Adding & importing contacts

There are eight ways you can add contacts. In this article we'll cover each option for bringing contacts into Email Markerter. You can:

  • Import contacts from a .csv file
  • Manually add contacts one by one
  • Place forms on your site to collect contacts
  • Sync contacts with other apps through integrations
  • Subscribe by email
  • Subscribe by SMS
  • Import contacts from an external database
  • Add contacts with the API

At minimum, we recommend that you place forms on your website and set up integrations with other apps that you use so that new contacts are automatically added into your account.

Before adding contacts, you'll need to create a list. 

Editing a contact once its in a list

Click on the contacts name and you can edit all content including email address. Most fileds can be edited be hovering and then clicking on the filed or test

Creating a list

Begin by clicking “Lists” in the top menu. Click “Add New List” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Fill in all the fields in the modal window that appears.

Note that your address must be a physical mailing address. If it is not, your sending may be delayed until this is corrected.

When you are done, click “Create List”

To begin adding contacts, navigate back to the Contacts Overview page by clicking “Contacts” in the top menu.

 

Importing contacts from a .csv file

You may have a .csv file of contacts you've exported from another provider. To bring those contacts into Email Markerter, click the “Contacts” tab in the top menu.

Click the “Import” button:



Click “Import from File.”

A file browser will appear. Navigate to the file name and then select it by clicking it. Click “Open.”

Your file will be processed and you'll be redirected to a screen where you can map columns of data to specific fields in Email Markerter.

On the left you'll see example data from the .csv file and on the right you'll see a dropdown menu to select the corresponding field. For each data value, select the field that matches. If there is data you do not want to import, select “Do not import this field” from the dropdown menu.

Note that you can map data to custom fields so if there isn't a default field for data you want to import, leave the import process and create custom fields to capture all the data you want to import. For more information about creating and using custom fields, see the help doc on that topic.

After you've mapped the data in your .csv file to fields in your account, select the list(s) you want to add your contacts to, input any tags you want them to have, and make sure that “Import as Contact” is selected.

As a best practice, you may want to apply a tag that indicates the source of these contacts. That way you can easily find this group if you need to make any bulk edits to them later.

The “Update Existing Contacts” setting will look for a matching email address in your account and add any additional contact data to the contact record.

When you're done configuring settings, click “Import Now” to start the import process. The length of time it takes to import contacts will depend on the size of the .csv file. Most files will be imported in less than 10 minutes.

 

Manually adding a contact

You can add contacts one at a time if you have their email address.

Click the “Contacts” tab in the top menu to navigate to the Contacts Overview page.

Click “New Contact”


Select the list(s) the contact should be added to by clicking the checkboxes next to the list names.

Fill in the contact data in the appropriate fields. The only field that is necessary is the email address field.

When you are done, click “Add.”

 

Place a form on your site to collect opt-ins

We offer a robust form builder you can use to collect contact information. You can place forms with offers for content to motivate your website visitors to become contacts.

To create a form, click “Forms” in the top menu.

Click “New Form:”



Give your form a name and then select which list the contact should be added to.

Configure your form to have the fields and visual elements you want, and then click “Integrate.” For more detailed instructions on how to create and design forms, see the help doc on that topic.

You are able to embed your form into your site by copying and pasting code into your website, use our Wordpress plug-in to place the form in pages and posts on your site, and add the form to your Facebook pages. 

 

Add contacts though integrations

You are probably managing contacts in other apps such as appointment scheduling apps, help desk solutions, ecommerce solutions, project management apps, and more. These apps can feed contact information into Email Markerter so that you can begin automated marketing follow-up and manage deals through the stages of your sales process. Ideally, you would consolidate all your contact information into Email Markerter so that it becomes the central hub for managing contacts and their data.

You can access many of these integrations by clicking “Contacts” in the top menu then clicking the “Import” button.

If you scroll down, you will see a list of integrations. To set up the integration, click the name of the app and then follow the instructions in the modal window that appears.

You can see a more complete list of our integrations here.

 

Subscribe by email

You can create a unique email address that, when a contact sends an email to it, will create a contact record and add the contact's information.

To set this up, click “Lists” in the top menu.

Click the down arrow that appears to the right of the name of the list you want to use “Subscribe by email” with.

Click “Subscribe by email” from the menu that appears.

Click the “Add” button.

Select the lists that the contact will be added to.

Select whether the contact will be subscribed or unsubscribed from the list.

Click “Add.”

Copy the email address that is displayed. This is the email address to ask people to send an email message to. When that email address receives an email, it will parse the contact information and create a contact record using the sender's email address. 

 

Subscribe by SMS

You can create a contact record and add contact information when a contact sends an SMS (text message) to a specific number.

To set this up, click “Lists” in the top menu.

Click the down arrow that appears to the right of the name of the list you want to use “Subscribe by SMS” with.

Click “Subscribe by SMS” from the menu that appears.

You will be asked to select a number they should send the SMS to as well as the keyword they should send in the body of the message. Our system will look for that keyword before adding the contact. You may want to use a keyword that is short and memorable.

Click “Activate.”

You will be asked to customize the messages that are sent to the contact. When you have the messages you want, click “Save Settings.”

 

Database Sync

You can add contacts from MySQL, MSSQL, and PostGreSQL databases.

To set this up, click “Contacts” in the top menu.

Click the down arrow next to the “Manage Scoring” button to display a menu of options.



Click “Run Database Sync.”

You'll be asked to enter the credentials for your database and then map database fields to contact fields.

Click “Run Sync” to add from your database to your Email Markerter account.

Note that as new contacts are added to your database, you'll need to run database sync to add those new contacts to Email Markerter. Database Sync does not continually add contacts in real-time.