Importing Customers to Yotpo SMS & Email

Goals and Outcomes

Quickly add existing customers and subscribers to your Yotpo audience lists. In this article, you'll learn how to upload a CSV file containing customer data to create new audience lists segmented by SMS, email, or both.

Importing Customers Overview

Yotpo allows you to effortlessly import all your customers—subscribed or not—by uploading a CSV file with the necessary data. If you are importing SMS subscribers, our support team will review your list to ensure compliance with all regulations, such as TCPA and GDPR.

Importing Necessities

For a successful import, you must export a CSV file from your previous provider or create one manually. The file must include each customer's email address or phone number, or both, if available.

Importing Your Customers

To import your customers:

1. In your Yotpo SMS & Email main menu, go to Audience > Lists & Segments.

2. Click Create audience.

3. Select Create from a list and click Create audience.

4. Select CSV file from the available options and you’ll be taken to the Import page.

Tip:

After you click Create audience, your list will be named by default. You can click the edit (pencil) icon next to it to change it.

Visual Walkthrough

Configuring Your CSV File

For maximum flexibility, the columns in the file you upload can be arranged in any order, with your preferred headers, and include any necessary information. Just make sure that the data is formatted according to Yotpo’s guidelines. To avoid issues during the import, your CSV file must be saved in UTF-8 encoding. It allows text to be stored and displayed in different languages by using a flexible system that can represent a wide range of characters and symbols.

Important:

The column headers in the CVS file must be placed in the first row of the table.

File Guidelines

The following table lists supported formats for commonly used data types such as phone numbers and dates:

Importing Your File

Uploading Your File

1. On the Import page, upload your CSV file and click Next.

2. Yotpo will automatically display the columns from your CSV in a table format:

   • Column Header: The name of the header as it is in your CSV file

   • Example: Examples for each column taken from your CSV file

   • Yotpo Field: The name of the corresponding Yotpo field. The columns from your CSV file will be automatically matched to the existing Yotpo fields.

   • Data Type: The data type of the Yotpo field. You can change the type from the drop-down menu for custom fields only. The options are: “text”, “number”, “date”, “boolean”, “email”, “phone”, “country”, and “list” which allows you to add multiple values to a column.

Note:

If there isn’t a corresponding Yotpo field to match your column header, for example, “Clothing size”, you can create a custom one by selecting Create new property from the drop-down menu.

Tip:

We highly recommend using the ISO 3166 format when importing country data to make country segmentation easier. Otherwise, you'll need to map this column as a custom profile property with the "text" data type.

Mapping Fields and Data Types

Yotpo automatically matches your CSV columns to Yotpo fields. For custom fields, you can select the data type:

• Text

• Number

• Date

• Boolean

• Email

• Phone

Ensure that all required fields (like phone numbers and email addresses) are correctly matched, and adjust any custom properties if needed.

Selecting the Data to Import

1. Select which columns to import and click Next.

2. Choose whether the customers you are importing are subscribed to SMS, email, or both.

Note:

If you choose SMS Subscriber, you may need to specify how you collected your subscribers so our support team can make sure you’re compliant. Select a service and tool from the drop-down menus. You can also add a screenshot of the tool (optional).

Confirming and Importing

1. Mark the checkbox confirming that you have obtained the necessary customer consent.

2. Click Import customers.

Visual Walkthrough

Successful Outcome

The list will appear on your Lists & Segments page. Our team will review the list for compliance if you're importing SMS subscribers. You can check the review status by hovering over the list and clicking View customers.

Handling Errors and Partially Successful Imports

In case we weren’t able to import all customers in your CSV file, you’ll be notified that the import was completed with errors. You can download the error report by hovering over the upload date and time and clicking the Download file button that appears.

The error report will highlight the rows where errors occurred and describe the error, for example, “Phone number is formatted incorrectly or invalid”.

Note:

The customers who were successfully imported will not appear in the error report.

Using Your List

After successfully completing the import, you can start sending SMS and email campaigns to newly imported customers who have agreed to receive marketing messages. Just click the 3-dot menu and select Send campaign. To learn more, see Creating an SMS Campaign and Creating an Email Marketing Campaign.

Additional Information

Compliance with Regulations

When importing subscribers, it's important to ensure that your customers have provided explicit consent to receive marketing messages, in compliance with GDPR, TCPA, and other regulations. Our support team may request proof, such as screenshots of your opt-in process or a link to your Privacy Policy.

Import Delays

The import process may take some time, depending on the size of your customer list. If you notice any missing subscribers or encounter other issues during the import, reach out to our support team for assistance.