Before you begin importing contacts, make sure that you've created a mailing list to save the data and follow the best practices. In this guide, you’ll learn the different ways to import contacts from various sources, which file formats are compatible, possible error scenarios and finally understanding the import history.

What file formats are allowed?

In Zoho Campaigns, you can import files of below formats:

● .csv (Comma Separated Values)

● .xlsx (Excel Open XML Spreadsheet)

Important:

● The maximum file size allowed is 25 MB for all file formats.

● Text files are not supported for contact imports.

● Email address (Contact Email field) or mobile number (Mobile field) is mandatory.
● The mobile number should follow the E.164 format.

How do you import contacts from a file?

The process of importing contacts can be split into two parts:

Uploading the file
Mapping the fields

But before you do an import, you can take a look at some of the best practices you can follow to have an hassle-free process.

Uploading the file

From the Navigation Toolbar to the left, click Audience and select Contacts.
Click the Import Contacts
button at the top-right.

Choose the file to import.
Click inside the box or drag-drop the file button to choose a file from your computer.

● If you click the Import from Cloud button, you can import from Zoho WorkDrive or other cloud services like Google Drive.

Make use of the Download sample file option to view how data is specified in the file. Sample data for 100 contacts will be present.
Choose how you would like to handle duplicate contacts under the Duplicate Handling section:

● Overwrite Contacts - Replace existing contacts' data with the data from your file. Useful for overwriting particular fields' values for multiple contacts.

● Skip Duplicates - Existing contacts will remain untouched.

Under the Associations section, you can choose the Subscription Type of your contacts between Marketing, Non-Marketing, or Unsubscribed.
In the Add to List field, choose mailing lists to which these contacts need to be associated. A maximum of 10 lists can be associated here.
Select the topics that you wish to associate to the marketing contacts in the Add to Topic field. A maximum of 25 topics can be chosen here. Choose the Lawful Basis for Communication as well if you've enabled GDPR Compliances under Settings -> Compliances.
Click Continue at the bottom-right corner.
In case you chose the wrong file for import, you can either use the Remove
button and choose the correct file.

Click the Remove button to remove and replace with another file.

Mapping the fields

After uploading the file and associating lists, the next step is to map the fields of your file against the corresponding fields of Zoho Campaigns.

On this screen, you'll see columns such as:

● Fields in File - Under this column, you need to choose the fields from your file that you want to map against the Zoho Campaigns Fields. Example: You'll map the Email column of your file against the Contact Email field of Zoho Campaigns.

● Zoho Campaigns Fields - These are field names present when you create a contact in Zoho Campaigns.

● Sample Data from File - You can view a preview of how data is specified in various fields for the first contact in your file in this column.

You'll also find options like:

● Unmapped Campaign Fields - Present at the top-right corner, you'll be able to view a list of all the Fields in Campaigns that are not yet mapped.

● New Custom Fields - Also present at the top-right corner. Use this option to create custom fields in Zoho Campaigns to map custom data of contacts from your file.

● Restore Default Mapping - Present at the bottom, use it if you want to revert your mapping to how it was before you started the field mapping in case you mapped some fields incorrectly.

How to map the fields

Here's how you proceed with the mapping:

Perform an analysis on what information from the import file you want to bring in for the contacts.
Once you're in the field mapping screen, the Fields from File will be listed first on the left side. Observe the fields listed under the Zoho Campaigns Fields column to check if you're able to find suitable equivalent fields against which you can map the columns from your file.
Proceed with mapping your file's fields against the fields from Zoho Campaigns by clicking the Select Field
drop-down of each Campaigns field and selecting the column from your file.

Field mapping screen, where mapping Campaigns and file's fields take place.
In case you're not able to find a suitable field from Zoho Campaigns to map, click the New Custom Fields button at the top-right to create custom fields.

● Example: You want to bring in the Date of Birth (a column in your file) data of your contacts but you can't find a suitable field to map. You can create a custom field in Zoho Campaigns with Date as the Data Type adjacent to this column. Click Create to create and map the custom field.

