Essential steps to import contacts successfully

Moving your list from another email tool? Here is how to bring your contacts into SleepPRO™ safely, legally (GDPR) and with your deliverability intact.

1. Prepare and review your list

• Export your contacts from your previous tool as a CSV file.
• Check what you have: first name, last name, email, status (subscribed or unsubscribed), sign-up date, engagement history and tags.
• Split contacts into active and inactive, so you do not import outdated addresses.

2. Clean your list first

• Remove duplicates and invalid or inactive addresses.
• Use your old tool's filters, or an email verification service such as NeverBounce or ZeroBounce, to find risky addresses (hard bounces and spam traps).
• Keep proof of opt-in. You may need it.
• Respect each contact's status. Never resubscribe someone who unsubscribed.
• Check tags and segments are right.

Only import parents who clearly agreed to your emails. GDPR requires it, and it protects your deliverability.

3. Importing course students

For students in your courses who have not heard from you in a while:

• Import them gradually to avoid many bounces at once.
• Adding a student to a course sends them an automatic email with their login link.

4. Segment your list

Group contacts by what they share, such as their child's age, location, purchases or engagement. Targeted emails get more opens, clicks and bookings. Start simple, for example Clients and Inactive leads, and refine over time. Free online tools can split a CSV file for you, such as MightyMerge and Split CSV.

5. Set up SleepPRO™ first

• Recreate your lists, segments and tags to match your old tool.
• Authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC. See How to authenticate your domain name for email sending.
• Set up Google Postmaster Tools to watch your reputation. See How to create a Google Postmaster Tool account for your domain.

6. Import

• Only import cleaned files.
• Respect contact statuses.
• Double-check tags and segments.

See How to import or export a contact list.

7. Warm up your address

A new email tool means warming up your address and domain, so email providers get used to how you send.

• Start with your most engaged contacts.
• Increase your daily volume gradually.
• Watch your open rate, bounce rate and spam reports.

8. Test and monitor

• Send test campaigns to small segments.
• Check opens, clicks, bounces and spam reports.
• Adjust your content and frequency as needed.

9. Re-engage and keep cleaning

• Run re-engagement campaigns for inactive contacts. See Re-engagement campaign: a practical guide to wake up inactive subscribers.
• Remove unresponsive contacts regularly.

10. Stay compliant

• Keep records of your imports, exports and opt-in consent.
• Update your privacy policy if needed and let your contacts know.

An example warm-up plan for lists of 5,000 or more

Spread over 7 to 14 days:

• Days 1 and 2: 500 highly engaged contacts (opened or clicked in the last 30 days).
• Days 3 and 4: 900 highly engaged contacts.
• Days 5 and 6: 1,500, adding semi-engaged contacts (opened in the last 60 days).
• Days 7 to 9: 2,500 to 4,000, adding moderately active contacts.
• Days 10 to 14: your full list, leaving out long-term inactive contacts.

A faster day by day version:

• Day 1: 500 highly engaged contacts (opened in the last 30 days), to test your reputation.
• Day 2: 900, adding semi-engaged contacts.
• Day 3: 1,500 engaged contacts (opened in the last 60 days).
• Day 4: 2,000, adding recently inactive contacts. Watch spam and bounce rates.
• Day 5: 3,000, a mix of active and lightly inactive contacts.
• Day 6: 4,000, adding contacts inactive under 90 days.
• Day 7: 5,000, everyone except contacts inactive over 120 days.
• Day 8: 6,000 or more, everyone except contacts inactive over 6 months.
• Day 9: your whole list, except unsubscribed and invalid addresses.
• Day 10: your clean, segmented list. Warm-up done, regular emails start.

During warm-up

1. Start with your most engaged contacts, using segments such as opened or clicked in the last 30, 60 or 90 days.
2. Write good emails. Personal, inviting subject lines, clear and relevant links. Avoid capitals, too-good-to-be-true offers, unnecessary attachments and symbols in subject lines.
3. Watch your numbers:

• Open rate: over 20% is good.
• Click rate: over 2% is fine, depending on content.
• Bounce rate: under 2%.
• Spam complaint rate: under 0.1%.

4. Remove contacts with no opens or clicks in over 6 months, by hand or automatically. See How to manually clean your email list and How to automate the process of cleaning up your contact list.
5. Authenticate your domain, and use a dedicated sender address, such as news@yoursleepbusiness.com.

Helpful tools: NeverBounce, BriteVerify and ZeroBounce for checking addresses, and GlockApps, Mail-Tester and Google Postmaster Tools for monitoring deliverability.