Import contacts from a file

Moving from another email tool? Export your list as a CSV file there, and import it under Contacts, Import contacts. From Brevo or Klaviyo you can skip the file: paste a key and Postfjord reads your list for you. See Straight from Brevo or Klaviyo. Postfjord reads the file, shows you what it found, and brings the people in with their names, tags and fields. People who unsubscribed or bounced in your old tool come along too, so they never get an email from you.

Nothing is sent when you import. Postfjord never emails your list to ask them to confirm.

Before you start

• Email must be switched on for the workspace.
• An owner or an editor can choose the file and match the columns. Only the owner can finish the import, because the owner confirms that the people agreed to get your emails.
• A file can be up to 25 MB. The Free plan imports up to 1,500 rows in one file, Solo up to 15,000, and Studio and up 50,000.
• Comma or semicolon between the columns both work, and so do files saved from Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.

Straight from Brevo or Klaviyo

Open Contacts, Import contacts and pick Brevo or Klaviyo at the top. Or press the Brevo or Klaviyo card under Settings, Apps.

1. Make a key in Brevo or Klaviyo, as shown below, and paste it.
2. Press Show my lists and pick one list, or everyone.
3. Press Get these contacts. Postfjord reads them. A big list takes a minute or two, and you can leave the page.
4. Check the columns, tell us how the people signed up, and import, the same as with a file.

Who said yes, who left and when they signed up comes straight from Brevo or Klaviyo. Those columns are locked, so nobody can turn someone who left into a subscriber by mistake. You can still choose where the other columns go, like names, phone numbers and lists.

• Someone who unsubscribed, was blocklisted or bounced comes in as unsubscribed or blocked. They never get your emails.
• In Klaviyo, someone who never subscribed (Never subscribed) comes in as a contact without email.
• Someone who left the list you picked comes in as unsubscribed. If you pick everyone, a person who left any one of your lists comes in as unsubscribed. To keep people who left one list but are still on another, import one list at a time.
• Klaviyo gives the date each person said yes, and that date is their sign-up date. Brevo does not, so the date the contact was added in Brevo is used, the same as in a Brevo export.

Your plan's row limit is the same as for a file. If a list has more people, Postfjord tells you before it starts, or stops when it gets there.

Make a Brevo key

1. In Brevo, open Settings, then SMTP & API, then API keys.
2. Press Generate a new API key. Call it Postfjord and let it end after 7 days.
3. Copy the key. It starts with xkeysib.

Brevo has no key that can only read, so this key could do anything in your account. Postfjord only reads your contacts with it, and forgets it when it has them. Delete the key in Brevo when the import is done.

Does Brevo say the call came from a new IP address? Brevo blocks keys used from addresses it does not know. Open Security, Authorized IPs in Brevo, turn off blocking for API keys while you import, and turn it back on afterwards.

Make a Klaviyo key

1. In Klaviyo, open Settings, then API keys.
2. Press Create Private API Key.
3. Pick Read-only key. Or pick Custom key and give it Read access to Lists and Profiles, and nothing else.
4. Copy the key. It starts with pk_.

Postfjord only reads with the key and forgets it when it has your contacts. You can delete the key in Klaviyo when the import is done.

Export from your old tool

Export everyone, also the people who unsubscribed or bounced. Postfjord needs them to keep them from getting your emails. If your tool gives you a separate file for them, import that file too.

Mailchimp

1. Open Audience and pick your audience.
2. Press Export audience, then Export CSV.
3. Mailchimp emails you when the export is ready. Download the ZIP file and unzip it.
4. Import the file for subscribed people first, then the files for unsubscribed and cleaned people. Postfjord knows them by their names and marks everyone in them as unsubscribed or bounced.

With Mailchimp connected under Settings, Apps, you can also import straight from Mailchimp without a file.

Brevo

1. Open CRM, Contacts.
2. Tick the box at the top of the Contact column and choose Select all contacts.
3. Open More actions, Export.
4. Choose the attributes you want, plus Creation date under system data and the email subscription status under Subscriptions.
5. Press Start export and download the file from the bell at the top.

Klaviyo

1. Open Audience, Lists & segments, and open the list or segment.
2. Choose Manage list, Export list to CSV (for a segment: Manage segment, Export segment to CSV).
3. Pick the columns: Email, First Name, Last Name, Email Marketing Consent, Email Marketing Consent Timestamp and Date Added.
4. Download the file under Settings, Other, Downloads.

