How to add contacts and create contact lists

In the TeleportHQ Marketing Studio, your contacts are the people who signed up to your site. Open Growth → Marketing Studio → Contacts to see them all under All contacts. Add more people with Create contact or Import CSV. Then click + to create a contact list, either by picking people or as a smart list that fills itself by rules, so a newsletter or campaign reaches the right group.

Before you start#

• Plan and setup. The Marketing Studio needs a Trial, Pro or Premium workspace and sign-up and login turned on. See What is the Marketing Studio?.
• Where contacts come from. Everyone who signs up on your site appears in All contacts by themselves. A contact you add here is saved with your site's users, without a password. Adding a contact sends them nothing. If that person later signs up on your site with the same email address, sign-up stops with "An account with this email already exists. Sign in, or use "Forgot password" to set a password."

Open your contacts#

1. In the editor's left sidebar, click Growth.
2. Click Marketing Studio. It opens on Contacts.

At the top you find:

1. Import CSV and Create contact, to add people.
2. The list chips. All contacts holds everyone; your own lists follow. Each chip shows how many people are in it. Click a chip to show its people in the table below.
3. + (tooltip New list), to create a list.

Use Search contacts… on the right to find someone by name, email or phone.

Add a contact by hand#

1. In Contacts, click Create contact. The New contact window opens.
2. Fill in Name (for example Ana Pop) and Email (for example ana@example.com). Add a Phone number (for example +1 555 0100) to reach them by SMS, and notes in Details if you like. You need at least an email or a phone number.
3. Click Create contact. You see "Contact created."

If one of your lists is selected when you click Create contact, the window says "This contact will also be added to" that list, and the message reads 'Contact created and added to "Bakery regulars".'

Import contacts from a CSV file#

1. Make a spreadsheet with a header row. TeleportHQ reads these column names: name or full name, email or e-mail, phone, phone number or mobile, and details, notes or note. Other columns are ignored.
2. Save it as a CSV file. Keep commas out of the values: TeleportHQ splits every line at each comma, so Pop, Ana would land in two columns.
3. In Contacts, click Import CSV and choose the file.
4. Wait for the result, for example "Imported 120 contacts · 3 skipped." Skipped rows are ones TeleportHQ couldn't save.

If one of your lists is selected when you import, the people are also added to it, for example 'Added 120 to "Bakery regulars".'

Create a contact list#

A TeleportHQ project can have up to 10 lists of your own, besides All contacts.

In Contacts, click + next to the list chips (tooltip New list). In the New contact list window:

1. Choose how to build the list:
   • Pick contacts: you choose the people yourself.
   • Smart (by rules): people are added and removed by themselves when they match your rules.
2. In List name, type a name, for example Bakery regulars.
3. With Pick contacts, tick the people to add. Use Search contacts… in the window to find them.
4. Click Create list. You see 'List "Bakery regulars" created with 2 contacts.'

Build a smart list#

1. In the New contact list window, click Smart (by rules).
2. In List name, type a name, for example Gmail subscribers.
3. Under Auto-include contacts where, set the rule. Pick a field (Name, Email, Phone, Details or Email unsubscribed), a test (is, is not, contains, starts with, is set, is not set) and a value. For example: Email contains gmail.com.
4. To add another rule, click Add rule. Then choose Match ALL rules or Match ANY rule.
5. Click Create list. You see 'Smart list "Gmail subscribers" created — members update automatically.'

Smart lists show a Smart label on their chip. A smart list can't be turned back into a picked list.

Change who is in a list#

• Add people to a list: tick them in the table, then choose the list in Add to list…. Only picked lists appear there: a smart list fills itself.
• Remove people from a list: click the list's chip, tick the people, then click Remove from list. This never deletes the contact.
• Edit a list: click the pencil on its chip (tooltip Edit list, or Edit rules for a smart list). In a picked list, the people already in it are ticked at the top: untick someone to remove them, tick anyone else to add them, then click Save changes.
• Delete a list: click the bin on its chip (tooltip Delete list) and confirm. "The list is removed. The contacts themselves are not deleted."

See a contact's details and subscriptions#

In the TeleportHQ Marketing Studio, click a contact's row in the table. A window shows:

1. Subscriptions: Subscribed to emails and Subscribed to SMS. Untick one when the person asks you to stop. You see "Subscription preferences updated." "Unsubscribed contacts are automatically skipped when a campaign sends."
2. Message history: every email or text message sent to them, with its status, such as Sent, Failed or Skipped (unsubscribed).

The window also shows their email, phone, details and how many lists they're in.

Check that it worked#

The new contact appears in All contacts, and in the list you had selected. A new list appears as a chip with its number of people.

Troubleshooting#

"No contacts found. The CSV needs a header with name, email and/or phone." Add a first row with column names such as name,email,phone, and at least one row of people below it. Then import again.

"You can create up to 10 custom lists." Delete a list you no longer use. A smart list with Match ANY rule can often replace several lists.

The Create contact button is greyed out Fill in an Email or a Phone.

"Could not create the contact." or "Could not create the list." Try again in a moment.

The Marketing Studio says "Enable authentication to use the Marketing Studio" Turn on sign-up and login first. See How to add sign-up and login to your site.

Good to know#

• You can't delete a contact in the Marketing Studio. Contacts are your site's users, so you delete one where you manage them: see How to manage your site's users and roles.
• All contacts can't be renamed, edited or deleted. It always holds everyone.