Import your contacts from another platform
Bringing your list across from Mailchimp, Kajabi, ConvertKit or a spreadsheet, and the one file most people forget to bring.
- setup
If you already have a list somewhere else, bring it with you. Import is under Emails, on the Audiences tab, and it takes a CSV file.
Nearly every platform will export one. In Mailchimp it is Export Audience, in ConvertKit it is Export Subscribers, in Kajabi it is under Contacts. You do not need to reformat anything first.
Export from your old platform
Ask for a CSV of your contacts. Take everything it offers: email, first name, last name, any tags.
Open Import contacts and choose the file
Drry reads the file in your browser and shows you the first few rows, so nothing is uploaded until you are happy with it.
Match the columns
Tell Drry which column is the email address and which is the name. It guesses from the headings and is usually right, but check.
Columns you do not map are ignored rather than imported into nothing.
Read the preflight
Before anything is written, Drry shows you what it is about to do row by row: how many are new, how many already exist, and how many it cannot use.
This is the moment to catch a mismapped column. It is much easier than fixing it afterwards.
If a live automation would take the new people, the preflight also says how many of them will be emailed and through which automations, and the Import button changes to Import and email N people. Pressing it is your yes. To import without emailing, close the dialog and turn the automation off first. If a journey goes live while the import is running, Drry stops and asks again, saying “at least” the number it has counted so far.
Import, and put them on a list
Import them straight onto a list named after where they came from. Six months later you will want to know which of your contacts arrived from which platform, and there is no way to work it out later.
Then what
An import puts people in your contacts. It does not make them members. On its own it does not email anyone, but a live Signed up, didn’t join automation takes every new, subscribed contact and sends its first email within a few minutes. That is why the dialog asks before it imports (see step 4). Addresses you already hold never start an automation, so re-uploading an existing list asks nothing.
Two things to do next. Send them a broadcast introducing the new home and your join link. And if you want a proper welcome sequence, remember an automation only picks up people who join a list after it is switched on, so build and switch on the automation first, then import. If the automation has a goal such as Has a tag, anyone who already carries that tag when they enter is skipped and not emailed. See Conditions.
Common questions
Can I import on the free plan?
Yes, up to 100 new contacts in total, for the life of the community. For more than that you need the Creator plan, and the limit lifts as soon as you change plan. A file with more new people than you have left is refused whole rather than partly imported. Exporting your list, uploading a blocked list and undoing an import work on every plan.
Will importing email my contacts?
Not by itself. If a live Signed up, didn’t join automation would take the new contacts, Drry tells you how many people it would email and through which automations before it writes anything, and you choose Import and email N people or stop. To import without emailing, turn the automation off first, then import, then turn it back on. Only new contacts count: addresses you already hold are never emailed by this.
How many contacts can I import?
Up to your plan's contact limit: 25,000 on Creator, and unlimited on Growth. The file itself can hold up to a hundred thousand rows, and the preflight tells you if you are going to run out of room. On Growth there is no contact cap to hit, so that hundred-thousand-row per-file limit is the binding limit on a single import.
On the free plan the 100 new contacts in total is the tighter limit, and the 500-contact limit also applies to everyone who signs up through your forms and pages.
What if someone is already in my contacts?
They are matched on email and updated rather than duplicated.
Can I import my members rather than my contacts?
No. Membership on a paid community carries a subscription that only the member can start. Import them as contacts and send them your join link.
Some rows were rejected.
Usually a malformed address or a domain that cannot receive mail. The preflight lists them so you can fix the file and re-import just those.
The tags from my file did not all come through.
If Drry could not save every tag, the finished screen says so. The contacts themselves were imported. Check before you email a tag, then upload the same file again: it fills in the missing tags without adding anyone twice.
Can I get my list back out again?
Yes, any time, on every plan, as a CSV. Your list is yours and we do not make leaving difficult.
I own more than one community. Is the contact limit per community?
No. On Creator and Growth your communities share one contact allowance, so contacts in any of them count toward the same total. See One plan for all your communities.