Import Contacts and Build Your Audience in SendWhale

Before you import, make sure you have an audience ready to receive your contacts. Giving your audience a clear name upfront — such as “Newsletter List June 2025” — makes it easier to reference during import and when building segments later.

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Create an audience first

Create a named audience in SendWhale before starting your import. You will assign imported contacts to this audience during the mapping step. An audience without a descriptive name is harder to manage once you have several lists.

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Upload your file

SendWhale accepts CSV files and common spreadsheet exports. You can add your file in two ways:

• Drag and drop — drag your file onto the import area
• File picker — click to browse and select your file

Make sure your file has a header row — SendWhale uses those column names during field mapping.

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Map your fields

After uploading, SendWhale presents a field mapping interface. Match each column in your CSV to a SendWhale contact field: Email is the only required field. Columns you do not map are ignored.

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Preview before confirming

After mapping, SendWhale shows a preview of valid rows. Review this preview carefully — it reflects exactly what will be created or updated. If you see unexpected data, go back and adjust your field mapping before confirming.

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Deduplication

SendWhale detects duplicate email addresses in your import. When a duplicate is found, you choose how to handle it:

• Skip duplicates — keep the existing contact record unchanged
• Update existing — overwrite the existing contact’s fields with the imported data

Choose based on whether your import file contains fresher data than what is already in SendWhale.

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Errors and invalid rows

After the import completes, any rows that could not be imported are listed with a reason — for example, a missing email address or a malformed value. You can download the error list, fix the source file, and re-import the failed rows separately.

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Suppressed contacts

If any email addresses in your import file have previously unsubscribed or hard-bounced in your SendWhale workspace, they are automatically kept in their suppressed state. The import does not override suppression — those contacts remain excluded from future sends.