Importing contacts

Export from your current platform

Substack, beehiiv, Mailchimp, Kit, Buttondown and most other platforms export subscribers as a CSV file. Then, on the Contacts page, click Import contacts and choose the file. Importing needs a plan.

From beehiiv: open Settings, then Export data, and under Export subscribers (full version), click Export all subscribers, so custom fields, tags and stats come along. beehiiv emails you the file; it's also under Historical exports on that page, with a Download link. The quick version works too, but only brings email and status.

What the import reads

• Email: the only column it needs, under names like email, email address or subscriber.
• Status: subscribed, unsubscribed, bounced or complained in the platform's own words. A status it doesn't know, like unconfirmed, makes the contact dormant.
• Signup date, so your contacts keep the day they joined.
• Open and click rates, when the platform exports them: your sends reach the most engaged first, so your best readers get your first issue first.
• Opens and clicks: the last open and click, and how many emails each person opened and clicked, when the export has them (beehiiv's full export does). Segments on opens and clicks work from your first day.

Check before you import

Once you pick the file, Botensten Mail shows the first contacts as they'll be in your list (email, first name, status, tags and fields), with the number of rows. Below, every column shows a few of its values and where they go, in plain words: Email, First name, Status, Signup date, Tags, one of your fields, a new field, or Don't import.

Columns Botensten Mail recognized are folded under Recognized, still yours to change. Under Needs a look are the columns going into a new field (each custom field, and where readers came from: beehiiv's acquisition source, channel, campaign and referring URL, as text, a number or a date from its values) and the ones left out, like the platform's ids, plans, revenue, counters and devices. The first name comes from First Name, first_name, or the first word of a Name column; tags from Tags or Groups.

Tags label people, as many as you like each: a tags column can list several, separated by commas. A field keeps one value per person, like a company. Tag everyone adds tags to the whole file, to find these contacts later. An account holds up to 20 fields: past that, the other columns aren't imported. The next import puts the same columns into your fields on its own.

For contacts already in your list, a first name and fields in the file replace theirs, and tags are added to theirs. Instead of the file's statuses, you can import everyone as dormant, for an old list you'd rather wake up slowly: dormant contacts get nothing until you mark them active.

Big files

An import runs in the background, up to 250,000 rows. Once the file is sent, which takes a few seconds, you can close the window and keep working: the Contacts page shows how far it is, then what it added, what was already there and what it left out, and why. A small file goes in at once.

Through the API or an AI assistant, import_contacts takes 1,000 rows a call and answers right away; get_import shows the import's progress and counts.

Consent

Before importing, you tick “These people agreed to receive my emails”. Only import people who signed up for your newsletter: a bought or scraped list brings bounces and spam complaints, which pause your sends and can block your account.

What it leaves out

The import checks each address and leaves out, with a count for each reason:

• invalid addresses, and misspelled domains like gmial.com;
• spam traps, throwaway inboxes and role addresses like info@ or support@;
• duplicates in the file, and addresses on domains that can't receive email;
• people who unsubscribed, bounced or complained before, even if you deleted them since;
• addresses Botensten Mail knows can't receive email, because they bounced or hit a spam trap for any sender.

Contacts already in your list keep their status, unless the file gives a stricter one (unsubscribed, bounced or complained), which is final. An import never sends welcome emails.

After the import

The first time you send to contacts who never got an email from you, a slice of them goes first and the rest follows 3 hours later if the slice looks clean. First sends in steps

Your active contacts count toward your plan's subscribers. With more than it allows, sending waits until you upgrade. Plans and billing