Importing existing contacts again - What happens?


Written by: Sheryll ChuaContributors: Sam Koekemoer

FunnelBud gives you 3 ways to handle when you're CSV file has duplicate contacts (same email address) or when the contacts that you're importing already exist in the database.

Do Not Update Field Information. Duplicate fields and information are not updated.

If you choose this option and you

  • Create a new list or use existing list, existing contacts will still be added to the list.

  • Assign an existing contact to another campaign, campaign will be added as secondary campaign.

  • Assign an existing contact to a different lead owner, lead owner will not be updated.

  • Give an existing contact a new status, status will not be updated. Only new contacts will reflect the status chosen during import.

Update Only New Field Information. Adds information from a new column or if the mapped fields are blank.

If you choose this option and you

  1. Assign an existing contact to another campaign, campaign will be added as secondary campaign.

  2. Assign an existing contact to a different lead owner, lead owner will not be updated.

  3. Give an existing contact a new status, status will be updated. Note: When you choose to update new field information, an option to Overwrite Lead Status will appear.

Update New and Existing Field Information. Updates all fields and information in the record.

If you choose this option and you

  1. Assign an existing contact to another campaign, campaign will be added as secondary campaign.

  2. Assign an existing contact to a different lead owner, lead owner will be updated.

  3. Give an existing contact a new status, status will be updated. Note: When you choose to update new field information, an option to Overwrite Lead Status will appear.

Lead Status

Lead status is required when you import contacts. All new contacts will have the lead status that you selected during import. For existing contacts, lead status will depend on how you choose to handle duplicates. If you chose Do Not Update Field Information, the lead status of existing contacts will not change. If you chose the other 2 options and ticked Overwrite Existing Lead Status, lead status of existing contacts will be updated.

Assign Lead to a campaign

Campaign is optional during import. But as a rule, it's a must to assign a campaign which reflects where the contacts came from (ex: Imports from MailChimp, Imports from Salesforce, etc). You can choose to assign to a new campaign or choose from existing campaigns.

A contact can belong to many campaigns. A new contact will always be assigned to the chosen campaign during import. If you assign an existing contact to a new or to a different campaign, the campaign will be tagged as a primary or secondary, depending on the company's Campaign Attribution (Settings > Company Profile > Global Campaign Attribution).

Assign leads to user/owner

User or lead owner is optional during import. A contact can only be assigned to one lead owner. When you import existing contacts and assign a lead owner, it will depend on how you choose to handle duplicates. Lead owner will only be updated if you selected Update New and Existing Field Information. Lead owner will be not updated if you chose any of the other 2 options.

However, if you chose a user in Assign leads to a particular user dropdown menu and then in the Mappings, mapped a different user to Lead Owner field, the mapped lead owner value will be the one saved in the contact record.

Unsubscribed

When you import existing contacts who have unsubscribed before, they will remain unsubscribed even if you mapped the Is Unsubscribed field to a column with 0 value.