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A spreadsheet of customers or leads becomes CRM contacts in a few clicks: each row is a person, and each column fills in a field such as their email, phone or company. Hiveku checks every email address first, so nobody is added twice. This guide imports a list of café and bakery buyers that Northwind met at a coffee trade show, then adds one more person by hand.

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Get your file ready

Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file. The first row must hold the column names, and each person needs at least a name or an email address. Hiveku matches columns by their names, so columns called First Name, Email, Phone, Company or Job Title are matched for you.

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Import the file

1

Open Import CSV

Click CRM in the left rail, then Contacts at the top, then Import CSV at the top right.
The CRM tabs and the Contacts page header, with the Import CSV button outlined next to New Contact

Import CSV, on the Contacts page

2

Choose your file

Drag the file onto the page, or click Browse files and pick it.
Import Contacts: Drag and drop a CSV file here, with the Browse files button outlined

Drop the file, or browse for it

3

Check each column

Every column of your file is listed under CSV Column, with the contact field it fills under Maps to CRM field. Check each one and change any that are wrong. A column Hiveku can’t match is set to Skip this column and is left out.Here Business was matched by hand to Company Name, and Notes is left out.
Found 8 columns and 9 rows: First Name, Last Name, Email and Phone matched to their fields, Business set to Company Name and outlined, Job Title and Lead Source matched, and Notes set to Skip this column

Each column and the field it fills

Under the list, Keep every unmapped column as a new custom field turns each skipped column into a field of its own instead, and Preview (first 3 rows) shows the start of your file.
4

Say where the contacts came from

Answer Where did these contacts come from? The first group of answers is for people who gave you permission: they signed up, bought from you, asked you to get in touch, or registered for your own event. The second group, Cold: they never asked to hear from you, is for lists you bought, directories, member lists, addresses found online and badge scans from someone else’s event.Cold contacts stay in your CRM for sales follow-up, but Hiveku email marketing never emails them. Northwind’s list is badge scans from a trade show, so it is a cold list, and the page says so.
Where did these contacts come from? answered Someone else's event: trade show badge scans or attendee lists, the note This is a cold list, and the Import 9 contacts button, outlined

A cold list, and the Import button

5

Import

Click the import button. It counts the rows in your file (here Import 9 contacts) and stays greyed out until you answer the question.

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Check the result

Import Complete shows how many contacts were Created, how many rows were Skipped and how many had Errors. A row whose email address is already in your CRM is skipped: Priya Shah was already a contact, so she was not added a second time. Rows with errors are listed by row number.
Import Complete: Imported 8 of 9 rows, with Created 8, Skipped 1 and Errors 0 outlined, the cold list note, and the View Contacts button outlined

8 created, 1 skipped

Click View Contacts. The new contacts are at the top of the list.
The Contacts list with the eight imported buyers outlined, each with an example.com email, a 555 phone number, a job title and the status Lead

The imported buyers, at the top of Contacts

Open one to check the details. The lead source from your file is under Contact info, and the company is under Companies.
Amara Singh, Café Manager, with Lead source: Trade show and the company Steel Bridge Coffee House outlined

Amara Singh, imported with her lead source and company

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Add one person by hand

1

Open New Contact

Click New Contact at the top right of Contacts.
2

Fill in their details

Type their First name, Last name, Email, Phone and Job title, pick their Lifecycle stage, and click Create Contact. To add their company, open the contact afterwards and use Companies.
New Contact filled in for Rowan Pike, rowan.pike@example.com, 503-555-0180, Owner, Lifecycle stage Lead, with the Create Contact button outlined

A new contact, ready to create

If the email address or phone number is already in your CRM, the form says so and offers View existing contact instead of creating a second record.
New Contact with priya.shah@example.com, and the message A contact with this email address already exists. (Priya Shah) with View existing contact, outlined

This person is already a contact

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Bring in a list you will email

For people you plan to send marketing email to, import the file from Marketing > Audiences > Import CSV instead. That page asks the same question, then asks you to tick that every contact in the file gave you permission to receive marketing email. It refuses a cold list, and it can add everyone straight to a static audience with Add to static audience (optional). The file needs an email column.
Import contacts from CSV: the CSV file box, Default lead source, Add to static audience with its list outlined, Where did these contacts come from?, and the permission tick, outlined

The email marketing importer

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Good to know

  • Running the same file twice is safe. Rows whose email address is already in your CRM are skipped, so a second run adds only the new people. A row with no email address is added again each time.
  • One answer covers the whole file. If only some of the people on your list gave you permission, put them in a file of their own and import it separately.
  • Imports count toward your plan’s number of contacts. If your file has more people than your plan has room for, the ones that fit are added, and the page says how many were left out.
  • More: Add and Manage CRM Contacts, and Audiences for email lists.