Importing and Creating New Contacts

Learn how to import contacts into your account, including uploading a contact file, mapping fields, organizing contacts with lists and tags, and manually adding individual contacts. When managing your email marketing audience in Benchmark Email, it’s important to understand the difference between Contacts and Lists. These two features work together to help you store, organize, and segment your subscribers effectively. To learn more about Lists, click here.

Things to know before getting started

• When sending an email from the Email dashboard, you will need to have a contact list created. To learn how to make a list, click here.
• Any empty or missing value in your file will be uploaded as a blank value in the corresponding column.
• If the same email address is imported multiple times, the latest import will update your contact's information. If a contact cannot be matched, their information will remain unchanged.
• You can only import files in CSV format that are encoded in UTF-8. Files with other encodings are not supported.
• The contact file can not exceed 100MB.
• Ensure that your file has labeled fields; the labels should be in the first row of your file. If the field labels are missing, the list will not be imported.
• If your contact file includes tags, make sure the tags are separated by commas in the same cell or into separate columns.
• All lists are subject to list sampling. This is a process in which we review the quality of your contact list and can remove contacts from being imported.

How to Import from a File

Importing contacts from a file requires a few steps: selecting your file and mapping your contact fields. Additionally, you can organize your contacts by adding them to a list or applying tags to the imported contacts.

To import new contacts from a file, please follow the steps below.

Step 1: Import a File

1. Navigate to the Contact Dashboard.

2. Click on Import Contacts.

   

3. Select Upload a File and choose a CSV file.

   • The file must be in CSV (encoded in UTF-8) format and should not exceed 100 MB.

     

Step 2: Map Contact Fields

1. Once your file is uploaded, Benchmark Email will attempt to detect field names like First Name, Last Name, and Email.
2. Review the detected fields and adjust them according to your needs.
3. If a field does not match an existing option, select Create Custom Field:
   • Click Add Custom Field.
   • Enter a name for the new field.
   • Click Add to save it.

Step 3: Organize Contacts (Optional)

1. Organize your contacts by adding them to a contact list or by adding tags to the contacts being imported.
   • To add contacts to a list, click on the dropdown and select an existing list or create a new contact list. To create a new list, Type in a list name and then click +Add.
   • To add a Tag, click on the dropdown and select an existing tag or create a new tag. To create a new tag, type the name of the tag and then click +Add.

Step 4: Review and Confirm Your Import

Here you'll get a summary of your list import.

• The Contact file name.
• Total records (contacts) in the file.
• Records Skipped, any invalid emails.
• Contacts to Import.
• Lists
• Tags
• Existing Contacts Found. Total contacts already existing within your account.
• Update any existing contacts. If you update information for existing contacts, any old data will be replaced. If you skip this option, their data will not be imported.

• If everything looks correct, select, Begin Import.

🚀 The import may take a few minutes, depending on the contact file size.

Review Imported Contacts

Once the import is complete, your contacts will appear in the Contacts Dashboard.

Create Individual Contact

If you need to add a single contact, open the Contact's Dashboard and follow the steps below.

1. Click Create Contact.

   

2. Enter the contact’s Email Address, First Name, and other relevant details.

   

3. Optionally, select a List and apply Tags.

   

   
   
4. Click Save.

Understanding Contacts and Lists

When managing your email marketing audience in Benchmark Email, it’s important to understand the difference between Contacts and Lists. These two features work together to help you store, organize, and segment your subscribers effectively.

Contacts are individual email subscribers stored in your Benchmark Email account. Each contact consists of various data points.

Lists allow you to group contacts based on shared criteria. A contact can belong to multiple lists without being duplicated in your account.

Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions

I can't import a CSV file because it says it is not encoded in UTF-8. How can I fix this?

While UTF-8 is the standard for CSV files, some services may provide other alternatives. Here are some suggestions for saving your CSV file as UTF-8.

• Excel: Save As → Choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv)
• Google Sheets: File → Download → Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet)
• Text editors (e.g., VS Code, Notepad++): Ensure encoding is set to UTF-8 when saving.