Importing Contacts via a CSV File
Recapture now supports Contact Import via CSV Files
As of July 1, 2021, Recapture supports Broadcast emails and with it, the ability to import your contacts from an external source to use for broadcast emails.
You can send email broadcasts to your existing contacts by importing them into Recapture using the import tool on the contacts page. In addition to the contact’s email address, Recapture supports the ability to add extra data to your CSV so that you can use contact segmentation in your broadcasts.
Limits on Contact Imports
Because of the potential for abuse, there are several limits Recapture imposes on imported CSV files.
- Any CSV file that has more than 2,000 contacts in it must be manually approved by Recapture's support team
- Only paid accounts with a valid, active payment method can import contacts and use them in Recapture.
- New accounts that import large contact files will be subject to a detailed review prior to allowing sends to confirm list health (such as recent use, high open and delivery rates, etc). Proof of use from other platforms may be required.
- Lists will be reviewed and scrubbed for email addresses of low quality that will trigger high bounce and spam rates. Lists with such emails will be rejected and the account potentially suspended as well.
- Large contact lists must setup a custom sender domain before sending.
We take email sending very, very seriously and want to make sure that any contacts that you use are high quality and want to receive emails from you.
Available Fields
Email address is the only required field, other fields can be left blank if you don’t have that information available.
| Field | Description | Required | Example |
| The contact’s email address | Yes | lianne@example.com | |
| first_name | First name | No | Lianne |
| last_name | Last name | No | Skywalker |
| phone | Phone number | No | (541) 754-1212 |
| tags | Tags separated by a pipe (|) | No | tag1|tag2|tag3 |
| last_ordered_at | Date of the last order placed by the contact in ISO 8601 format | No | 2021-03-08T08:02:17-05:00 |
| total_order_count | Total number of orders for this contact | No | 3 |
| language | Language in 2 letter ISO format | No | en |
| country | Country in 2 letter ISO format | No | us |
Import File Format
The CSV (comma separated values) file should include field headers on the first line followed by a single row for each contact to be imported. For example:
email,first_name,last_name,phone,tags,last_ordered_at,total_order_count,language,country
lianne@domain.com,Lianne,Skywalker,(541) 754-1212,tag1|tag2|tag3,2021-03-08T08:02:17-05:00,3,en,us
katelin@domain.com,Katelin,Frederick,(602) 912-5454,tag1|tag2|tag3,2020-11-12T19:19:32-05:00,1,en,us
Importing Contacts
Once the CSV file is created, you can import the data starting from the contacts page
To start the process, click Import Contacts from here:
You'll be prompted to drag and drop (or click to select) the file:
Once the import starts, you'll see the progress as Recapture imports all of your contacts. DO NOT CLOSE THE WINDOW while the import is running. Wait for it to complete first.
Once the import is done, your contacts are ready to use in Recapture for broadcasts!
If there are any problems, you'll be notified with an error message. Contact support if you need help with your contact import.