MailerLite

1. Open Subscribers and choose Active in the status menu.
2. Press Set columns and add Subscribed and Groups.
3. Select all subscribers, then Actions, Export, CSV file.
4. Do the same with Unsubscribed and Bounced, and import those files too. When you import them, pick who is in the file under Who is in this file?

Kit

1. Open Subscribers. Leave the Status filter off, so unsubscribed and bounced people come along.
2. Tick the box at the top and choose Select all.
3. Open the menu with three dots and choose Export. Kit emails you a link, which works for 5 days.

Substack

1. Open Subscribers and scroll to All subscribers.
2. Open the menu with three dots above the list and choose Export, with all columns.

Substack does not export names. A reader with email turned off in the file comes in as unsubscribed.

beehiiv

1. Open Settings, Export Data.
2. Under Export Subscribers, choose Export All Subscribers.
3. Download the file from the email beehiiv sends. The link works for 24 hours.

Squarespace

1. Open Marketing, Email Campaigns, Lists & Segments.
2. Press the menu with three dots next to the list and choose Export.
3. Unzip the file. Like Mailchimp, it has one file for subscribed, unsubscribed and cleaned people. Import each one.

Shopify

1. Open Customers and press Export.
2. Choose All customers and CSV for Excel, Numbers, or other spreadsheet programs.
3. Press Export customers.

Only customers with yes under Accepts Email Marketing can get your emails. Shopify's file has no sign-up dates, so read No sign-up date below.

A spreadsheet of your own

Make one row per person with a header row on top: at least an email column, and if you have them, first name, last name, tags and the date each person signed up. Save it as CSV.

Match the columns

Postfjord reads the file in your browser and matches each column to a place in Postfjord: email, first name, last name, full name, tags, birthday, phone, the subscription status, a do-not-email column, the date people signed up or said yes to email, and your own fields. It knows the column names the tools above use. Check each column and change it if the match is wrong. New field makes a field named after the column, and Skip this column leaves it out. A column that looks like passwords or ID numbers can never be imported.

Tags in one cell can be separated by commas or semicolons.

Who is in this file? is for files that hold one group only, like Mailchimp's file of unsubscribed people. Choose Everyone in this file unsubscribed and nobody in it will ever get your emails.

Under the columns you see the first rows as they will be imported. Press Check against my contacts. Postfjord compares the file with your workspace and tells you how many people can get your emails, how many are already your contacts, how many said no or bounced, and how many rows it skips because the address is broken or listed twice. Nothing is saved yet.

Tell us how they signed up

Answer how the people on the list agreed to get your emails. A list you bought, rented or got from someone else, addresses copied from websites, and customers who never said yes cannot be imported for email. Invite those people to sign up with a signup form instead.

Then say when you last emailed the list. If it was more than a year ago, or never, people who signed up more than two years ago come in without email.

No sign-up date

A sign-up date in the file shows when each person said yes. When some rows have none, Postfjord picks up to 5 of them and asks you to show how they signed up: paste a form entry, a line from your old tool, or where and when they gave you their address. A person at Postfjord reads these before the import is approved. Or choose to leave the people without a date out of your emails: they come in as contacts only.

Tags and your confirmation

Everyone in the file gets the tag Imported with today's date. Change it or add up to 3 tags. The owner then confirms that the people asked for your emails and that the list was not bought or copied, and presses Import.

What happens next

The import runs on its own. You can leave the page while it works.

• People who are already your contacts keep what you wrote about them. The import adds their tags and fills only empty fields.
• Someone who unsubscribed from you in Postfjord stays unsubscribed, whatever the file says. So does the same inbox written another way.
• Someone who gave you their address in a DM automation can only confirm it themselves, so the import does not.
• An address that bounced or was reported anywhere on Postfjord comes in without email.
• A person at Postfjord checks the import before your emails can reach these people. It usually takes 1 business day. Your first email to them then goes to a small group first.

The result

When it is done you see how many contacts were added and updated, how many can get your emails, and why the other rows were skipped or came in without email. Download these rows gives you a CSV of those rows with the reason next to each one. Postfjord does not keep your file, so if you come back later, choose the same file again to download them.

Your data

A Brevo or Klaviyo key is never shown again and never saved in the clear. While Postfjord reads your list, the key is kept locked with encryption for one hour at most, and it is deleted the moment your contacts are read. The copy of your contacts goes the same way as a file.

The file is deleted as soon as the import is done or cancelled. An import you never finish is deleted after a day. What stays is the count of each result, and for skipped rows only the row number and the reason. The sign-up examples you pasted are kept with the import as proof of consent, and go away if you delete one of those contacts.

FAQ