Kartra Training 3: Uploading Your Email List

If you have a list of email subscribers that you’ve created via another Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application, Email Service Provider or Shopping Cart, you can easily bring that data set into Kartra. Then you can start using Kartra’s deep and sophisticated communication capabilities to engage your previously generated subscribers.

In this training, we will cover:

1. A quick overview of what it means to import contacts.
2. What you need to import your list of contacts into Kartra.
3. The upload process.
4. How Kartra protects your deliverability.
5. Why you should upload smaller lists.

A Quick Overview Of What It Means To Import Contacts

Kartra uses an innovative and ever-present set of technologies to ensure that your sending reputation score remains at the highest level. This means, the emails that you send get into the inboxes of your prospects and customers.

Most people start their journey with Kartra by uploading their existing email list(s) so they can start communication with their leads and customers. The process is simple and is even easier when you have your list in CSV or TXT formats.

Click to “Import File” and tell the system how to read the data by selecting the correct field to apply to each field of information. Once you have worked through your leads, you will be able to filter the records.

You’ll see the total number of leads uploaded in this batch, and failed imports due to incorrect data in the source file. Next are the duplicated Leads (Leads that were listed twice in your import file). Kartra will only import the first one, ignoring the rest.

The most important and powerful function, are the Blocked Leads. These are Leads that had previously been blacklisted in our system because they are known spamtraps or are closed accounts. By blocking these users, your account reputation remains healthy and your deliverability ratios high.

To ensure the highest deliverability, our email import process does include some aspects of Expert Human Interaction. So, when uploading, please do allow some additional time for processing, depending on our current import queue load. Generally, imports will take less than one business day.

What You Need to Import Your List of Contacts Into Kartra

There are a few things you can have ready to be prepared and make the import process as smooth as possible.

• A CSV or TXT file containing the relevant info OR you can add leads manually, one at a time.
• Answers for the Questionnaire: Because our customers want email that has high delivery standards, you will need to fill out this questionnaire that helps us confirm the leads were collected legally. Be sure to fill out each of the questions under each step.
  • Where you got the list.
  • What CRMs they are in (if any).
  • A URL that you own, where you can receive email (example: support@example.com). You will need to verify that you own this domain by entering a verification code that gets sent to the email address at that domain which you provide during the questionnaire.
  • A Facebook account to connect to, preferably one associated with your business.
  • A valid phone number which will be verified by the Kartra system.

Note: even if you choose the “Add Manually” option, and type in the information for your leads by hand, you will still need to complete the questionnaire above to verify that the leads were gathered legally, for which you will still need the information listed above.

The first step is to create your new list. Click on Campaigns, then Lists to make sure you do not have a list already set up. This prevents you from creating a duplicate list.

Next, you will see what lists exist in your account. You can see the number of active leads in each list as well as how to edit each list (the pencil, or #3 in the graphic below). To add a new list, click on the large green box labelled #4 in this graphic.

You will need to name your new list – first, an internal name for your reference and, second, a name that will be publicly seen. Then click Create and your list will be created for you.

The Upload Process

Kartra makes uploading your email list incredibly simple. You can do this via CSV, TXT or manually.

Take a look at a CSV or TXT file upload first, select Import File, and then either click and drag a file to the window or browse for the file you wish to import. The system will read the file and you can move to the next step.

If you add the list manually, you’ll type in one contact per line, separating each detail with a comma.

In the next step, you’ll tell Kartra’s import system how to read the information. Simply tell it what each bit of data means using the drop-down menu. When done, click Next Record. You may need to go through several contacts before moving to the final steps.

When it is done processing, you’ll see the total number of contacts uploaded, the number of contacts that had errors or incorrect data, duplicated leads (Kartra will only use the first), leads that have been flagged as spam or abandoned, and leads that are already in your system.

In the following step, you get to decide what to do with this newly uploaded list. You can add them to a Kartra list, tag them, and add them to a sequence! With that, there is only one step left: the Questionnaire!

These are a series of questions that help us confirm the list was collected legally. With every question filled out, you can complete the import process.

How Does Kartra Protect Your Deliverability?

Kartra does a lot to ensure high deliverability of your emails. High deliverability means more emails reaching your target audience. To do this, we keep a very close eye by monitoring your domain and IP health. In addition, we keep watch over your reputation towards different email providers and spam reporting services.

There are a lot of methods we use to check on these things in nearly real-time. This means that the moment an IP or domain we are tracking gets flagged, we’ll know. If the reputation of that IP or domain dips down, we’ll know. We’ll know quickly, which means our team can get to work fixing it quickly.

But tracking is not the only way we ensure high deliverability.

When you are gaining or uploading subscribers, our system checks those subscribers to remove any emails that have been abandoned or are simply fakes. This not only happens at upload, but on a regular basis so if, for example, an email becomes abandoned later, your deliverability rates don’t have to suffer for it.

Why You Should Upload Smaller Lists

When uploading your list, it may be better to upload in smaller batches. This is because Kartra allows you to add tags during the import process. For example, you can upload a separate list based on what product they purchased and tag each list for their purchased product.

Additionally, you can name each list individually. If you have subscribers who are also affiliates, it could be useful to upload and name the lists appropriately for easier organization and automation later.

You’ll be able to add your new leads to an existing list, and to sequences, and tag them, in the “Actions” step during import, as shown below:

See Training 2 here.

See Training 4 here.