Importing contacts

Export from your current platform

Substack, beehiiv, Mailchimp, Kit, Buttondown and most other platforms export subscribers as a CSV file. Then, on the Contacts page, click Import contacts and choose the file. Importing needs a plan.

What the import reads

• Email: the only column it needs, under names like email, email address or subscriber.
• Status: subscribed, unsubscribed, bounced or complained in the platform's own words. A status it doesn't know, like unconfirmed, makes the contact dormant.
• Signup date, so your contacts keep the day they joined.
• Open and click rates, when the platform exports them: your sends reach the most engaged first, so your best readers get your first issue first.

Other columns are skipped. Instead of the file's statuses, you can import everyone as dormant, for an old list you'd rather wake up slowly: dormant contacts get nothing until you mark them active.

Consent

Before importing, you tick “These people agreed to receive my emails”. Only import people who signed up for your newsletter: a bought or scraped list brings bounces and spam complaints, which pause your sends and can block your account.

What it leaves out

The import checks each address and leaves out, with a count for each reason:

• invalid addresses, and misspelled domains like gmial.com;
• spam traps, throwaway inboxes and role addresses like info@ or support@;
• duplicates in the file, and addresses on domains that can't receive email;
• people who unsubscribed, bounced or complained before, even if you deleted them since;
• addresses MailCheap knows can't receive email, because they bounced or hit a spam trap for any sender.

Contacts already in your list keep their status, unless the file gives a stricter one (unsubscribed, bounced or complained), which is final. An import never sends welcome emails.

After the import

The first time you send to contacts who never got an email from you, a slice of them goes first and the rest follows 3 hours later if the slice looks clean. First sends in steps

Your active contacts count toward your plan's subscribers. With more than it allows, sending waits until you upgrade. Plans and billing