Now that you have created your list(s), it's time to add / upload your contacts. Your iContact Email Marketing software allows you to upload contacts one at a time or by group. Further, you may add contacts by group through copy and paste or by uploading / importing a file. At the time of this writing, your iContact Email Marketing software only accepts three file formats; CSV, XLS (not XLSX), and VCF. Sample files are provided for download at the end of this article so you won't have to do a trial and error on what fields to use for your contacts' database.
To add / upload your contacts the your list(s) in your iContact Email Marketing software, please follow these steps:
01. Click on the "Contacts" tab.
02. Click on the "Lists" option on the dark blue bar just below the "Contacts" tab. This should take you to the "My Lists" page.
03. Click on the "Add" link on the right part of the list where you want to add your contact(s). This should take you to your "Add Contacts to My Lists" page (the third screenshot shown below).
Another step to adding / uploading your contact(s) to your list(s) can be accomplished by following these steps:
01. Click on the "Contacts" tab.
02. Click on the "Add Contacts" option on the dark blue bar just below the "Contacts" tab. This should take you to a page with four rectangular sections categorized as "My Lists", "Add Contacts", "Search My Contacts", "My Segments".
03. From the "Add Contacts" category, you should be able to choose among these options; "Upload From File", "One at a Time", "Copy & Paste". From here, each option you choose should take you to these options' respective pages shown on screenshots 4, 5, and 6 below.
If you follow the steps from the first screenshot, your iContact Email Marketing software should take you to your "Add Contacts to My Lists" page (shown below). This page should give you three options on how you may want to upload / import your contacts:
01. Upload Contacts From a File. Choosing this takes you to the "Upload Contacts" page. Should be the 6th screenshot on this article.
02. Add Contacts One by One. This option takes you to your iContact Email Marketing software's "Add One Contact" page, and that should be the 4th screenshot in this article.
03. Copy & Paste Contacts. Choose this option and you should see your "Copy & Paste Contacts" screen, which should be the 5th screenshot in this article.
This "Add One Contact" option allows you to upload / import one email address along some associated information such as the first name, last name, address, phone, and so on.
01. This is the field where you type in the email address you want to add. This field is required.
02. This is the part where you put check(s) on the checkbox(es) on the list where you want to associate the email address you are trying to add.
03. These are the optional fields where you can type in those information associated to the contact you are trying to add.
04. Check this checkbox if you would like iContact to send the contact you are trying to add a "Confirmation Message". More information about "Confirmation Message" is found in a separate article.
05. Once you are sure that every information you have typed in are all correct, you may now click on this "Add Contact" button to add your contact.
In iContact's "Copy & Paste Contacts" page, you can conveniently just copy or cut and paste email addresses from a text or excel spreadsheet file. This option was designed so that even if you have a text file that contain texts that looked like this: "Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company and his email address is henry.ford@ford.com. He was married to Clara Jane Bryant. Clara's email address is cjb@ford.com, and so on..."
If you copy or cut and paste such message construction above, the system should detect and upload / import the email addresses from the article which are henry.ford@ford.com and cjb@ford.com. The drawback of this feature is that it has no option for you to type in other information such as the first names, last names, or other necessary information regarding the contact(s).
01. This is the part where you put check(s) on the checkbox(es) on the list where you want to associate the email address you are trying to add.
02. This is area where you paste the above-mentioned texts. Your iContact Email Marketing software will detect the email addresses in a group of texts you have pasted.
03. Check this checkbox if you would like iContact to send the contact you are trying to add a "Confirmation Message". More information about "Confirmation Message" is found in a separate article.
04. Once you are sure that every information you have typed in are all correct, you may now click on this "Add Contact" button to add your contact.
Choosing the "Upload From File" option should bring you this screen. From here you should be able to import / upload your contacts as long as the format is one of the three accepted file formats mentioned earlier in this article.
01. This is the part where you put check(s) on the checkbox(es) on the list where you want to associate the email address you are trying to add.
02. Click on the "Choose File" button and you should be able to search the file you want to import / upload from your computer to your iContact Email Marketing software.
03. Check this checkbox if you would like iContact to send the contact you are trying to add a "Confirmation Message". More information about "Confirmation Message" is found in a separate article.
04. Click on the "Upload Contacts" button once you have finalized your choices from steps 01, 02, and 03.
05. This will be your "Upload History", which should show you the number of contacts you have uploaded when you first started using your iContact Email Marketing software. A "complete" would mean a successful upload, while a "noaction" would mean a failed upload.
The iContact Tutorials Admin team suggests that you use the XLS file format when uploading / importing contacts. Below are sample files that you can download so you would know how the headers are arranged.
| XLS Format Sample File | CSV Format Sample File | VCF Format Sample File |
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If you are curious about VCF files you may want to check a website called: http://vcardmaker.com/. This website is not in any way associated with iContact Tutorials.
