How to Import Your Contacts

Whether this is your first CRM ( Customer Relationship Management ) or you are moving from another system, importing contacts allows you create new records or update your existing contact records.

Each row represents a contact record, and each information column represents a contact property (First Name, Last Name, Email Address, etc.)

Covered in this Article:

Pre-requisites:

How to import contacts into the CRM

Step 1: Setting up your CSV and Custom Fields before importing

Step 2: Check for duplicates

Step 3: Importing your contacts

1st Method: If your CSV has a phone # and or email, please follow this CSV setup guide

2nd Method: If your CSV does NOT have an email and or phone #, please watch the video below 

Breaking down advanced filters:

Bulk Import Multiple Emails per Contact

Conditions to import

Additional Emails or Additional Phone Numbers

FAQ

• My CSV list is mixed; some contacts have an email or phone #, and some have both an email and phone. How should I proceed?

• Some of my contacts have multiple emails and or phone numbers. How should I proceed?

• Important note for people that use Keap:

• When importing the phone numbers, I get the error code 1007 'invalid required property:

• I'm trying to import a CSV with a DND Column, but all contacts are set to DND for ALL channels.

• I'm trying to import a CSV with Notes, and I cannot generate more than one note per contact record.

• I'm trying to export a CSV with Notes. 

Pre-requisites:

• Only users with an 'Admin' role will have the option to import and export contacts. 
• The import file needs to be a .csv file
• The CSV file must have only one sheet/tab within the spreadsheet
• The CSV file must be smaller than 50MB
  • Note: a typical .csv file with 4 columns and 10,000 records will be ~500kb in size)
• The first row should NOT be blank! Include a header row in which at least one column header corresponds to a field in the system.

How to Import Contacts into the CRM

Step 1: Setting up your CSV and Custom Fields Before Importing

Step 2: Check for Duplicates

It's always best practice to clean your list and check for duplicates before importing into any software.

Step 3: Importing Your Contacts

There are two methods to import contacts depending on your CSV data:

1st Method: If your CSV has a phone # and or email please follow the 1st method below.

2nd Method: If your CSV does NOT have an email and or phone #, please follow the 2nd method below (Getting contact ID).

1st Method If your CSV has a phone # and or email, please follow the steps in the video here. Or follow the steps below.

1) Click on Contacts ( on the left side menu ) > Click on the "Import Contacts" icon at the top of the contacts section.

2) Click on "Upload File" Select the file you want to import from your computer. Or drag and drop the file in the box in the pop up. Then click "Next" button at the bottom.

3) Match the fields you are importing to the standard fields in the FG Funnels system. You can do so by clicking on the dropdown menu in the "Contact Fields" column.

4) If you have unmatched field that do not have a standard field in the FG Funnels system, you will need to create a brand new custom field for this data to be imported. By going to Settings > Custom Fields, then come back and start the import process again, Then click "Next" button at the bottom.

5) [ Optional ] If you do not want to import the data in the unmatched fields then check the box at the bottom that says "Don't import data in unmatched columns" Then click "Next" button at the bottom.

Breaking Down Advanced Filters:

6) Click where it says "Advanced"

7) Name the bulk import, this is the name that will show in the bulk action logs in your FGF account.

8) [ Optional ] Select the option to "Create a list of contacts from the import" , this will create a brand new smart list made up of these imported contacts.

9) In the "What do you want to do with contact/s in the .csv file?" field, select if you want to:

• Add New and Update Existing Contact Records:

  This means that it will create new contacts, and if you have any leads already in the system, it will update them with the information from your CSV file. The system will check for existing contacts in your FGF account based on the unique identifier (Email, phone, or contact id) you selected (Primary or Secondary preference).

  
  

• Add New Contact Records: 

  This will create new contact records and will not update existing contacts in the your FGF account.

• Update Existing Contact Records:

  This option will only update existing contact records and not create new contacts in the your FGF account.

10) In the "Find Existing Contacts Based on (Primary)" field, select the primary identify you want contacts to be group by. Example: If you select "Email" then the system will check for multiple rows in your CSV files with the same email address in the CSV file field you mapped to the "Email" field inside of the FG Funnels system. Then all the data for the multiple contacts (sharing the same email address ) will be merged into one contact record.

11) Make sure to check the box labeled "Don't update empty values for existing records" when you are importing contacts, which you may already have data on their contact record, and you do not want the system to overwrite this data with an empty field from the CSV file you are importing.

