Importing contacts through a CSV file is an easy and efficient way to add multiple contacts to FlashInfo. In this guide, we will highlight the important details and steps to import contacts through a CSV file.
1: How does importing data work with FlashInfo?
Each row represents a contact record, and each column header represents the property that will be mapped during the import process.
The file displayed below includes contact properties (First Name, Last Name, Company Name, Job Title, Email Address, Phone Number) and company properties(Company Name, Company State, Company Country, Founded Year, Industry, Employees, Website), where the email address serves as a unique identifier to avoid duplicate data.
- Contact properties
- Company properties
It is important to know that:
- The CSV file must contain two required fields - First Name and Email Address. Phone number is also a required field if you need to use the Dialer. Make sure that these fields are included in your CSV file to ensure a successful upload.
- For the contact properties Phone number, to import must format as +[country code][number].For example, a phone number with a United States country code would look like +11234567890.
- For efficiency and to ensure the system can handle the upload request, we set a maximum limit of 10,000 rows per CSV file. If you have a large list of contacts, it is suggested to break them into multiple CSV files to be uploaded separately.
2: How do you organize your data for import?
Before you import your contacts, you'll need to prepare your data. This means organizing your data outside of FlashInfo before beginning the import process.
To make sure this process runs smoothly, you'll have a pre-import checklist with the following items:
- Prepare your import file
- Match your properties
- Remove the blank spaces on your spreadsheet
First, prepare your import file
To import your data into FlashInfo, you'll need to convert your data into a CSV file. The file requirements：
- Be a .csv file.
- Have only one sheet.
- Contain fewer than 10,000 rows and 1,00 columns.
- Files must be smaller than 10MB.
- Be UTF-8 encoded.
You can download sample files for reference. FlashInfo Contacts Sample File
Next, match your properties together
To do this in your import file, include a header row in your file and match each column header with a property.
When matching your properties, you'll first review FlashInfo default properties. Columns that do not belong to the default properties cannot be imported.
FlashInfo Engage default properties
| First Name | Last Name | Company Name | Job Title | Email Address | Phone Number |
Lastly, remove the blank spaces
Your last item before importing will be seeing if your import file has any blank spaces, stray column headers, or loose information in your spreadsheet. If so, remove them.