Omnisend syncs data with your store, so your store contacts are added to Omnisend automatically. You can also import contacts from a file or from other services.
Before You Begin
Change Customer Data Format
You need to change the format of the fields before uploading the file to Omnisend:
The first row in the file contains column headings or your customers' data. The document should be in one of the following formats: .csv, .xls, .xlsx, or .ods, and it should have only one sheet.
A single file may contain up to 200 contact properties, where each column represents one property. You can split the data into several imports if you have more information.
All information about each contact should go into one separate row, and each column should contain a single type of information (e.g., First name, Last name, City, etc.).
You must have at least an Email address or the Phone number for each contact.
The phone number should be in the international format: +11231234567 (+ country code, area code, phone number). To ensure that Excel treats this data as text and not a function, you can add an apostrophe ('+1 ...) or change the cell format to the text format.
Time stamps should be in the ISO 8601 format. For example: 2020-01-01, 2020-02-29 14:23, 2020-02-29T14:23Z, 2020-02-29T14:23+02:00, etc. Using the format "2020-01-01" without specifying a time defaults to 12:00 p.m. Additionally, opt-in/opt-out dates that are in the future won't be saved in the system.
Only one Address field in Omnisend accepts values from Address 1 and Address 2 lines. Make sure to combine both fields in the file into a single comma-separated string: Address 1, Address 2. Make sure to combine both fields in the file.
The information for import should be recorded in a table similar to the one presented below ⤵️
Once you're finished setting up your file, follow the steps below to import the contact successfully.
Import From File
To import your contacts from the file, go to the Audience tab → click on the Add contacts button → Import contacts from a file → Select file.
The import process consists of the following stages:
Upload File: Select the file to upload.
Map: Assign the fields from the file to the ones available in Omnisend.
Organize: Specify the status of imported contacts. At this stage, you can choose whether to add a tag or create a segment.
Review: Summarize the information recorded with your contacts import.
Map Customer Properties
In the drop-down menu, you can choose the mapping for the properties in the file.
The list of the fields you can map consists of the default and custom properties. If you can find the default field, it is better to use it instead of creating a custom one.
After selecting one of the properties from the drop-down menu, the following property is mapped as:
Default property (standard information that is the default property for most contacts).
The default information includes the following data:
Personal data: Email address, Phone number, First name, Last name, Birthdate, Gender.
Address: City, State/Province/Region, Country, Country code, Postal/Zip code.
Opt-in status: Email opt-in date, Email opt-out date, SMS opt-in date, SMS opt-out date.
Important! If, for any reason, you map the opt-out date provided for the contact as later than the opt-in date, the customer is added with an unsubscribed status.
Custom property (some specific information about your contacts you would like to keep, like their clothes size, etc.).
If you are adding a custom property and you don't have any contacts with this property added yet, you need to type in the name you'd like to call it and click Create New.
It's critical to know that there are some name restrictions for custom properties:
It can contain only Latin characters, numbers, "_" (underscore) sign.
Max name length - 128 symbols.
The name is case-sensitive.
Once the attribute is set, it will be marked as mapped. You can still change the property after mapping.
After mapping all properties and clicking continue, newly created properties will be available in forms, on the contact's profile page, in segmentation, etc. Read more about custom properties here.
TIP! It's significant to remember that if you have the field for both the email address and phone number, it is always better to record your customer phone number as a default property instead of a custom one. The phone number won't trigger the automation workflow when mapped as a custom property.
For the first import, we recommend mapping all the properties available. If you have already added information about your customers and want to upload your contacts to the Segment, it is sufficient to map the email address or phone number field only.
💡 If you wish to import a list of tags to Omnisend, you may use custom properties instead of the tags.
Organize Customer Data
Contact Statuses
On this page, you can choose whether to import them as subscribers or with an undefined status (non-subscribed).
Add customers with email addresses or phone numbers without the property defining your contacts' opt-in statuses. You will be able to select your customers' subscription statuses for Email and SMS channels.
When one of these boxes is unchecked, the customer is added to the system with non-subscribed status. Non-subscribed contacts, per default, are those that placed an order in your store, abandoned a cart, created an account, but never agreed to receive your marketing. Uploading contacts with non-subscribed status will provide the following benefits:
all data about your customers will be kept in one place;
we will ensure you are not sending marketing messages to them (transactional emails can still be sent to these customers).
Update Customer Data
If you want to add more information to your customers' profiles, you can import the file with the new data or with the data to be updated. Keep in mind that the list you upload should contain the email address or phone number to identify your customer; you don't need to add all the information about the user.
Note: Having the same contact multiple times in the same file will generate extra opt-in events in the timeline and is not recommended.
Omnisend doesn't duplicate your contacts but only adds new information to the system.
Therefore, if you need to update your customers' data without changing their subscription status (from non-subscribed or unsubscribed to subscribed), uncheck the checkbox and import your customers with non-subscribed status.
In that case, your customers' data is updated in the following way:
| Name | Last name | Phone number | |
Information you have in Omnisend | Kath | Smith | No phone nu | |
New File | Kath | Wood | +14049638495 | |
Result | Kath | Wood | +14049638495 |
Add Tags
When you import contacts, Omnisend adds two tags automatically:
source: manual import;
imported from a file on DD/MM/YY HH:MM:DD, for example: imported from a file on 27/03/20 09:57:05am.
Apart from the tags added automatically, you can also add one manually by selecting one of the existing tags or creating a new one. You can add as many tags as you wish. When you add a tag, all file contacts will be tagged so you can filter and segment them in the future to use for more targeted communication.
Create a Segment of Imported Contacts
Even though you can always create a Segment based on the tag added manually, you can also create a segment based on the unique tag we add automatically. The segment will be named after the type of import and date of import: "Contacts imported via <manual_import_type> on <date_of_import>.”
You can find the imported Segment by navigating to Audience > Saved segments.
Trigger Segment-based Automation
If you have any Segment-based automations enabled, you may choose to trigger them for the contacts added to the Segment.
Review Import Details
In this section, a summary of the file is shown. You can see the number of contacts found and tags that should be assigned.
Once you click on the Import button, you will be brought back to the Import tab, where you will see the progress of your import.
Click View Import Details to see the detailed report showing the number of new and existing contacts added and the number of good/bad emails/phone numbers found.
That's it; your import is completed, and you can send your emails to imported users 🚀
⚠️ If you get problems with displaying non-Latin letters incorrectly, save the .csv file in UTF-8 format and upload your contacts again.
Have more questions? Feel free to contact us at [email protected].