Importing contacts using the Import Bulk tool

Christy Cook Updated by Christy Cook

You can use the Bulk Import tool to easily import contacts by bulk from a text or CSV file. To open the tool, select Import Contacts from the Contacts drop-down menu on the navigation bar. The page displays the Contact Import tool window.

Note: DailyStory also enables you to use the Bulk Import tool to re-import the same contact as many times as you need to update the contacts’ information. DailyStory uses the contact’s email address, mobile phone number, or DailyStory Id to determine whether or not the contact already exists in the system. When DailyStory detects that the contact already exists, the system will update the contact’s information with the newly imported details.

To import contacts from a text or CSV file, follow these steps:

1. Creating a text or CSV file

Gather your contacts data in a text file or a CSV file. The file will be used as the import source for your contacts data. 

Important: When creating a text or CSV file, make sure to include one of the primary identifiers: email address, mobile phone number, or DailyStory Id.
Using a text file

When using a text file, each contact information set should start with a new row, while each information should be separated by a comma with no space. Contact information that contains spaces or other symbols should be enclosed in double quotation marks. See the following example.

"Valerie Ruel",valerieruel@demo.com,"Demo Companny"

"Melody Webster",melodyw@demo.com,"Demo Company"

"Lela Davis",davislela@demo.com,"Demo Company"

"Craig Blum",cblum@demo.com,"Demo Company"

Copy-paste the data into the Bulk Import tool text box. Select Next, and then proceed to step 2.

Using a CSV file

When using a CSV file, each contact information set should be entered on a new row, while each information should be separated into cells. See the following example. 

Tip: DailyStory recommends adding a row header that categorizes your contact information to make your mapping process easier.

It's easy to create a CSV file from Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. We also have a sample CSV file you can use.

Note: Make sure that you save your spreadsheet as a CSV file. The file size must also be 8MB or less. 

Select the Select a CSV file button to load your CSV file, and then select Next. Proceed to step 2.

2. Map the contacts data to DailyStory fields

After your data is loaded, the first set of your contacts data is displayed in the Import Contacts box. The number of contacts imported is also displayed in the box. 

In this box, you will see two columns: COLUMN TO IMPORT and MAP INTO CONTACT FIELD. The COLUMN TO IMPORT column attempts to categorize each contact information type present in your imported data. Meanwhile, the MAP INTO CONTACT FIELD column displays a drop-down list of DailyStory contact fields.

Note: If you have existing custom contact fields in your system, these fields will also be available in the mapping field options. For more information about creating custom contact fields, refer to Custom Contact Fields.

Map your contacts data to their corresponding contact field. You can also choose not to map a field by leaving the Ignore this field option as its corresponding value. 

Tip: Select the Do not import first row check box if you want to exclude the first row containing the labels of your data columns.
Importing non-text data into custom contact fields

When importing data from a CSV file and mapping data to custom fields, it is important to consider the data format so that the data is imported correctly.

  • Dates and time. Dates and times must be in the ISO 8601 standard format. For example, the date August 7, 2020 should be imported as 2020-08-07.
  • Numbers. DailyStory supports two types of numbers whole numbers and decimals. Decimals numbers can only be imported into custom fields of type "Double".
  • Yes/No & True/False. Fields that support a yes/no or true/false must have data imported as either Yes/True or No/False. Note, casing does not matter.
  • String array. String array fields enable a contact to have multiple values for a single field. To import a string array use a semi-colon separated list of words. For example, for a custom field "products": Blue bikes;Red bikes;Green bikes.
Optional: Import and add tags to imported contacts

If you want to import contacts with tags add a column to your import CSV and provide a semi-colon separated list of tags. Next, select Tags as the MAP INTO CONTACT FIELD:

This will create any tags that do not exist and add the specified tags to the contact.

Optional: Add your imported contacts to a segment

If you think you might want to look back at a specific list you imported, it’s a good practice to create a new segment during the import process. You can always delete or disable this segment in the future. Before you import, you can add your imported contacts to a new or existing static segment. During import, new contacts can only be added to static segments.

  • Select New Segment, and then enter the name of the new segment.
  • Select Existing Segment, and then select any of the available segments from the drop-down list.

For more information about managing segments in DailyStory, refer to Segments.

3. Import your contacts

After mapping your contacts data, select Import Contacts. DailyStory adds your contacts to the system and sends you a confirmation email. 

Note: If the import process encountered errors, the confirmation email will contain a link to an error log. Open the link and assess the errors in your import.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the number imported not match the number in my segment?

If you import a list of 300 contacts that already exist for the purpose of creating a segment, the number of contacts in the segment may not always match the number of contacts imported. Only Active contacts are added to the segment. If a contact is marked as Deleted, Inactive, Bounced, etc. then the contact is not added to the segment.

What happens if a contact in the import already exists?

DailyStory will attempt to "match" records on either the DailyStory Unique Id, email address, or mobile number. If a match is not found, a new record is created. If a match is found, the records are merged together and any new data in the import overrides data in the existing record.

Can I create a segment from an import?

Yes, it's easy to build a static segment using import. Simply create a CSV file with a single column containing either the DailyStory Unique Id, email address or mobile phone. Import this file and add the contacts to a segment or create a new segment.

If a contact is not found for the DailyStory Unique Id, email address ore mobile phone, a new contact will be created.

What happens if I create a segment from an import and some records already exist?

When creating a segment from an import file DailyStory will always first create records that it can't match (don't already exist). And then add everyone from the import to the named segment.

What happens when I import a list of existing contacts with additional fields?

If additional fields are mapped and the contact already exists, the mapped field will be updated with the new value. For example, to bulk update the country name of a set of existing contacts a CSV containing email address and country would be imported.

Will a sync service overwrite imported data?

Yes, if you are using one of DailyStory's sync integrations, such as Salesforce, the sync data is always considered the origin data and will overwrite any existing data.

How Did We Do?

Adding contacts manually using the Create Contact option

Adding contacts using automation

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