Adding Contacts via CSV Upload
Import contacts from CSV files to quickly populate your audience with existing contact lists. This guide will walk you through the CSV upload process, field mapping, and error handling.
Prerequisites
Before uploading a CSV file, make sure you have:
- Created an audience (see Adding a new Audience)
- Prepared your CSV file with contact data
- Required fields available in your CSV (varies by plan type)
CSV Upload Process
Follow these steps to import contacts from your CSV file:
Step 1: Start Full Import
Click the Full Import button to begin the CSV upload process. This will open the import interface where you can select and configure your file.
Step 2: Select Your CSV File
Select the CSV file from your computer. Make sure your CSV file contains the contact data you want to import into your audience.
Step 3: Map Required Fields
Map the required fields from your CSV to ContactLevel's data structure. The required fields depend on your plan:
Free Trial Requirements
On the free trial, these fields are required:
- LinkedIn URL - The contact's LinkedIn profile URL
- First Name - Contact's first name
- Last Name - Contact's last name
- Company Name - The contact's company name
- Company Domain - The company's website domain
Paid Plan Options
On paid plans, you can choose between different import types:
- Full Import - Complete contact information
- LinkedIn URLs only - Import using just LinkedIn profiles
- Work emails only - Import using email addresses
Step 4: Map Optional Fields
You can also upload additional fields to enhance your audience data:
- Job Title - Contact's role or position
- City - Contact's location
- Industry - Company industry
- Phone Number - Contact information
- Any custom fields - Additional data points
These optional fields provide a better overview of your audience but are not required for building the audience.
Step 5: Handle Error Rows
After mapping fields, you'll see if there are any error rows in your data.
What are error rows? Error rows are records that are missing values in one or more required columns. These contacts cannot be imported until the missing data is provided.
How to handle error rows:
- Review the errors - See which fields are missing data
- Delete error rows - Click "Delete Error Rows" to remove incomplete records
- Fix your CSV - Alternatively, update your CSV file and re-upload
Step 6: Import Contacts
Once all required fields are mapped and error rows are handled:
- Review your mapping - Ensure all fields are correctly assigned
- Check the import count - Verify the number of contacts to be imported
- Click Import - Start the import process into your audience
The contacts will be processed and added to your audience automatically.
Best Practices for CSV Upload
- Clean your data first - Remove duplicates and incomplete records before uploading
- Use standard formats - Ensure consistent formatting for names, domains, and URLs
- Include LinkedIn URLs - These provide the most reliable contact matching
- Validate company domains - Use proper domain formats (e.g., "company.com" not "www.company.com")
- Test with small files - Try a small batch first to verify your field mapping
Troubleshooting Common Issues
- High error rate - Check that required fields have data in most rows
- LinkedIn URL format - Ensure URLs are complete LinkedIn profile links
- Company domain format - Use clean domain names without "www" or "http"
- Character encoding - Save CSV files in UTF-8 format to avoid special character issues
Next Steps
After successfully importing your CSV contacts:
- Review your audience - Check that contacts were imported correctly
- Set up targeting - Configure any additional audience criteria
- Launch campaigns - Start targeting your imported audience with relevant messaging
Your audience now contains the contacts from your CSV file, ready for precise targeting in your marketing campaigns.