Skip to content
Evergrowth Documentation

Import and update contacts from a CSV

Import a CSV to add new contacts in bulk, or to update contacts you already have. Use this when you have a list of people from an event, a data provider, or your own research and you want them in your workspace - matched to their accounts, tagged, and optionally queued straight into a workflow. For adding a single person by hand, see Create a record manually.

This is a write action, so it is available only to people with an editing session. If you are working in a view-only session, the Add new menu does not appear.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • Save your list as a .csv file. Only CSV files are accepted.
  • Decide whether you are creating new contacts or updating existing ones - these are two separate flows with different required columns (see below).
  • To update existing contacts, your CSV needs the workspace’s own contact identifier column. The simplest way to get a file with that column is to export your contacts first, edit it, then re-import. See Export records.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”

Create new contacts from a CSV

Section titled “Create new contacts from a CSV”
  1. Go to Contacts.
  2. Open the Add new menu at the top right and choose Create with CSV. The Create Contacts with import window opens.
  3. Drag your file onto Drag your CSV file here, or use Upload to pick it. The window lists the columns it expects.
    • Required columns - each row must identify the person one of two ways: a Contact LinkedIn URL, or the full set of Account Name, Domain, First name, and Last name. When you supply only the LinkedIn URL, the account and contact details are filled in automatically from that profile.
    • Optional columns - Email, Phone, Contact Owner Email, Phone Verification Result, Phone Verification Provider, Phone Type, and Phone Intent Score. Any column the import does not recognize is kept against the contact as custom data, so nothing in your file is lost.
  4. Under Tags, pick existing tags or type a new one to create it. Every contact in this import gets these tags, which makes the batch easy to find and filter afterward.
  5. Under Workflow, choose a workflow to run on the imported contacts, or leave it on its default. The default comes from your contact-upload setting; use the Default workflows settings link to change that default. Pick Select workflow to choose a specific one.
  6. Under If an contact already exists, choose how matches against contacts you already have are handled:
    • Skip it (Do not update existing contact information) - the existing contact is left untouched.
    • Update existing contact information - the existing contact is refreshed from your file.
    • Create a new duplicate contact - a separate contact is created even though a match exists.
  7. Turn on Add to Do Not Touch (DNT) if these are people you do not want to work right now. They are imported but flagged so you can filter them out of your actions, and they are not queued into the selected workflow.
  8. Turn on Override existing contact owners if you want owners of matching contacts reset to the owner named in your file - or to you, the person uploading, when no owner is listed.
  9. Select Import. Use Close to cancel without importing.

Update existing contacts from a CSV

Section titled “Update existing contacts from a CSV”
  1. Go to Contacts.
  2. Open the Add new menu and choose Update with CSV. The Update Contacts with import window opens.
  3. Drag your file onto Drag your CSV file here, or use Upload.
    • Required column - the file must include the workspace’s contact identifier column (shown as EG-CON-ID). This is how each row is matched to the exact contact to update; a row with an empty or unknown identifier is skipped. Exporting your contacts first is the reliable way to get this column.
    • Optional columns - the same set as the create flow: Email, Phone, Contact Owner Email, Phone Verification Result, Phone Verification Provider, Phone Type, and Phone Intent Score. Unrecognized columns are saved as custom data.
  4. Set Tags, Workflow, If an contact already exists, Add to Do Not Touch (DNT), and Override existing contact owners the same way as in the create flow above.
  5. Select Import.

What happens next

Section titled “What happens next”

When you submit, a confirmation appears reading “Import started. Processing contacts…” and the window closes. The import runs in the background; while it works, an in-progress banner shows on the Contacts page. Large files and any rows that need automatic enrichment from a LinkedIn URL take longer, since each profile is looked up before the contact is finished.

Watch the import progress and any per-row errors in the task feed. As contacts finish, they appear in your Contacts list with the tags and owner you set. If you chose a workflow, the new contacts (excluding any marked Do Not Touch) are queued into it and start running. Rows that could not be matched or were missing required data are skipped rather than guessed at - check the task feed to see which ones and why.

If contacts do not show up or the import does not finish, see CSV import issues.

Section titled “Related”