Import your audience

You might have a newsletter list in another tool, a list from an event, or a small group waiting for your launch. Bring their email addresses and the details you already have into Contacts.

Use a list of people who have agreed to hear from you. The import asks you to confirm that permission and keeps existing unsubscribes and sending restrictions in place.

Email is the only required column. Keep names, company details, and other useful columns in your export. For example:

Email,First name,Last name,Company,Interests
alex@example.com,Alex,Chen,Studio,Design
sam@example.com,Sam,Lee,Studio,Writing
jo@example.com,Jo,Rivera,Workshop,Photography
lee@example.com,Lee,Park,Workshop,Music

Fonte recognizes First name, Last name, Phone, Company, Job title, Locale, and Timezone as contact profile fields. Headers such as first_name and company_name work too. Other columns, such as Interests in this example, become text custom fields.

Use international phone numbers such as +48123456789, locales such as en-GB, and timezones such as Europe/Warsaw. A value that cannot fit its profile field stays in the original import source rather than replacing the current value. Blank cells supply no update, and existing edits to a contact remain protected.

Save as .csv. You can choose several files together; each needs an Email column. Files can total up to 100 MiB. Larger lists or files with lots of detail may need smaller batches so Fonte can preserve the source data alongside the imported fields.

For a short list of email addresses, choose Manual instead. Paste one address per line, up to 500 addresses, then choose Review.

Open Contacts in your workspace. Choose Import in the toolbar, or Import contacts if the list is empty.

1. Keep CSV selected in New import.
2. Drop your files into the upload area, or use Choose files.
3. Check the filenames shown, then choose Review. Use Change to pick different files.

Check that you are in the right workspace and have chosen the intended files. Review is the last step before you submit the import.

1. Confirm “I have permission to email these contacts.”
2. Choose Import contacts.
3. Wait for the result. The import screen shows progress and its current status.

Importing brings contacts into your workspace. You still choose and review the recipients when you create a broadcast; an import does not send them an email.

With extra columns, Fonte checks the CSV before submitting it. A missing or invalid email address needs fixing first. Repeated email addresses are combined into one contact, with the original rows preserved. You do not need to map the columns by hand.

Look at the result before moving on. Completed means the import finished processing; the individual counts tell you what happened to the submitted rows.

• Submitted and Processed show the size of the import and how much has been handled.
• Created shows new contacts. Matched shows rows reconciled with existing contacts.
• Blocked shows rows held back from import, including identity conflicts. Email-only files can also count invalid or repeated rows here.
• Failed shows rows whose processing failed. Check the import’s status before trying those rows again.
• Unknown shows rows whose outcome has not yet been confirmed.

Repeated email addresses are reconciled rather than becoming extra people to email. Clean duplicates and misspelled addresses out of your source list so the result is easier to understand.

The workspace population is the total number of contacts in your workspace when it was counted. It can be larger than this import, and it is not the number of recipients for your next broadcast.

If the outcome is Unknown, use Check again to read the same import. Resume same import returns to its original attempt. Retry import uses the same reference and data; it does not start a replacement. If you reopen the screen and need to resume, choose the exact original files and confirm permission again.

Return to Contacts and search for an imported email address. Open the contact to find its profile and custom fields. The Subscribed, Unsubscribed, and Needs permission filters help you understand who can hear from you.

The Imports list in the import screen keeps completed batches together with their imported and eligible counts. When composing a broadcast, open To, choose Add contacts, and use Specific contacts to select the audience you want.

An imported contact is not automatically an eligible recipient for every message. Subscription choices, exclusions, and sending restrictions still apply when you review a broadcast.

A CSV uploaded directly inside a broadcast’s To selection belongs to that broadcast. Use the Contacts import flow when you want to keep the audience available for future messages.

• Send your first broadcast

Ask your agent to prepare a CSV with an Email column, the profile headers above, and a clearly named column for each custom field you want to keep. Keep the original export so you can check the result. A Submitted at column accepts a timestamp such as 2026-10-13T09:00:00Z and helps Fonte choose the latest value when the same person appears more than once.

When a supported connection can run the import, have the agent keep the import reference and report the result counts. An uncertain response should lead back to that same import, and your permission choices should stay explicit.

• Current agent connection availability