How To Import Contacts

Uploading your contact list is an important step to ensuring your database has all of your connections. Importing a list of contacts all at once is the most efficient, effective way to ensure your contacts are organized and contain the best data. This will help you run your business more efficiently and effectively too!

What You'll Need:

• A .csv file with the contacts you want to import

Step 1: Prepare Your .csv File

• Ensure that Row 1 of the file has all of your necessary headers such as ‘first name’, ‘last name’, ‘email’, ‘phone’, ‘tag’, etc. Headers in the image above are boxed in red. 

Step 2: Import Your Contacts

There are 2 ways to add contacts. In the top left corner, you can click “+” to manually create a contact. The other option is to select the import icon (an arrow pointing up) which will allow you to import contacts using your .csv file discussed in Part 1. By selecting “Import Contacts” you can upload a list of multiple contacts at once, saving time. This is the most efficient and effective method for adding multiple contacts.

Once you click 'Import Contacts', Follow the steps in the pop-up window to ensure your list imports correctly.

• Click “Select File” or drag-and-drop the list.

• Map fields to determine how the data imports into the LANA fields.
  • A green check mark on the left indicates the field is mapped and ready to import.
  • “Column Header From File” shows you which .csv column is being imported
  • “Preview Information” shows you what information was found in the .csv file
  • “Contact Fields” shows what LANA contact record field the information will populate into. This is usually automatic for general fields such as first name, last name, email, phone, etc. The fields can be manually mapped using the drop down in the LANA field column as well, for data such as birthday, company, etc as well as any custom fields that you may have created. LANA is generally able to recognize that “phone number” means “phone” but there are some cases where you may need to manually select the contact field from the dropdown (for example, if you have a birthday column in the .csv file titled “b-day” you may need to select “Birthday”).

• Click Next to advance to tab 3.
  • Here you can choose an import name (by default LANA will create a name based on date and time).
  • You can check the box to create a “Smart List” of contacts from the import. This may be useful if the entire list is something you want to keep organized/managed together - if this is a list of contacts from one source, a list of people who signed up for information at a particular event, etc.
  • Dropdown the “Advanced” tab to view more options.

• Here you can choose your duplicate strategy- if a duplicate contact record is found in the import that matches an existing contact, do you want LANA to update the record, add a second/additional record, etc.? You can even specify what information you want to cross-check for finding the existing contacts.
• You can also add tags. (You may have tags in the spreadsheet, but you may also want to add a tag here. This is useful if you are adding 1 tag to the entire list.)
• Toggle on the “Add to Workflow/Campaign” if you wish to do so, and then choose the Workflow or Campaign to add the list to.
• Click Submit and the import will begin. This may take a few minutes if the list is long.

Step 3. Confirm the Import

• Reload the Contacts page before checking that the list of contacts was successfully imported.
• Under Contacts > Bulk Actions, you can view the import status and check any relevant details on the completion status.

NOTE: All contact records must have a phone number and/or email address in order to import. You cannot import just a list of names.