When importing your contacts to Brevo, certain data, such as email addresses and phone numbers, needs to be in a specific format to be imported correctly. By following the requirements and guidelines provided in this article, you can properly set up the file that contains your contact's information.
For illustration purposes, we will create a .CSV file from scratch to import contacts with default and custom attributes for a yoga instructor that you can easily adapt to your needs.
๐ File requirements
Your file should follow the following requirements:
- There is no limit on the number of contacts you can import at once. However, your file should not exceed 250MB. If your file exceeds this limit, split it into smaller files that you will import separately.
- Include only one sheet in your file.
- Save your file in one of the following formats and make sure the separator is either a semicolon, a comma, or a tab:
.CSV |
.XLSX |
.TXT |
- Save your file with UTF-8 or Windows-1252 encoding.ย These types of file encoding allow for reading the content of your file when it contains special characters.
- At least one of the following fields is required to create a contact: EMAIL, SMS, WHATSAPP, LANDLINE_NUMBER, or EXT_ID.
Step 1: Create your file
To create your file:
- Open your spreadsheet program (Excel, Google Sheets) to create a new file.
- Choose one of the following ways to get started:
- Download our sample .CSV file.
- Export the contacts you already have in Brevo (Export your contacts from Brevo) or in another app.
- Start from scratch.
Step 2: Prepare the header row of your file
You can create new attributes during the mapping step of the import process; you don't necessarily need to create them beforehand.
Add the information you want to import about your contacts in the header row of your file.
Each header cell represents information that will be matched to a Brevo contact attribute during import. We recommend using the exact contact attribute names in your header row, as this helps our system automatically match them, but it is not mandatory.
In our example, we added default attributes like EMAIL or FIRSTNAME, but also included custom attributes about the yoga classes (FIRST_CLASS, LEVEL, FREE_TRIAL).
To learn more about the expected format for each contact attribute, check the next section.
Step 3: Add your contacts' information to the file
You can now enter your contacts' information into the file:
- Copy the data from another program or an exported file, or
- Type it directly into the file.
Make sure that each column contains information that corresponds to the attribute in the header row of your file and that each row contains information about a single contact.
The information in your file should follow a specific format to be imported correctly. There are specific guidelines for:
Default contact attributes
By default, some contact attributes are available in Brevo. They require a specific format to be imported correctly. Expand the following accordions to learn more about the expected format for each contact attribute:
The CONTACT_ID attribute is automatically created by Brevo when you import your contacts. It is a fixed number that cannot be changed. You can only retrieve the contact ID of your contacts by exporting them from Brevo.
To import the first name and last name of your contacts, use the FIRSTNAME and LASTNAMEย contact attributes.
To import the email address of your contacts, use the EMAIL contact attribute.
Each contact can only have one email address, and it must be unique to that contact.
Do not include any special characters.
Ensure that the email addresses in your file are valid and that they aren't missing any part.
In our wrong example below, the email address is missing the domain suffix and contains a special character:
โ | rose&@example | โ | rose@example.com |
To import the phone number of a contact, use the following default contact attributes as your column headers:
- SMS for the phone number used for SMS messages and calls through the Phone app.
- WHATSAPP for the phone number used for WhatsApp messages and calls through the Phone app.
- LANDLINE_NUMBER for the phone number used for calls through the Phone app.
Do not separate the digits with special characters.
Ensure that the phone numbers in your file include the + sign and the country code and that the digits are not separated by any special character.
In our wrong example below, the phone number is missing the + sign and the country code, and the digits are separated by special characters:
โ | (337) 456-9342 | โ | +13374569342 |
To import the external ID of a contact created outside of Brevo, use the EXT_ID contact attribute.
Custom contact attributes
You can create custom contact attributes in Brevo to fit your needs. They require a specific format to be imported correctly, which is based on the attribute type. Expand the following accordions to learn more about the expected format for each attribute type:
Text-type attributes store a string of alphanumeric characters, such as a word, a phrase, or a sentence. You can use a text type attribute to import additional data about your contacts. When imported, text type attributes have no limit of characters.
Number-type attributes store a string of numerals or numbers written in decimal format. You can use a number type attribute to import numbers or currency values to your contacts.