12) [ Optional ] Select a tag to be applied to this import. Or create a new tag to be applied to this import. This will apply a tag to both brand new contacts, and existing contacts who are already on your contacts list inside of your FGF account.

13) [ Optional ] Toggle ON the "Add New Contacts to Workflow/Campaign" option, if you want to add the contacts to a workflow.

14) Confirm that the contacts you are importing, have opt-ed in to receive emails from you.

15) Click the "Submit" button to begin the import.

2nd Method: If your CSV does NOT have an email and or phone #, please watch the video below:

The only difference between the 1st method above and the 2nd method is step #13, which is the option you will select in the "Skip Existing Contacts Based on (Primary)" field. In this 2nd method you will select "None."

Bulk Import Multiple Emails or Phone Numbers Per Contact

You can leverage the power of effective contact management with our new 'Additional Emails' and 'Additional Phone numbers' feature, complemented by the Bulk Import capability. 

Conditions to Import:

• To ensure contact uniqueness, both the primary and additional email/phone (if selected as the first preference) will be used. In cases where multiple duplicate matches are found for an additional email/phone, that specific email/phone will be left out. 
• Any invalid emails/phone in the additional fields will be removed, leaving only valid ones for a contact. 
• If the email/phone column in the CSV is blank, but the additional email/phone column has values, the first additional email will serve as the primary email. 
• When updating an existing contact, the specified emails in the CSV will be combined with the ones already associated with the contact. 
• The "Additional Email/phone" column can hold a maximum of 10 email IDs/phone numbers, with only the first 10 being considered if more are included.

Steps to Import

• Within the Contact Import section, users will discover new system fields named “Additional Emails" and "Additional Phone numbers" 

  

• This feature enables users to map all their extra emails.
• During the import process, it's necessary to include all additional emails in one column. These should be separated by commas (,), slashes (/), or semicolons (;), and then mapped to the “Additional Emails” field in the system.

Sample CSV

FAQ

My CSV list is mixed; some contacts have an email or phone #, and some have both an email and phone. How should I proceed?

Please use the 'secondary preference' option for a mixed CSV. The system will search for the first preference and then the second if it cannot locate the first. In the example above the first preference is 'Email' and the second is 'Phone'. 

Now we can find existing contact based on the secondary field, so if the contact record has only the phone number, we can also upload them!

Some of my contacts have multiple emails and or phone numbers. How should I proceed?

You would follow the steps in the "Bulk Import Multiple Emails or Phone Numbers Per Contact" section above. Here is an example showing a contact with 2 phone numbers:

Original with two phone number columns:

Cleaned for upload version:

Important Note for People that Use Keap:

The phone field from the CSV export in Keap is incompatible with FGF. The parenthesis '()' and dashes '-' make it incompatible. We have to highlight the entire column in the CSV file and ensure it is numbered in, remove any parenthesis and dashes, and then we can import without corrupting the data in the CRM. 

When importing the phone numbers, I get the error code 1007 'invalid required property'

When importing contact, you'll need to add a country code for contacts with phone numbers outside of the country you selected in the business profile settings of your FGF account.

If your FGF account's country is set to the US, you won't need to add a +1 (US country code) to the imported phone numbers. However, if you're importing numbers outside of the US, you will need to add the country code.

Example: A FGF account that has set its business location to the US would need to add +44 for all UK phone numbers within the CSV File that is being imported. If the FGF account's country is set to a different country other than the US ( like - the UK, Australia, etc. ), you would need to add a +1 for all US phone numbers within the CSV file that is being imported.

I'm Trying to Import a CSV with a DND Column, but All Contacts Are Set to DND for ALL Channels.

When importing contacts with a DND column within your CSV, please note that the contacts will be DND for ALL the channels. If you want to DND for specific channels, please set up a workflow first and use tags to designate each specific channel you want to enable DND for.

Example: I would like john to be DND for SMS only. I would create a workflow that DNDs a contact when a tag 'DND SMS' is added. So now, on the CSV, I would add the Tag 'DND SMS' next to John's name. When importing, this would fire automation to DND John for SMS Only. 

I'm Trying to Import a CSV with Notes, and I Cannot Generate More Than One Note Per Contact Record.

When importing contact notes, you may only have one note per contact record with a limit of 5000 characters.

Please try use the "Multi Line" custom field if you have more than one note or more characters than the allowed amount.

I'm Trying to Export a CSV with Notes. 

As of now, We do not have any limit for CSV import for notes, and As per our current export behavior, we support Max of 255 Characters for the last note.