Import your contacts cleanly: consent, columns and what gets rejected
How to prepare a CSV, match your columns, confirm consent, and understand why some addresses are refused before they reach a campaign.
A clean list is the foundation of good deliverability. iResendly checks every address on the way in, and that's deliberate: one bad import can undo months of careful sending. This guide shows you how to prepare your file so the import goes smoothly, and what to expect when some rows are refused.
Prepare your file#
- Save it as a
.csvfile, or copy the rows straight from a spreadsheet and paste them in. Commas, semicolons and tabs are detected automatically. - Put column names in the first row. Email is the only one you need.
- Add First name and Last name (or a single Full name, which is split for you) so you can personalise emails later.
- Company, job title and address columns are matched automatically.
- Include a birthday column if you'd like to send birthday emails with an automation.
- Remove people who haven't agreed to hear from you. That's your call to make before the import, not after.
Run the import#
- 1Open Contacts → Add contacts
Choose Upload a CSV or Copy and paste.
- 2Check and confirm the columns
Match each column to a field. Anything else you'd like to keep, tick under Other columns and it becomes a custom field you can use in segments.
- 3Confirm consent
Tick the box confirming everyone on the list agreed to hear from you. Imports can't go ahead without it, and your confirmation is stored with the import and the time.
- 4Read the summary
You'll see how many contacts were new, updated, merged as duplicates or rejected, and you can download the rejected rows.
Large files are sent in batches of 10,000 rows for you, so you don't need to split them yourself.
Why some addresses are rejected#
To protect your sending reputation, addresses are checked strictly. An address is rejected when:
| Reason | Example |
|---|---|
The part before @ has characters other than lowercase letters, numbers and dots, or is mostly numbers | j_smith@…, 12345678@… |
| It's a role address | info@, admin@, support@, sales@, hello@, team@ |
| It's from a disposable-email service, or its domain can't receive mail | Throwaway inboxes, mistyped domains |
| Its domain isn't a major email provider or an institution | Anything other than providers such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or iCloud, or .edu, .ac.uk, .gov |
jane@acme.com) are rejected too. If your list is mostly business addresses, expect a large rejected file, and download it to see the reason for each row.Role addresses are refused because they usually reach a shared inbox or several people at once, rather than one person who signed up. Disposable and dead domains bounce or never get read. Each bounce counts against your reputation with inbox providers, so it's better to leave these out than to find out the hard way.
After the import#
- Only Active contacts receive campaigns. Bounced, complained, invalid and suppressed statuses are set by iResendly and can't be changed by hand.
- A hard bounce or a spam complaint later on suppresses that address for good, so your list keeps itself clean.
- Group contacts with lists and tags, or build segments from their details and custom fields.
Keep people out for good#
If you have addresses that must never be emailed, such as people who asked to be removed in another system, use Add contacts → Import a block list. It blocks those addresses permanently, removes any matching contacts and stops them being added again later.
Your contact limit#
Your plan's contact limit applies to imports. If an import would take you over it, you'll see You've reached your contact limit with a link to View plans. The free trial includes 500 contacts.