Did you run the registration process through your own website or landing page, or did you use another webinar tool? Then you can easily import your contacts via a .csv file, so they don’t have to register for your webinar again.
This option is not available in the free trial. You can contact support to enable this option for you here.
Create a CSV file
You need a CSV file to import your contacts. A CSV file is a special format in Excel, Numbers or Google Spreadsheet. It makes it easy to manage and import data.
First, you open an empty Excel file. Create three columns, one for ‘email’, for ‘first name’ and ‘last name’.
If you did not make it a mandatory to fill in the ‘last name’ field, you can choose if you want to add the ‘last name’ column in the CSV file, or not.
Add a fourth field for ‘company’ to import a company name.
Add a fifth field for 'external_id' to import an external ID for participants.
Importing more fields is not possible.
After creating the first columns, add the data of your contacts and save the file as a .csv document (separated by list separator)
Download a sample CSV file here. To start the download right-click on your mouse > 'Open link in new tab'.
Besides the first name, last name and email, you can also import the company name. To do that you need to add an extra column in your spreadsheet. Title the fourth column (D) as ‘company’.
If you want to add an external ID for participants, you can add a fifth column. Name this column (E) 'external_id'. In the statistics and the export this column will contain the participants' registration numbers.
Please note! The 'external_id' always has to be placed in the fifth column, even if you don't want to register a company name.
The CSV-file will then look like this:
Please note! If you only want to register the first name and the company, you'll still need to add the third column 'lastname', you can leave column empty.
You can click here to download an example of a CSV-file with the company name added. Please click the right mouse button > open new tab to start the download.
Please note! The fair use policy has a maximum number of contacts you can import per day. You can import up to ten times your viewer limit until a maximum amount of 10.000. During the first two weeks of your subscription, you can import up to five times your viewer limit.
Upload the CSV file
Go to the webinar dashboard and click ‘Add contacts’. A window will open where you can now click on ‘CSV import’.
Please note! It is important that the webinar has been published before you can upload contacts.
A screen will open where you can upload the CSV file.
Select CSV file
Click on ‘Select file’ and select the CSV file you saved on your computer. The file is now added and is ready to be imported.
Please note! Make sure the file meets the requirements as described in ‘Create CSV file’.
Select a broadcast
If your webinar has multiple broadcasts, please select the right broadcast in the dropdown menu. Your contacts will be enrolled for this specific broadcast.
Send a confirmation email
Send a confirmation email to the imported contacts. You can find the confirmation email on the webinar page under ‘Emails’. The confirmation email contains the unique viewing link to access the live webinar.
Did you not send the confirmation e-mail during the import, but do you want your contacts to receive the email? Then you have two options:
Delete the broadcast and re-add it. You can now re-import the contacts and send the confirmation email.
Set up a reminder email and send it. The reminder email also contains the unique viewing link.
Don't send a confirmation email
Uncheck the option 'Send confirmation email' in order to not send the confirmation email. Now you'll have to find a different way for participants to receive their unique viewing link. Through your own email marketing software, for example.
Go to your webinar's statistics. Click on 'Registration page' and then 'Subscribers'. You can find the unique viewing links in the export file you can download here.
Import
Once you have uploaded the CSV file, selected the right broadcast and chose if you want the confirmation email sent, you can complete the import by simply clicking ‘Import’.
Once the import is completed, you will receive an overview of the imported data.
Importing a CSV file for a series
You are able to import contacts via a CSV for the entire webinar series at once. In the CSV import screen of a webinar series, you will be able to select dates for multiple webinars. All contacts from the CSV file will be registered for all the broadcasts you select. Change a date to “Do not sign-up” using the drop down menu to exclude it.
If you choose to send a confirmation email, one email will be sent to all subscribers with the unique link for every webinar in your series.
Reminder emails will only have a link for the specific webinar where you created the email. So, unlike the confirmation email, reminder emails will not have links to all the webinars in a series.
After importing contacts to a series, keep in mind that "Subscribers registered" refers to the total amount of subscribers added to all webinars of the series. So if you upload 500 contacts for two webinars in a series "Subscribers registered" will report a 1000.
Import history
After importing your contacts, you can view the import history. Follow the steps:
Click on your webinar.
Under 'Registration page' click on 'Add contacts' > 'CSV import'.
On the right hand side you will find the import history.
You can import new contacts on this page aswell!
‘Total’ shows you how many contacts were found in the CSV file.
‘Registered’ shows how many contacts are registered to your webinar.
You can also check if you have sent the confirmation e-mail on this page.
Please note! A contact can only be registered once per broadcast.
Importing names with special characters (UTF-8)
Not all versions of Excel support the ability to save CSV files in UTF-8. In newer versions of excel (2016+) you will see the option to save as “CSV UTF-8 (comma delimited) (*.csv)”. If you have names in your contact list with special characters (like ë), you need this option.
Another solution is to use Google Spreadsheets:
Copy all data from the CSV file.
Create a blank spreadsheet in Google Spreadsheets.
Paste the data from the Excel document into the Google spreadsheet.
Download the file as a Google Spreadsheets CSV file.
The document is now saved as a CSV with UTF-8 format.
Please note! Do not open the file using Excel anymore. This will overwrite the format and you will have to rerun the process.
Troubleshooting while importing contacts
If an error appears during import, check the following steps.
Are there any special characters in the file? Sometimes you won’t be able to see them. Follow these instructions.
Check the order of the rows and columns in the CSV file:
In row 1, column A – there should be email.
In row 2, column B – there should be first name.
In row 3, column C – there should be last name.
In row 4, column D - there should be company.
Imported contacts did not receive an email
This can be due to these three points:
The confirmation email option is disabled. You can check this when editing your webinar under ‘Emails’.
The contacts were already registered or have been imported before.
You unchecked the confirmation email option when importing.
You can fix this problem following the next steps:
Delete the broadcast and add it again. You can now re-import the contacts and send the confirmation email.
Set up a reminder email and send this. The unique viewing link is included in this email.
Add one contact manually
You are able to add a single contact manually to your webinar. Go to the webinar dashboard and click ‘Add contacts’ > 'Add one manually'. A form will open which you can use to register a single contact. Make sure to select the timezone of the viewer and the right broadcast.
When manually adding a viewer to a series, you will have the option to specify which webinars and broadcasts to subscribe them to. Use the drop down menus or checkboxes (on demand) to change the broadcasts or exclude a webinar. The viewer receives one email containing every watch link at once if you choose to send a confirmation email.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import contacts for a paid webinar?
Yes, you can! When importing, an option will appear to indicate if the viewers may watch the webinar without payment.
What is the maximum number of contacts I can import?
You can import 10 times the contacts as the number of viewers you have in your subscription.
Can I delete imported contacts?
You can manage and delete registrations in the webinar statistics.
Click on 'Registrations' > 'All subscribers' > 'Subscriber options' > Trash can icon.