Import People

To import people into your Encharge account, follow the steps below.

1. Click on the Add button and then Import Spreadsheet

2. Upload a CSV or Excel file with the people you'd like to import.

Make sure there is a header row with a descriptive name for each column.

If you're experiencing issues when importing, ensure that the date format is displayed correctly in your file. If you're importing from an Excel file, try to convert it to a CSV and ensure the dates are showing properly in the CSV file.

Also, your import file must always contain a header row (including for example "Email", "Name", etc.), otherwise, the import process could break and import anonymous people.

If the import was successful Encharge will find the headers in your table and the number of people found in the spreadsheet along with a preview of the first person.

If the data looks correct, click on Continue. Otherwise, click Clear and re-import your spreadsheet.

3. Map the fields

Next, map your spreadsheet's fields (on the left) to a corresponding Encharge field (on the right). Encharge doesn't match fields automatically, so make sure you map everything that you need. It's required that you map at least the email address of the people.

If you're importing a custom field and don't yet have a corresponding custom field in Encharge, you can create one by clicking “Create new field”:

Click on Save once you're done with mapping your fields.

Accepted format for Date and Time fields

Importing people with data for a Date and Time field (e.g., Birthday) must follow the ISO 8601 date representation, which should be in this format: 1989-06-18T12:30:00.000Z. This consists of the year, month, and day separated by "T" from the hours, minutes, seconds, and timezone.

Here's a sample file format that you can use as a guide: Sample File.

Note that not all Date and Time fields can be edited. Please refer to this article for the list of non-editable fields: Non Editable Default Fields.

Advanced import tips:

Pro tip: Import and map tags from another tool

If you'd like to import tags from another email provider like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign, you can do so by mapping the tags column in the CSV/Excel file to the Tags field in Encharge. Read this article to learn how to map tags.

Pro tip: Import unsubscribed people to Encharge

If you'd like to import unsubscribed people from another tool to Encharge you have to ensure that they are imported with the Unsubscribed field value set to "true". Read this article to learn how to do this.

4. Tag imported contacts (optional)

If you'd like you can tag all people from this import.

By default, Encharge creates an automated tag with the following structure:

imported-from-The-Name-of-Your-File

For example, if your file is named people-list.xlsx the automatically created tag is going to be imported-from-people-list.xlsx.

If you'd like to remove the tag, just click on the X next to it.

To create a new tag just start typing and click on Create or press Enter.

Tagging people from an import is optional. If you don't want to tag them, just remove the automatically generated tag and click Continue to proceed to the last step of the import.

5. Confirm your import

You'd be asked how you prefer to handle duplicates — i.e. people that already exist in Encharge. Encharge uses the email address to determine whether a person is a duplicate.

There are 2 options:

Update — if a person with that email address or userId already exists in Encharge, the import will overwrite the existing fields value with the value of the mapped field(s) from the CSV/Excel file. Tagging them in the import will add the new tag to the existing tags.
Ignore — if a person with that email address or userId already exists in Encharge, the import will ignore them completely. Their fields will not be overwritten and no tags will be added to them.

As the last step, you'd be asked to confirm that you have the right to email the people being imported.

Importing unsolicited contacts in Encharge is prohibited and by doing so you risk your account being banned. Learn more.

When you click on Continue you will get a Success message.

Depending on how many people you're importing, your import may take from a few seconds to several minutes. You don't need to wait on this page. Once the import is completed you will receive an email from [email protected]. You can also track the Status of your import on the People Imports page.

Would imported people get in my current Flows?

This depends on a couple of things:

The trigger(s) of the Flows.
The time of the import – do you import people before or after the Flow is activated?

The most common triggers that would get Imported people into a Flow are the Entered Segment Trigger Step and the Tag Added Trigger Step. Make sure to check your flows for these steps before importing any people.

If you want your imported people to enter a Flow

In that case, you have two options.

You want to activate the Flow before you import the contacts. The Flow should have Tag Added or Entered Segment trigger step(s). That way if you Tag the contacts during the import they could enter the Flow through the Tag Added Trigger Step, or if they meet the conditions for the segment, they could enter the Flow through the Entered Segment Trigger Step.
Alternatively, you can first import your contacts and then activate the Flow. In that case, you would want to use the Entered Segment Trigger Step with the option for people "Who are currently in this segment, and who enter this segment in the future." turned on (screenshot below). That way, all people that are currently in the segment (i.e., the people that you recently imported) and future people who meet the conditions of the segment would enter the Flow.

If you DON'T want your imported people to enter a Flow

If you want to prevent imported people from entering your Flows, make sure any Flows with Entered Segment Trigger Step or Tag Added Trigger Step are deactivated before importing any people. Then, ensure all people are imported successfully before activating them back.

Also, ensure that any Entered Segment Trigger Steps are configured to Include people "Who enter this segment in the future." (the default option for the Entered Segment step)

That way, any imported people who enter the segment would not trigger the step while the Flow is deactivated. Once you activate the Flow back again, these people would not enter the step since they are already in the segment.