Date-type attributes are used to store a date value.ย Keep the format of the value under this attribute similar to the format selected under your account settings (DD-MM-YYYY or MM-DD-YYYY).
Category-type attributes store a set of possible values. For instance, you can create a contact attribute named LEVEL and define the possible values as BEGINNER, INTERMEDIATE, and EXPERT. The attribute of each contact will then only contain one value among those three.
Multi-choice-type attributes store a set of possible values. For instance, you can create a contact attribute named SPORTS and define the possible values as BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, and YOGA. The attribute of each contact will then contain one or more values among those three.
Multiple-choice-type contact attributes should follow the format: ['Option1'|'Option2'|'Option3'].
Ensure that the multiple-choice-type contact attributes in your file follow the format: ['Option1'|'Option2'|'Option3'].
In our wrong example below, the options are separated by a comma instead of a vertical bar, and each option is missing the single quotation marks.
โ | [Baseball,Volleyball,Dance] | โ | ['Baseball'|'Volleyball'|'Dance'] |
Boolean-type attributes can only store Yes or No as a value.ย
Step 4: Save your file
Once you have completed and properly formatted your file, save it in either .CSV, .XLSX, or .TXT format using UTF-8 or Windows-1252 encoding.
Use the accordions below to learn how to encode a file in UTF-8 using various spreadsheet editors: โฌ๏ธ
- Open your file in Microsoft Excel.
- Click File > Save As.
- Name your file.
- Select CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (.csv) as the file format.
- Click Save.
- Open your file in Google Spreadsheet.
- Click File > Download.
- Select Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet) as the file format.
- Open your file in Notepad.
- Click File > Save as.
- Name your file and add the .csv extension at the end.
- From the Save as type dropdown, select All files.
- From the Encoding dropdown, choose UTF-8.
- Click Save.
- Open your file in LibreOffice.
- Click File > Save as.
- Name your file.
- From the Save as type dropdown, select Text CSV (.csv).
- Enable the Edit filter settings option.
- Click Save.
- In the Export Text File dialog box, select the Unicode (UTF-8) option from the Character set dropdown.
- Set the Field delimiter and String delimiter.
- Click OK.
- Open your file in Numbers.
- Click File.
- Select Export to... > CSV....
- Click Advanced options.
- Click the Text Encoding dropdown.
- Select Unicode (UTF-8).
- Click Next.
- Name your file and choose a location.
- Click Save.
Step 5: Import your file into Brevo
It's now time to import your contacts' details into Brevo!
โก๏ธ To learn how to import your file into Brevo, check our dedicated article Import your contacts to Brevo.
โ FAQs
You can associate your contacts with deals and companies by adding specific fields to your file and importing it into Brevo. To learn more, check our dedicated article Associate your companies, deals, and contacts.
If the "+" sign disappears when you add it to a phone number in your file, add an apostropheย before it. This will help your spreadsheet program recognize the number as a phone number.
Yes, you can import a file that contains empty fields. The results will depend on what type of contacts you are importing and on the options you enable while finalizing your import:
- If you are importing new contacts, the empty fields from your file will also be empty in Brevo.
- If you are importing existing contacts and removed some of their data from the file, there are two cases:
- If you enabled the Import empty fields to erase existing attribute data option when finalizing the import, the empty fields will erase the existing data in Brevo.
- If you disabled the Import empty fields to erase existing attribute data optionย when finalizing the import, the empty fields will not affect the existing data.
If your contact data contains the UTF-8 replacement character "๏ฟฝ", it will be skipped and the corresponding contact attribute won't be imported into Brevo. This character can appear when exporting data from certain tools as it is used to replace unknown, unrecognized, or unrepresentable characters.
The system does not support Excel (.xls), ACT!, .vcf (Apple vCard), or other file types, so you need to convert your file to one of the supported formats (.CSV, .XLSX, or .TXT).
You can use free online tools to convert your file. Before uploading to Brevo, make sure the converted file follows the recommendations for setting up an import file explained in this article.
โญ๏ธ What's next?
- Import your contacts to Brevo
- Troubleshooting - Why can't I import contacts?
- About contact attributes
- Create and manage custom contact attributes
๐ค Have a question?
If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.
If youโre looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo Agency partner.
- CSV_sample.csv393 Bytes