Click Continue at the bottom-right corner to proceed to the next step of the import process.
If you haven't mapped some columns from your file, you'll see a pop-up showing a list of these columns. You can either click Map Fields to map them or if you don't want to map them, you can click the Proceed Without Mapping button.
In the next screen, you'll see the import progress and summary. If you're importing a large volume contacts (say, 50,000), it will take some time for the import to get finished.
Click the Pause button to pause an import so you can resume it later. Click the Done button at the bottom-right corner. The import will run in the background.
You'll receive an in-app notification in the bell icon at the top-right corner once the import has completed.

You Should Know:

Zoho Campaigns will automatically map fields from your file with the corresponding Zoho Campaigns Fields provided that the field names are the same. For example, if you have a field named Mobile in your file it will be auto-mapped to the Mobile field of the Contacts module under the Zoho Campaigns Fields.
Zoho Campaigns doesn't allow group email addresses to be imported.

Notes:

● If you have the email and first name columns in your file, they'll be mapped automatically against the corresponding Zoho Campaigns fields.

● If Marketing is the subscription type for some or all your contacts, you need to choose a topic for these contacts.

▪ The topics will be associated to only the marketing contacts. They won't be associated to non-marketing and unsubscribed contacts.

▪ A maximum of 25 topics can be associated.

● A maximum of 150 columns can be imported from your file.

● If a date-based custom field is created, ensure you're choosing the same date format as present in your file in the Date Format field while mapping fields.

● If your pricing plan can have a maximum of 100,000 marketing contacts and you're importing 150,000 marketing contacts, the first 100,000 contacts will get imported and the rest will be ignored.

▪ The import summary will hold details of the ignored contacts, which you can download as a .csv or .xlsx file and find the reason why they were ignored.

Import Summary

Once you've completed the import process, the next step is to view its import summary. It shows a summary of the import such as the total contacts in the file, how many contacts were imported and ignored, list and topic associations, and field mapping details.

How do you read the import summary of an import?

Import summary helps in reviewing your import of contacts. You'll view details such as:

● Total Count - Number of contacts present in your file

● New Contacts - New contacts that were imported to your Zoho Campaigns organization. For an error-free import, the total count and new contacts need not necessarily be the same, as there are chances of the same contact occurring twice and existing contacts being present in the file.

● Updated Contacts - Number of existing contacts which underwent a field update. For example, 20 contacts could've had their country updated to a different one.

● Ignored Contacts - Number of contacts that didn't get imported due to invalid email address, mobile numbers, and other reasons. The download icon next to the count allows you to download these contacts as a password-protected .csv or .xlsx file to view the reason why they were ignored.

● Import Details - This section displays the lists and topics associated to the contacts. Click the View details option under field mapping to review how the fields were mapped.

How can you access import summary at any given time?

If the import process takes a while, you can concentrate on other tasks in Zoho Campaigns. But that doesn't mean you won't be able to view the import summary for that import. You can still access the import summary at any time by:

From the Navigation Toolbar, click Audience and click Contacts.
Click the 3-dotted button at the top-right corner and click Import Summary.

Here, you'll be able to view the list of import summary identifiable by the filename of the file you imported along with the date and time of import.
You can also get a quick overview of the Status, total contacts, newly added, update, and ignored contacts for an import. The ignored contacts list can be downloaded from here as well.
Clicking a particular summary will open its detailed view.

What are the statuses of import summary?

There are six status that you can encounter for an import summary. The below table explains what each status means.

Status	What it means
Completed	The import is finished and successful.
Incomplete	The file was uploaded but at the field mapping stage, import was stopped either by closing the tab or the browser window. You can click an incomplete summary and continue mapping to finish the import.
Queued	At any given time, you can run two imports simultaneously. If you try importing when there are two imports running, the subsequent imports will be placed in this status. These will get picked once the previous imports are completed.
In-progress	The import is underway. Click the summary to find the progress.
Paused	If you click the Pause button during the import, it will be paused. You can resume later by accessing this import's summary.
Failed	The import has failed. Please contact us at support@zohocampaigns.com with your Zoho account's user ID and Zoho Campaigns organization ID in which this occurred, so we can find the failure reason.

Related Articles:

Import Best Practices | Contacts Ignored During Import?

Import contacts from a file - Online Help | Zoho Campaigns