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Trigger events: Contact import

Ⓘ Available to Plus, HQ, Essentials, Teams, and Corporate accounts

When using our automation tool, there are multiple trigger types to choose from: email signup, date-based, field change, link click, and contact import. A contact import trigger fires a workflow when new contacts are imported into your account; the contact import trigger does not work with existing contacts.

How to use the contact import trigger

To select the contact import trigger, follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to your Automation tab.
  2. Click on the Create new workflow button.
  3. Click on Choose your trigger event.
  4. In the panel on the right, select Contact import.
  5. Click on the Next button.
  6. CSV, XLS, XLSX upload should already be selected, but if not, click on it to select it.
  7. Click on the Next button.
  8. Click on the Confirm button.

How to trigger a contact import workflow

Once you have built and activated your workflow, you can begin importing contacts to trigger it. To do this, follow the steps found here. After you’ve chosen your file, check the box at the bottom of the page labeled Trigger manual import workflows from this import.

If you do not check the Trigger manual import workflows from this import box, your workflow will not fire.

Frequently asked questions about contact import triggers

If I import existing contacts will they also be eligible for a contact import workflow?

No, existing contacts in your account are not eligible to trigger contact import workflows.

I don’t see the contact import trigger as an option in my account, why not?

This trigger is only available to Plus, HQ, Essentials, Teams, and Corporate accounts.

Why isn’t my contact import workflow firing?

There are two common reasons why a contact import workflow won’t fire:

  • The contacts on the imported spreadsheet already existed in the audience
  • The Trigger manual import workflows from this import box wasn’t checked when the file was imported.

If you forgot to check the Trigger manual import workflows from this import box, then checking the box and importing the sheet a second time will not trigger the automation because all the contacts on that sheet now exist in your audience. The best way to resolve this is to either send a manual campaign to those contacts or to set up a field change automation for them.

Additional resources